What is social media branding?
Social media branding means creating a company’s unique brand image using a digital marketing strategy. Businesses use social media to stand out and increase brand awareness across social media networks by engaging with consumers regularly.
Social media branding has become a powerful tool for building and shaping a brand’s identity, creating community engagement and connecting with its target audience.
Related: How to Do Social Media Marketing for Small Businesses
What social media branding looks like for business
Creating a strong online presence on social media is important to building your brand. The following steps can help you develop your own social media branding plan:
Define your brand identity
It begins with building a brand identity to elicit an emotional reaction from your audience and help you stand out from the competition. Develop your brand’s mission, identify your core values and learn about the competition. Determine what imagery and colours will identify your visual brand, and how your voice will sound in taglines and slogans.
Related: 5 Key Factors to Improve Your Employer Branding
Understand your target audience
Your target audience is the ideal customer you’re trying to reach.
Survey your existing customers and gather demographic information to put together your profile, including:
- age
- gender
- geographic location
- profession
- household income
- hobbies
- habits
Develop a content strategy
Craft content that is both relevant to your ideal consumer and that aligns with your brand. Consider your goals and what you hope to achieve using social media. Establish and set your KPIs (key performance indicators) to measure how well your strategy is working. Analyze what your competition is doing on social media that generates the most engagement, and what audience they might be missing. Create a content calendar and plan when and what you will post each month to ensure you stay consistent.
Read more: Employer Branding Metrics to Track Right Now
Consider paid advertising
Although posting to social media channels is free, you can also use paid advertising on channels like Facebook and Instagram.
Paid ads help you expand your reach and target ads based on demographics aligned with your brand. Influencer marketing is another option, but ensure you maintain the visual imagery and tone you established when defining your brand.
Continually analyze and optimize
Determine your KPIs and continuously measure them. Your analysis lets you determine what type of posts are working and what you may need to change.
Who oversees a company’s social media branding?
There are several social media positions a company can recruit to run their social media campaigns. In smaller companies, this may be part of a marketing manager’s role or fall under that of a content writer. For larger organizations, they may wish to hire for this specific role, which could fall under one of the following titles:
Social media strategist
A social media strategist develops and oversees the social media strategy of a brand and any associated campaigns. They define the social media strategy’s goals, objectives and metrics as well as the target audience, tone and voice. They also research and analyze the trends, competitors and best practices in the industry and on the platforms. A social media strategist needs to have a strong vision, creativity and leadership skills, as well as a deep understanding of the social media landscape and tools.
Social media manager
A social media manager is responsible for daily implementing and managing the social media strategy. They plan, create and publish the content across the platforms and monitor, moderate and engage with the audience. They also collaborate with other departments, such as marketing, sales and customer service, to promote the business goals through social media activities.
Social media specialist
A social media specialist focuses on a specific aspect or platform of the social media strategy. They may specialize in content creation, graphic design, video production, copywriting, SEO, influencer marketing, paid ads or community management. They execute the tasks and projects the social media manager or strategist assigns and report on the results and feedback.
Related: Crafting Effective Social Media Policies for Employees (With Downloadable Templates and Examples)
The importance of social media branding to company culture
A company’s brand is the reputation it creates in the world and how it forms its culture. The brand is about more than the products they make or the services they offer. It is the first impression they make to the world and the story they tell as a company. A company’s brand is a mix of company culture and the experiences shared by the employees. When a company has successful branding, it portrays a unique image and creates a great vibe that differentiates it from the competition.
Related: Social Media Management: Everything You Need to Know
Why is social media branding important for hiring?
Before applying for a job, candidates will likely check the company on social media and talk to current or past employees. A strong employer brand means they are more likely to be excited to apply, making social media a great recruiting tool. When a company’s brand is strong, it is more likely to attract strong talent that aligns with its values and culture. Strong employer branding can also help retain good employees so there’s less turnover. A company with a good reputation for treating its employees well sends a positive message to customers that this is a company worth dealing with.
Related: Losing Top Talent to the Competition? Start by Assessing Your Employer Branding.
Creating a strong social media brand is important in portraying a company’s positive image. It attracts loyal customers and talent and helps the company build a solid and long-lasting reputation. Managing a social media presence requires a dedicated individual or team to be committed and consistent in the timing, voice and image they put out into the world.
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