Social Branding Rock-a-Rolla

Take a ride on the social media roller coster and build, promote, and expand your brand!

Hello marketing enthusiasts! Welcome to the second decade of the 21st century marketing. It is the best of times for the prepared ones and it is the worst of times for the socially inactive marketers. Yet, it is not all doom and gloom. The great news is that everyone who has a computer or a device connected to the Internet can do social marketing. The not so good news is that often, people market their services or products in the social media haphazardly. Hence, they tend to perform dismally and their promotional efforts amount to a big fat failure. Nevertheless, fear not! This grim scenario can be perfectly avoided. Indeed, there is hope as there is always room for improvement. Reading this blog post is already a good start. Researching the topic further will help you a lot in cracking the social media marketing secret codes and it will assist you with taking your business to new heights. Still, before you embark on a solitary or social journey of exploring the latter, let’s briefly resume what the crux of branding for the social media is.

As already discussed in my previous emotionally-marked blog post, branding is one of the essential ingredients that goes into every delicious marketing stew. It is an expression of your unique super awesome presence and it distinguishes you from the rest. Post social media branding, however, is much more complicated than pre-social media differentiation because you have to carry your distinctive marketing flag into battle and attempt to charter and conquer multiple online territories such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, etc.

When you arrive at the social media branding watershed, you should thread with caution. Whereas you might know Facebook features inside out or you might virtually be a Twitter wiz, social media branding for business is not as simple as it looks. Indeed, try doing good branding in 140 characters. Nope, it is not so easy as tweeting about your new shoes or checking-in on FourSquare. Yet, do not panic. This is how it goes.

Building a brand on the social turf is a long-term process. It will not happen from one day to another. You will not be able to magically create a huge following unless you have a lot of friends and fans who have been begging you to create a Facebook fan page or a Twitter account! It takes time to raise brand awareness and to convince people your company is worth following. Most importantly, however, it takes a lot of actions. So prepare to become the social media hero and show the world that your tweets are worth an almighty round of re-tweets, your Facebook pages for business are worth more than just a “Like”, and your Behance portfolio and your projects deserve numerous appreciations.

Before we start elaborating on the kind of efforts it takes to create a robust, socially-engaging brand, let’s make sure we have covered the basic stuff:

• Create a separate social media account for your business! You do not want to mix your personal life with your business endeavors. This is a must even if you are a freelancer and in charge of your own one-man company. You can be a brand ambassador, but not the very brand itself;
• Use your company logo as your photo on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. This is a no brainer and it might even sound insulting to your intelligence, but believe me, there are companies that still get it wrong! Bear in mind that your visual identity is a basic building block that promotes your brand, so please, do not use a picture of a cute kitten instead! It is absolutely adorable and you might get some followers, but I seriously doubt it that those are the quality followers that would help your brand grow and develop;
• Provide as much information about your business as possible, including your location, your website, the type of services you provide, etc;
• Do not leave any empty fields, unless they are not applicable;
• Make sure you list all your different social media accounts.

Once you have your social business accounts set up, you are ready to start building and asserting your brand. The most important thing you need to know is that social media thrive on interaction and engagement. They are not one-way streets. Neither is your audience passive nor unable to share their say. Hence, you must understand that those channels are not loudspeakers and you should not blatantly market your business there all the time. You risk losing followers or receiving negative comments. When you market your products and services, always emphasize on their value proposition. People are looking for value and for solutions, not for fancy names or glitzy-glamorous websites! Hence, do not market with a sledgehammer. Appeal to the real value of your products and services and put the needs and the concerns of your customers first.

As far as branding is concerned, it suffices to remember that your actions should be in line with the image you are trying to convey. Hence, you have to practice what you preach. In addition to engaging or at least attempting to engage in a healthy dialogue, make sure you promote content that is of use to people and that is related to your activity. Try being a bit creative and attempt to brand your messages by using keywords from your slogan, your mission, your vision, or even your company name! More importantly, act in line with your identity and live up to the popular expectations. You might even aim at exceeding them.

It should be emphasized over and over again that building a social and engaging brand is extremely time-consuming. It is a daily task and it involves actions, daily distribution of value-added information, ability to relate to your audience (followers, fans, etc.) and a great deal of efforts to convince people that you are as good and as genuine as you claim to be. Try reaching out to your audience, respond to their comments and reactions, be quick to solve eventual customer queries, and simply act the part. People will really appreciate it.

Remember, your actions will help you build your brand and assert your presence online. I do not say it is easy, but it is not the hardest feat to accomplish. It may be laborious, but it is worth your efforts and it will pay back big time at the end of the day. Moreover, it is a great investment in your corporate image. If you like this article, give us a thumbs up! If you hate it, tell us why you disagree with it. Do not forget to check out our social media channels and find out how we do our rock hard branding!

Stay tuned to our rock steady frequency, as next time, I am going to talk about building an audience that helps your business grow and prosper! In the mean time, stick around for other useful tips and tricks for business champions! Of course, feel free to follow us on Twitter or join us on Facebook. You might like the stuff we share there!