Top Tips for Building Your Brand on Social Media

Social Media marketing is a great way to reach new potential clients, and a recent marketing report shows that 72 percent of brands plan to invest more intensely in digital marketing in this year. Social media engagement is now seen as a legitimate way to build brand recognition, increase a loyal customer base and, ultimately, drive more sales. Of course building a good social media strategy for your brand isn’t as simple as setting up a Facebook page and adding the occasional picture or two. Here are some easy to follow top tips that will help you to build your brand on social media:

Choose the Right Platform

There are many different social media platforms, but they may not all be the right format for your specific brand. LinkedIn, for example, is the ideal platform if your business focuses on B2B sales, but would not be worth engagement if you are in a consumer-focused marketplace. Facebook is best for reaching the broadest possible client base, with estimates suggesting 75% of Americans now have a Facebook page. Pinterest and Instagram are great for visual based brands (a great example is for brands based in the fashion industry) but if you have no imagery to add then these might not be the right networks for you.

Assess each social media platform with your specific brand in mind, and only commit your time and energy to those platforms that you feel will add value to your brand and help it grow.

Be Honest

Honesty and integrity are essential to good social media strategy: you should never make claims on social media that you cannot back up and support with evidence. Whilst social media is a relatively informal media, it’s still essential that you adopt a professional attitude to your approach, and that you fact-check every piece of brand information you distribute to your customers via social media. You should also be sure to advise your customers if any of the images you use to promote your product have been edited, retouched, or modified in any way.  A good example of this is Olay Definity Eye Cream who, in 2009, retouched an image of a model in one of their anti-aging ads. The ad was banned by the The British advertising regulator ASA, and the company was forced to pay a hefty fine. It is for this reason that all businesses, particularly business that rely on advertising to drive customer engagement, are advised to secure a strong level of business insurance: to protect them from litigation, should a customer take exception to a claim made via social media advertising.

Ensure Your Content is Shareable

It isn’t enough to simply establish a social media presence for your brand: you also should deliver content that your customers will want to engage with. In most instances, this means that you should ensure your content is shareable: shared content is one of the best ways to increase your audience and boost your engagement numbers. The quality of your content is the single most important thing you should focus on if you want to build a reputable social media brand. Your content should be of the highest possible quality, and offer something unique to your customers that they cannot get from any other brand.

Working out what your specific customer is looking for may take a little trial and error: do they engage more with images or with written posts? Are they looking for humorous content or do they enjoy the opportunity to learn more about your brand? Your content should always support your brand (that is the whole objective of establishing a social media presence in the first place) so keep your brand identity at the forethought of your mind, and continue to assess your content until you establish what niche your brand’s social media presence best fills.

Don’t Forget the Link

Finally, don’t forget to include a link to your product or website either in the comments section or within the post itself.  This seems obviously, but it is something that many brands new to social media forget. If you don’t give your social media followers the opportunity to link back to your brand’s website then you won’t be able to convert increased social media engagement into increased sales!