You want to create social media profiles for your business. But where do you start? How to build a brand on social media? With dozens of prominent platforms and significant competition, you may wonder if the effort is worth it. Trust us, it is. Social media platforms attract millions of users each day, so there’s an opportunity to gain exposure. However, your success on social media is directly proportional to your efforts. How well you present your business on social media plays a significant role in the results you’ll see.
That’s why we put together this guide. So, you can better understand brand presence and how it relates to social media.
Here you’ll learn:
– What social media branding is
– How social media affects branding
– What you should know before getting started with branding
– How to build brand awareness on social media
Social media branding
As a business owner, you’re probably already familiar with the general concept of branding. However, you might not be confident about branding in the age of social media. The ubiquity of these platforms greatly influences how businesses go about establishing a brand presence and boosting brand awareness.
That’s why you need to create a social media branding strategy. But first, what is social media branding? It’s the process of connecting with your target audience across social media platforms by boosting brand awareness.
Having a strategy allows you to optimize this process. Which will increase your chances of getting noticed and achieving your business goals. Do note that your social media branding strategy needs to be applied to every social media platform. You don’t want to waste your time on ineffective methods.
Is being active on social media worth it?
The short answer: Yes. Because in 2021, an estimated 4.2 billion people were using social media. Never have businesses had such easy access to this many potential customers. And social media branding lets you take advantage of the reach and exposure of social media. It also helps you distinguish yourself from the competition. Do keep in mind that while this all sounds promising, 77% of small businesses are competing for attention online. So, take your time to create a great social media strategy.
What to consider before you start
Before you can start developing a social media branding strategy, there are some important factors to consider.
- Your brand
It’s not possible to focus on social media branding before you have a firm grasp on your business’s brand — at least not effectively. This understanding will influence everything you do related to branding on social media. If you haven’t yet fleshed out this portion of your business, then take some time to perform market research and create a brand.
This might be tricky initially, but having this information will simplify all your branding efforts moving forward.
- Your audience
The audience you’re trying to reach is another major component to consider before diving into social media branding. You need to think about what they’re expecting to see from your business, how they’ll react, and what they prefer to see.
Learning about your target audience can provide you with key information that will inform your social media branding strategy. Here are some things you should know about your audience:
– Their age range
– Their likes and dislikes
– What companies they already interact with
– What kinds of problems they face
When you have a clear idea of your business’s brand and your target audience, you can start concerning yourself with social media branding.
Branding yourself on social media
1. Complete your social media profile
2. Use the best social media platforms for your brand and audience
3. Develop a posting schedule
4. Interact with your audience
5. Integrate your website into your social media presence
Branding yourself on social media is all about getting in front of your target audience and communicating effectively about why your business is worthy of attention.
Let’s look at some ways you can build your brand presence on social media.
Step 1: Make sure your social media profile is complete
The first step is to outfit your profiles with brand-related content in the form of images and links.
Social media profile picture
Your profile picture is a relatively basic part of your profiles, but it plays a major role in social media branding. You need to ensure all social media profile pictures sport your business’s logo. Why? Because your logo will create a sense of uniformity across all platforms and make it easier for users to identify your business in search results.
Social Media Bio
This section should feature a concise summary of your business and what it offers to customers. Some social media platforms offer more space for your bio than others, but you don’t want to overwhelm visitors when they first get to know your business. Try to limit your bio sections to two or three sentences.
Look at our Instagram bio as an example:
Website link
To complete your social media branding strategy, you need to bridge the gap between your social media presence and your website. One of the easiest, most effective ways to accomplish this goal is by providing a link in your profiles. We also have a link on all of our major social media accounts.
By linking users on social media to your website, you’re further illustrating the reach of your business’s brand. Now, your first impulse might be to link to your homepage. And while that’s always a good option, you could also feature landing pages or recent blog posts.
Step 2: Do a social media audit
Building a brand on social media starts with a comprehensive social media audit. This involves assessing your current online presence, understanding how your brand is perceived, and identifying areas for improvement.
Your online presence is shaped by your activity on various social media platforms. To build and enhance your brand, you must first understand your existing presence.
Conducting a social media audit allows you to evaluate how effectively you’re building brand awareness and which areas need more attention.
By analyzing your current social media presence, you can identify gaps and areas where you need to strengthen your brand’s presence.
Step 3: Use the best social media platforms for your brand
With dozens of social media platforms available, many businesses don’t even know where to begin with their branding strategy. Our advice: Don’t try to spend your time and energy across too many platforms. It’s much smarter to find the social media platforms that play to your business’s strengths.
For example, if you’re selling beautiful homemade jewelry, a social media platform that relies heavily on visuals will work best for your branding purposes. In this case, Instagram and Pinterest are great choices.
However, if you own a business that offers tax services, you might not have much visual content to share. In this instance, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other dynamic platforms are better options.
So consider each social media platform’s advantages and disadvantages, then decide which best suits your business’s needs.
Step 4: Develop a posting schedule
After you’ve chosen social media platforms that complement your business’s strengths and filled out your profiles, it’s time to develop an effective posting schedule.
Your posting schedule will dictate several things, including:
- What kinds of content do you post
- How often do you post
- What time of the day you post
- What’s included in the post
While these factors will vary between platforms, it’s essential to optimize your posts to reach as many users as possible while still staying true to your business’s brand.
Remaining consistent — in your posts’ frequency and type of content — will help develop your business’s branding in the eyes of your users.
Step 5: Interact with your audience
Many business owners don’t see results from their social media branding strategy due to a lack of, good socializing. It’s not enough to build a great profile and post helpful content consistently. You need to interact and engage with your audience regularly.
Social media companies design their platforms to promote interaction. The more active you are, the more likely it is that platforms will promote your posts. Furthermore, interacting with your audience shows current and potential followers that you’re responsive, trustworthy, and credible.
Here are some ways you can become more engaged with your audience:
- Reply to all of the comments on your content
- Share content produced by users on your profiles
- Comment on the profiles and posts of your target audience
Step 6: Integrate your website into your social media presence
To maximize your brand presence on social media, you must find ways of integrating your website into your platforms. Why? Because your website remains the superior converting tool, even though social media offers some selling functionalities. As we discussed before, the first step would be to share a link to your website in your bio.
Here are some other helpful strategies for connecting your social media audience with your website:
- Regularly share blog posts on your feed
- Take advantage of other link opportunities on each platform
- Include a call-to-action to encourage users to click on links
- Offer a discount code or coupon for users who visit your website
Step 7: Learn from your mistakes and successes:
Maintaining a strong social media presence requires a willingness to learn and adapt.
Part of building your brand is learning from both your successes and mistakes on social media.
Evaluate your past campaigns and strategies to discover what has worked in increasing brand awareness on social media.
Effective social media brand management entails recognizing where you have excelled and where improvements can be made.
Step 8: Track your competitors:
To improve your brand presence and brand awareness, it’s essential to keep an eye on your competitors.
Tracking your competitors on social media helps you understand what strategies are working for them and how they are building a brand online.
Competitor analysis provides valuable insights that can contribute to the growth of your brand.
In some cases, monitoring competitors may also involve observing how they utilize their social media presence to direct traffic to their websites.
In conclusion
Social media platforms are powerful tools for reaching and communicating with potential customers. If you create an effective social media branding strategy, your business will be able to successfully show your target audience why they should buy from you. Following these social media branding tips can help orient your business in the often confusing world of social media.
If you want to make the most out of your social media branding, you should think about building a website. Bluehost has the expertise and tools to help you get started. Check out our unrivaled web hosting plans today.
