5 Ways To Improve Social Media Brand Image
*7 Minute Read*
What You Do. What They See.
A brand’s image is the overall impression that consumers have of a business. Your image includes, employees, products and services. You can not build your brand’s image overnight. A well-crafted image takes time and a commitment to providing exceptional customer experiences. Keep in mind though, all of the time, hard work, and patience will not go to waste as long as your plan focuses on customer satisfaction.
Setting up social media pages is an excellent step in the right direction if you are looking to succeed in creating a positive brand image. Social media allows you to not only build brand awareness but also take advantage of customer engagement moments. However, like other forms of marketing, you also have to compete for attention and recognition before you can create and nurture a strong impression of your brand in people’s mind.
Whether you are a new business looking to establish a strong social media presence, or you’re an established business looking to increase brand awareness, here are 5 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Brand Image:
Find Your Audience And Engage Them
If you haven’t been getting much recognition, or your following is not increasing, you might need to consider if you are focusing on the “wrong” social media platform. There are many options available to businesses today, but choosing the one that is best for your business should be based on your ideal customer. Does your ideal customer hang out on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, to name a few?
Are You On The Right Platform?
If your company is an office equipment manufacturer, for example, then SnapChat might do you more harm than good. Consider for a moment who are your customers, are they younger? Then maybe try focusing on Instagram or Snapchat. Are they older? Then perhaps Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter may be better for your business. Age is just one factor in the decision-making process. Think about who your ideal customer is and where they hang out online based on your buyer persona data.
Customer engagement is indispensable, regardless of whether you are trying to get your brand off the ground or make a mark on your existing audience. According to SproutSocial, 80% of social marketers use social engagement as their primary strategy. It’s an excellent avenue for engaging your audience and gaining their trust. Whatever you do, never miss an opportunity to reassure your audience that you care.
Post Relevant Content Regularly
Imagine a company that posts content that is relevant to you and your lifestyle daily. Then imagine another company that publishes random content once every few weeks or months. Which of these two is likely to gain more of your trust?
If you are looking to improve your brand image on social media, you need to show up regularly and post relevant content that speaks directly to your audience.
Ask yourself…
- Who’s attention are you trying to attract?
- What hashtags do the following?
- Which popular Instagram accounts do they follow?
- What issues might they be experiencing for which you have a solution?
Then, compose your social publishing content strategy based on the answers to these and/or similar questions.
Plan Ahead & Analyze Your Results.
Creating a content strategy to keep your audience engaged is the best way to establish your brand’s image as one that is entertaining, engaging, and resourceful. Implement your plan consistently for maximum impact, in no less than 12 months. To make consistency easy, leverage social publishing tools, like Hootsuite, to schedule and automate posts.
If you are not garnering a satisfactory following, examine your content’s insights. Analytics can give you insight into posts that get the most engagement as well as the time and days when such posts get the most engagement. This data should help you determine what kinds of posts your audience likes and when to post them.
Communicate Brand Philosophy
Your audience shouldn’t have to connect the dots to understand what your brand represents. Your brand’s purpose is better understood when it is formulated based on the customer’s point-of-view. In other words, your brand message should be clear as day, and one of the most concise ways to communicate it to your audience is through your logo.
The Psychology Of Color
We are all familiar with the psychology of color. What will your brand colors convey to your customer? Red, black and green is a color combination that is familiar to African American audiences. So incorporating that color combination will be in line with a brand that is focused on an Afro-centric lifestyle. Baby blue and light pink would be great for an infant’s line. You could even consider a sport’s line, standalone blue or even orange would be perfect brand colors.
People are drawn to things that they can easily relate to, so work on reeling them in with your logo colors, design and tagline. Compose a tagline that incorporates verbiage that is commonly used by your audience to make it easily digestible.
Be Consistent Across Social Channels
Improving your social media brand image requires consistency across all your social media accounts. This means that if you use your logo on one platform as your profile photo, be sure to use the same logo on other platforms. If your username is @mycompanyname on one platform, use the same name on other platforms, if another account has not yet taken it.
Intellectual Property Theft
If you find that another party is using your registered business name on a social platform, contact the platform’s help desk to notify them about your intellectual property theft issue. Each platform has different steps that you will have to take to prove ownership of your business name. Once ownership is established, the platform will remove the account that is using your company’s name or ask them to change their username.
Create Brand Recognition
If you focus on being consistent, you can improve your social media image to the point that people can identify your brand without having to see a logo or name. Here are a few key takeaways that you can use to enhance your brand image on social media by being consistent:
I. Choose a color palette and stick to it.
Don’t just pick colors because you like them; otherwise, you might not be making much of a statement for your brand. You are not helping your brand image if the color palette of your twitter profile is totally different from your Facebook profile. So, if teal and orange are the significant colors on your logo, let them dominate your color palette across social media.
II. Use the same logo on all accounts.
Your company logo is one of your brand’s key identifiers. It’s how most people spot your brand in a crowded market.
III. Be Consistent with the Content You Share.
Finding your voice is quite important in this regard. Your brand needs a tone that is both authentic and appeals to your audience. Also, you need to post content that is consistent with your industry. Uber, for example, has no business posting content about food recipes.
Build Relationships with Influencers
Getting a mention from an influencer in your industry can go a long way in improving your social media brand image. Social media influencers are trusted in their respective industries so if an influencer expresses trust in your brand, then your brand is already on its way to the next level. Nurture relationships with influencers and get them to recommend your brand to their followers.
