What is Social Media Branding ? Guide in 2022
The brand you create is the identity of what you have to offer the world. It started as an idea that turned into a business, a start-up, or a home-based business. You will need social media branding in order to grow your brand, regardless of where it comes from. There’s no getting around it. Without social media, your efforts to connect, network, and convert will be significantly impaired. In addition to your digital marketing strategy, your advertising and promotional campaigns, as well as your content marketing plans, a social media branding strategy goes hand in hand with them. Whether your website or app is agile-developed, built on an e-commerce platform, or located in a brick-and-mortar store, you must have an active social media presence.
Social Media Branding: What is it?
You can use social media to market your brand by taking your website—and your brand guidelines document—to social media channels. Furthermore, specific social media content will be created for all social media channels. This includes visual items such as headers, profile photos, graphics, ads, and your brand voice’s content such as descriptions, captions, and interactions with followers. In the strategy stage, brand colors, fonts, and imagery were chosen for each visual content element. Social media branding projects continue forever when they are successful. You won’t be able to set up your profiles and be done with it.
Branding on Social Media: Why Is It Important?
Every interaction and engagement you have on social media carry your social media branding forward. Even though your logo is recognizable, it is even more impactful when used as a messaging tool, both in the copy and in direct messaging.
Social Media Branding is an important Part of Any Business. I’ll give you a quick overview:
- A visual recognition system
- Association of Psychologists
- The awareness of brands
- The social proof
Psychological Associations and Visual Recognition:
The first layer of social media branding is visual recognition and psychological association. It relates to how it links to your official website and how you communicate with your customers. People will search online for your social media channels as soon as they hear about your brand. This is how they learn about your brand and what it stands for. In every channel you are active in, your brand should be reflected in both visuals and messaging. Suppose someone hears about your brand from a friend; they will go to their preferred social media channel and search for your brand name. When they like what they see and read, they’ll look for a link to your website. In order to make the transition from social media to the website seamless, there should be no obstacles or difficulties.
A Brand’s Awareness:
Awareness of your brand is about people knowing what it is and why it exists. Good brand awareness can be achieved through social media marketing. A brand strategy should span all marketing funnel levels, especially at the top. You’ll catch the public’s attention with the messaging and tone of your social media visuals and copy. When it comes to social media branding, the key to growing brand awareness is constantly reaching out to new people and connecting with more people. Based on market research and social listening, you’ll know how to make these changes.
Social Proof is:
In addition to social proof, social media branding is also important. As far as social proof goes, however, it is less about how you do your social media branding and more about how people perceive it. This is more of a response to your efforts than a direct result of them.
Social Media Branding in 3 Easy Steps:
The time has come to delve into the nitty-gritty of social media branding. We’ve broken the process down into a 5-step formula that’ll get you started.
Have Your Branding Strategy Ready:
Before you can do any sort of social media branding, it’s essential to have a clear foundation. Social media branding strategies don’t start with creating a bunch of Instagram posts; you need a brand identity first. A branding identity has two parts. One is the visual branding; like the fonts, colors, and overall visual quality of the brand. The other is a general idea of the purpose and mission of the brand. You don’t need to have a manifesto, but at least an outline of the overall idea. You can always write a brand manifesto later.
Social Media Branding Guidelines and Visual Assets:
Your brand guidelines are a document that outlines and showcases your fonts, color palettes, and fonts. There should be a section that suggests dos and don’ts for the use of the logo, optimal text dimensions for different situations, and hex numbers in all color palettes (primary, secondary, etc.).
The brand voice and tone guidelines are as follows:
The brand guidelines document contains a section that describes how you communicate with your customers on social media; this is the brand voice and tone. The parameters of how your brand “speaks” in text, audio, or video content will be discussed in this section.
Analyze Social Media Demographics:
We’re now ready to discuss your social media goals based on your brand guidelines. Your brand can reach out positively to your target audience on social media when you have clear social media goals.
- Build brand awareness: get recognized and remembered by building a social presence.
- A lead generation strategy: obtaining leads (emails) from potential clients to follow up with.
- The conversion: Using social media to sell products and services.
Your main objective will serve as the foundation for everything you do on social media for your brand. The next step is to determine which social media channel, and which content, is most appropriate for what goal. Each channel has its own personality and marketing angle based on who uses it. To create a forward-looking social media brand, use these insights.
Facebook is:
Users share videos, photos, and links on this ubiquitous, global social network. There are a lot of ads from businesses in every industry.
- Pros: Works well with B2C and B2B marketing alike. The most significant number of connections/friends can be found there.
- Cons: It’s widely used, and lacks a cool, exclusive vibe. There is a lot of advertising, clickbait, and conspiracy theories on the site.
Twitter is:
In 280 characters or less, 400 million users post text, links, images, and videos.
- Pros: Instant access to news. Public icons are accessible.
- Cons: Content refreshes at high speeds due to a high volume of content.
Instagram Is:
Mobile app with 1.3 billion users who share videos, photos, and carousels.
- Pros: Easy scrolling with minimal text and links. The photography and videos are stunning and eye-catching.
- Cons: Organic engagement is lower than other channels.
LinkedIn Is:
It is no longer a platform for sharing resumes. In recent years, LinkedIn has become more social, but its general topic remains business-oriented.
- The pros include Effective B2B marketing. Links, photos, videos, and newsletters can be shared.
- The cons: Some features require a paid subscription.
YouTube is:
A social video channel with 2.4 billion subscribers. With YouTube Shorts, everything is video, primarily horizontal but now vertical.
- The pros: You can reach many people through good YouTube
- A few cons: To stand out on this channel you will need some video production exp
Create Branded Social Media Content:
Sharing content on social media is part of the strategy. The time has come to share your knowledge and value with the world on a regular basis now that your brand has a social presence. You will create a significant amount of visual and textual content when you maintain two or three social media accounts; all of it must be consistent with your brand guidelines and messaging tone. Start by creating a folder called “social media” in your Visme dashboard, where you will collect all the visuals you create. Labeled folders and tags will help you keep track of them. You can use the collaboration feature to assign edits and comments to team members while creating the visual content.