Nowadays everyone is fighting for attention on social media since that’s exactly the place where most people put their attention. Yet it’s not 2008 anymore and simply existing in the online space is not enough anymore – it takes much more effort than that to stand out from the competition and brands who are not willing to put in the work are missing out.
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Ways to Social Media Brand Building in 2020
In this post, I will go over 9 different ways to differentiate from competitors and make your business stand out from the crowd on social media. Practically all brands today have their own social media accounts, but not all maximize them in making use of their abilities to help them engage with the social community.
More than 1 billion people are active on Facebook, and there are more than 100 million people who are active on Instagram each month. Your brand can not afford to miss out on trying to engage as many of these users as it can.
1. Theme Your Accounts
Having a specific color palette and fonts are especially important for social media sites like Instagram where aesthetics play a huge role. Ideally, all your photos should have a similar look and feel, which is achievable by using the same filters or presets.
Instagram accounts with cohesive feeds are not only visually pleasing but also play a huge role in the brand identity. Your followers want to see visual consistency and if you fail to deliver that you’ll most likely lose followers or never gain many in the first place. One of my favorite examples of a well-themed Instagram account is Love Hair.
Keep your theme consistent also on other channels like Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube and others to reinforce brand recognition.
2. Use Storytelling
Storytelling essentially is the art of combining ideas with emotions. Tell stories that are captivating, inspirational and go along with the company’s values. The goal is to create a conversation instead of having a monologue about how great your Social Media Brand Building initiatives are. Tell your followers something that they will actually care about.
“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but about the stories you tell.” Seth Godin
However, make sure your stories are well thought out because our brains ignore cliches.
3. Choose The Right Social Networks
Getting your brands’ name out there can be challenging, especially in the beginning or if you simply have limited resources. Identify which are the social media channels where your target audience hangs around the most and out all attention and efforts there. You could be creating the most amazing content there is, but if you publish it on the wrong platform, it will be a huge waste, so do your research first.
4. Use Branded Short Links
Leave long, ugly links to the past because branded short links are the future. There’s a good reason why well-known brands use branded short links on their social media. They’re more memorable and aesthetically pleasing. Most importantly, they improve brand awareness, brand recognition and really make the brand stand out. You can even start implementing smart URLs to create more personalized experiences.
5. Be Authentic
In this day and age being authentic has become something rare, especially when it comes to social media. Yes, it is tempting to create this seemingly perfect image of yourself/your brand online, but people are becoming numb to this and they can sense when others are not being authentic.
Moreover, always being perfect is not something most people can relate to. Keep a balance between sharing pretty images and also sharing stories that are interesting or funny. Don’t be afraid of adding personality to your Social Media Brand Building because that’s a surefire way to stand out online.
6. Leverage Influencer Marketing
Find influencers in your niche that have a unique voice and a strong, dedicated following and collaborate with them. It can be more than just an Instagram story or a pic on their feed. You can get more creative than that, for example, by letting them create Instagram stories for your account for a day. This is a unique way to social media brand building and make your social media content more fun.
7. Choose Quality Over Quantity
Yes, consistency is important when it comes to getting your name out there, but what’s more important is creating valuable content that’s good quality. It’s better not to post anything for a day or two than post something that’s poor quality and isn’t unique in any way. Always think twice before posting anything online because posting too much can actually hurt your brand and you might end up losing followers.
8. Interact With Your Followers Daily
Engage with your community in a genuine way. Take the time to respond to comments and messages because that shows that you care about your followers and too many brands just dismiss this part. Yes, it can get very time-consuming, but there’s a person behind every screen that wants to interact with you and expect a reply when they post a comment.
“Treat your friends and followers with kindness and gratitude and show them you care about who they are. Do this consistently and you will not only stand out, but you will feel great.” -Britt Michaelian
9. Constantly Look Out For New Trends
Always pay attention to what’s new and trending in your niche and on social media channels in general. It’s almost guaranteed that people will pay more attention to you if you’re implementing new trends in your social media, whether it is a new trending topic you’re talking about or another cool Instagram feature. Don’t be late in the game!
I hope these tips will inspire you to improve your online presence and level up your marketing game to stand out on social media despite the fact it’s extremely competitive. Always remember to bring value to your followers instead of just creating meaningless noise. The right mindset and creative thinking will definitely help you stand out on social media.
10. Direct social media users to your brand’s website.
This particular form of engaging your social audience has a double benefit: it gives a call to action and increases the traffic that is received by your brand’s website. In using a call to action on a social media account, be it telling the user to “Shop now” or “Learn more here,” your brand is getting their attention. Then, with your call to action linking them to your site, they are able to interact with your landing page or even a microsite built on a niche specific domain name.
Using your brand’s social media platforms to direct traffic to your website engages them in a way you would not be able to without that call to action to pay your site a visit. Engage the user enough with your social media content that they take the call to action to visit your site, then engage them further and develop your brand identity once they get there.
11. Create and share valuable content.
The content distributed by your brand on its social media channels has to encourage users to stop and actually check it out rather than keep on scrolling past it in their feeds. After all, social media users can not engage with your social media brand building initiatives online if they don’t even see it or are not interested in what they do see.
Develop and share content through your brand’s social media accounts that catches the attention of users, that is of interest to them and/or relates to them, and that is cohesive with your brand (therefore making it recognizable as having your brand as its source).
Use appealing visual media in the form of product images or a graphic notifying people of an upcoming sale. Engage the community available to you on social media by attracting them with your content — content that allows them to learn something, be entertained, encourages them to make a purchase, or to generally be more connected to your brand.
12. Use a clear, consistent voice.
The voice you use to communicate through your social media posts should be identifiable and consistent. Without that consistent voice, you are not giving social media users any opportunities to draw from your content and establish an identity for your brand in their minds.
Give your social media posts the personality that is associated with your brand. Without it, it is easy for users to lose any connection to your specific brand they may form from the content they see you posting. Also, if your posts do not seem to all be coming from the same source, it is likely that your community on social media will not be able to establish an identity for your brand at all. (How to Promote Community Engagement?)
13. Promote brand recognition.
Through the profile picture and cover photo you select for your business Facebook page, to the content you share and the voice you use to communicate, your business needs to present itself as a unified front of brand identity.
Without consistency in the personality of your brand and how it portrays itself on social media, users are unable to form a clear thought pertaining to what your brand is all about and how it seeks to serve its audience, much less be able to recognize it in any future interactions with it.
Use your business logo in an easy-to-read and easily seen format for any profile pictures on social media accounts and something that is high-resolution and relevant to your business for any cover/backdrop photos.
For your content, keep it all in the style of your brand and cohesive with the message you are wanting to send to the public. Help your social media community be able to recognize and remember your brand so that they can engage with it and form a connection to it.
14. Listen to your audience.
No one likes to feel ignored, and your brand’s social media community is no exception. When a user takes the time to comment on a post by your brand or ask you a question online, acknowledge them in some way. If they ask a question, answer it. If they make a comment about liking what you are doing it, say thank you.
Although it may not be appropriate or productive to respond to each and every comment made on your brand’s social media channels, leaving all of them ignored demonstrates to people that your brand is disconnected from them and/or doesn’t care.
Social media users will not continue to engage with your brand online if they think it unworthy of their time. Encourage them to engage with your brand on social media by also being engaged with them and showing them that you are interested in what it is they have to say.
Use all the people on social media to your brand’s advantage. With the content you provide them and the way you identify the brand of your business, you can prompt them to engage with you online. With engaged followers, your business can present a strong brand identity to its audience that they will connect with and remember.
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