Introduce brand building through social media
Rajendra Zadpe
Social media marketing is the use of social media platforms and websites to promote a product or service. Although the terms e-marketing and digital marketing are still dominant in academia, social media marketing is becoming more popular for both practitioners and researchers.
On a strategic level, social media marketing includes the management of a marketing campaign, governance, setting the scope (e.g. more active or passive use), and the establishment of a firm's desired social media "culture" and "tone."
In the early years, when social media was just introduced it was considered as a medium for the youth to interact and get connected. However, with its growing reach and importance, business owners are now realizing the potential benefits of social media marketing for their businesses.
In the era of Facebook and YouTube, brand building has become a vexing challenge. This is not how things were supposed to turn out. A decade ago most companies were heralding the arrival of a new golden age of branding. They hired creative agencies and armies of technologists to insert brands throughout the digital universe. Viral, buzz, memes, stickiness, and form factor became the lingua franca of branding.
Whether you want to sell products, gain subscribers, persuade followers to a point or sway the hearts and minds of readers to your cause, they’ve got to know who you are in the first place.
Your ability to encourage any of these actions comes from your brand’s authority and one of the best ways to build that is through the savvy use of social media.
Branding is not just about the logo. Nor is it about being a multi-million dollar company. A brand is how people perceive your product, business, or even you as a person. The goal with branding is to make sure that perception is the one you want people to have. Even if you’re not actively marketing your brand, that perception will still exist, or worse, won’t exist at all, so it’s up to you to shape how you want people to feel.
Rules of social media branding
- You don’t need to be on every channel. It’s better to choose one and do it right. If you can do three, great, but don’t water-down your reach because you’re spread too thin.
- You don’t need thousands of followers. 10 followers who buy your product are better than 1000 followers who don’t buy your product. Don’t get caught up in follower figures.
- Post frequently. If you’re not posting, you’re not visible, so focus on the frequency.
There are literally hundreds of social networks out there, but most of them aren’t worth investing your time and energy. Find the platforms that support your brand image, taking the following factors into consideration:
- Facebook is by far the best platform for promoting brand awareness. Facebook is a great platform for promoting virtually any brand, due to its very heterogeneous user base.
- Instagram is a great option for brands that rely heavily on images, such as clothing companies and retailers. It’s also particularly effective for reaching young adults, Hispanics, and African Americans.
- While Google+ hasn’t taken off as well as many people predicted, it can be a great platform to reach men in the technology industry, as two-thirds of the network’s users are men, most of whom work in engineering or other technical professions.
- Pinterest is an excellent social network to reach women, especially for brands selling jewelry or clothing.
- Finally, if you operate a business-to-business company, LinkedIn is a stronger choice for promoting business-related content and connecting with other corporate influencers.
Social media helps in increasing brand recognition and visibility. It gives you an opportunity to market your brand to new customers each day instead of targeting the same old customers with marketing messages or promotions. By creating profiles on all the major social media platforms, you will be able to increase your business’ visibility and reach a larger audience. You can also encourage your loyal customers and stakeholders to share your page and content regularly on different social platforms. This will help you reach out to more potential customers.
Major reasons why social media marketing is important
- Improved brand awareness
- Cost-effective
- Engage with your customers
- Improved brand loyalty
- Healthier customer satisfaction
- Marketplace awareness
- More brand authority
- Increased traffic
- Enhanced SEO rankings
10 ways to increase your organic reach on social media
- 1. Focus your efforts on the right places
- 2. Optimize your social media profiles
- 3. Post evergreen content
- 4. Work smarter, not harder
- 5. Use targeting to maximize organic potential
- 6. Post during slow hours
- 7. Post the right types of content
- 8. Promote your profiles everywhere
- 9. Post the right balance of promotional/useful content
- 10. Interact with and engage your followers