Building Blocks Of A Strong Social Media Brand Strategy

Have you seen ads of products that feature popular film stars or personalities? Yes, loads of them, I am sure. These people are roped in as brand ambassadors because of their popularity. This is the obvious part of it. There is yet another important aspect to why these people are projected as brand ambassadors. They have a great ability to influence the decisions of their fans. Many fans will not think twice before imitating their favorite stars. It could be the choice of clothes, jewelry, hair styles, accessories, cars, lifestyle, pets and any/every aspect of life.

Something very similar has happened since the time Social Media has become popular. It gave birth to a certain category of ‘stars’ called ‘influencers’. They have truckloads of people as ‘fans’ called ‘followers’. The combination of influencers and followers is nothing less than that of a star and fans. It is for this very same reason that a lot of these influencers are slowly emerging to be brands by themselves. For instance, Neil Patel is a popular influencer in things related to social media. These influencers are common folk like you and me who know how to leverage the power of social media in the right ways. There are a lot of things to learn from them on social media brand strategy. Let’s look at some key points:-

Practice Consistency

Consistency is key to creating a social media brand. Your customers need to know it is your brand irrespective of the channel. Your brand should come through in all the audio visual content. The best way to go about this is to create your own brand persona. To start with, use professionally created profile pictures that are seen across all of your social media channels. Your brand needs a face, make it a face that cannot be easily forgotten.  Other things to do are to be consistent with the language used, the dosage of humor and wit. The essence in being consistent is not to lose your customer between the various channels of social media that your brand is on.

Create Different Content for Different Channels

There is a wide variety of social media channels for a reason. People who engage on different social media channels like particular types of communication that is unique to those channels. If Facebook is about narratives, then Twitter is about keeping it super short. If Instagram is about sharing your pics, Pinterest is about curating pics. It is important to note that all of these channels allow you to post text and pictures. But, you cannot really use the same image across all four channels and expect your customers to relate to you in different ways. So, make it a point to create catchy, unique and creative content that is custom made for each of your social media channels.

Build a Calendar for Content Ideas

Building your brand image on social media is not a one day task. It takes a lot of time and effort. If you can channelize this effort, then the rewards are huge too. An important step in channelizing this effort is to build a calendar for content. You should have a calendar that will capture various content ideas along with dates, key word volumes and call to actions applicable to the ideas.

Actively Engage with Your Audience

All of your social media brand building activities are eventually aimed at conversions in terms of a sale. The sale could be that of a product or a service. But, there is no way you can build a brand out of your efforts if you post only promotional content on your social media channels. Use your social media channels to post well curated content. Use this content to engage with your audience. You have a set of followers because they like you. Your engagement with them will build the like to love and to loyalty eventually.

Have a Core Team in Place

Social media brand building might look like a breeze on the face of it. But it is mighty amounts of back end work. You cannot really do it all by yourself, unless you are superman. Have a core team in place that will look into various aspects of your social media brand building. Assign specific roles to each of these team members. Support them with the necessary tools to execute their tasks. Have periodic reviews to steer your team in the right direction.

Be Ready to Handle and Counter Criticism

Social media puts your brand out in the open. It is a good place to be. You cannot really build a brand in a dark room somewhere in the corner of your office. What social media also does, along with giving you a public image is to put you in a vulnerable position sometimes. Your brand is open to all kinds of criticism from all directions. It is important for you to decide your criticism handling strategy. Will you counter it with wit or humor? What kind of criticism will you respond to? What is constructive criticism for your brand? These are some of the very basic questions. Have a person in charge of monitoring all communication related to criticism.