Today, social media branding is an essential part of any company’s branding process. Social media marketing uses imagery, tone, and interaction style consistent with the brand’s mission, vision, and values. What makes it so important for businesses today?
Social media has become the main tool for communication between the consumer and the brand. Currently, over 4.89 billion people around the globe are active users of social media. Today’s consumers want brands to engage with them on social media platforms as they engage with their friends and family. Thus, each enterprise that is only starting should have a clear vision of using social media for branding.
In today’s blog post, we will explain what social media branding means and ten strategies that you can use. So let’s get started.
What is The Importance of Branding in Business?
Branding is a key strategic asset that helps define your company’s image, foster customer loyalty, and support digital marketing strategy. It sets you apart from competitors, showing why your business offers more value. A strong brand boosts business performance and builds trust with customers. However, poorly managed branding can harm your reputation.
What is Social Media Branding?
According to Wix, the purpose of social media branding is to build brand recognition on social platforms and build relationships with targeted audiences. You can say it is an extension of your overall brand strategy in addition to developing a logo, color, and brand statement where you take advantage of social media. It can result in a higher level of engagement and customer loyalty.
By definition, social media branding involves building and maintaining relationships with your audience. In contrast, social media marketing focuses more on achieving specific short-term objectives. Both are important for a business’s success, but their purposes are quite different.
Important Elements of Successful Social Media Branding
An important point to remember is that social media audiences behave differently online when they are on social media platforms than when searching the Internet. A blog post is primarily intended for SEO marketing, whereas social media marketing is different because its content is usually fast-paced, like video or animations.
Here are ten branding tips for social media platforms:
- Identify Your Target Audience
The first step to creating a brand identity is determining your target audience. This means you need to understand where they live and what their needs and interests are. For example, a gluten-free bakery wouldn’t attract customers with no dietary restrictions – They would target individuals with gluten allergies or those seeking gluten-free products for health reasons.
Consider these things about your ideal customer:
- How old are they?
- What’s their gender?
- Where do they live?
- How is their economic situation?
- What do they care about?
- Create a Brand Identity for Your Business
Your brand image will define your social media presence and how you interact with your audience. This identity will be used to reach out to your customer persona. To get you started, follow these branding rules:
- Create brand guidelines. While others may think several elements make up a brand, we ask that you consider only three: the brand colors, tone, and values.
- Decide on brand color. Airbnb is pink, and KFC is red. If you are creating videos or infographics for your social media accounts, it is best to use your brand colors. Hex codes are important for fixing these colors. This can be done rather quickly using a brand kit generator.
- Develop a brand voice. Brand voice is how your brand speaks to your target market. Spotify is cool and rebellious, while Rolex is classy and conservative. A brand’s voice can be detected through the language used in the copy, images, and graphics.
- Develop brand values. Brand values define the brand’s purpose. Apple values innovation and uniqueness, while Adobe values creativity. Your mission statement defines your brand values.
Based on these three elements, develop a brand character. To put it bluntly, a brand persona is what your brand looks like if it were a person. Introduce them as if you are writing a dating site or social media account for these persons.
It is common for businesses to use extensive brand guidelines. These guidelines provide information regarding the logo proportions and its use, the color palette, and the typography. However, some brands use their guidelines as suggestions and allow their designers to experiment with new designs.
An effective brand identity influences how your target audience perceives your brand. People will recognize that the content is coming from your company as soon as they see it and will respond accordingly when they see it.
- Define The Type of Content You’ll Produce
Your content creation strategy will be guided by clearly understanding your target audience and brand guidelines. Ensure your content is relevant to your target audience and follows your brand guidelines.
For your social media content, graphic designs play an important role for which you can hire a graphic design company like Brandigits.net. Here are a few practical social media post ideas:
- Posting original photo content. Photo content is adapted to the social media channel it is posted on – which means that it must be organic and follow the platform’s recommended size and formatting guidelines. Here are the basic sizing guidelines for some popular platforms:
Facebook:
Shared images: 1200 x 630 px
Profile picture: 180 x 180 px
Cover photo: 820 x 312 px
Instagram:
Square post: 1080 x 1080 px
Portrait post: 1080 x 1350 px
Stories: 1080 x 1920 px
Twitter:
In-stream photos: 1200 x 675 px
Profile picture: 400 x 400 px
Header photo: 1500 x 500 px
- Making short videos. A video can be one of the most engaging forms of content. Think of engaging videos and content that will capture your audience’s attention. Here are some easy-to-use tools you can try for video editing:
Canva: Offers video templates, transitions, and editing tools.
InShot: Great for trimming, adding text, and transitions.
CapCut: Ideal for TikTok and Reels with easy-to-use features.
- Repurpose blog posts. Ensure that your blog posts are optimized, as they may reach an audience outside your website’s visitors. Posts from your blog can be repurposed into smaller, more digestible posts for social media, like infographics or videos. Here are some tools you can use:
For Creating Infographics:
Canva: Turn blog stats and tips into visually striking graphics.
Piktochart: Create professional infographics from blog content.
For Social Media Posts:
Hootsuite Composer: Format and schedule repurposed blog snippets for multiple platforms.
Buffer: Draft, repurpose, and post content snippets seamlessly.
For Video-Based Content:
Lumen5: Convert blog posts into engaging short videos with text overlays.
Animoto: Create slideshow videos with quotes, images, and data from your blogs
- Decide Which Social Media Channels to Use
You need to decide which social media platforms are right for you. Your staff and you would exhaust yourselves if you had to keep posting and updating content on Facebook, Twitter (X), Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Pinterest, Reddit, or newer channels like BeReal, Clubhouse, Lemon8, and Mastodon. Content guidelines for each channel are different, such as the content people view on each channel and the format of each content.
You might consider concentrating on one or a few social networking sites. What is the best method for selecting which ones to use?
A company’s social media strategy should be based on one factor: Where does its audience typically hang out on social media? Where do they maintain active social media profiles? (Do they spend more time on LinkedIn, YouTube, or Instagram?)
Generally, different social media platforms attract distinct age groups based on their preferences and online behavior. Gen Z (ages 9–24) dominates TikTok and Instagram because they are drawn to visually engaging and short-form content. Millennials (ages 25–40) are active across Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, balancing professional networking with lifestyle content and educational videos. Lastly, the gen X (ages 41–56) leans toward LinkedIn, Facebook, and Pinterest, often engaging in professional growth, family-oriented content, or DIY projects
Besides the sheer number of users, you should also consider which social networks your audience is absolutely dependent on. According to one study, the most used platforms are Facebook and Instagram, with YouTube closely behind.
- Managing Content With Social Media Tools
Social platforms offer a variety of native features and tools that can help you improve and manage the content you upload daily. TikTok, for example, lets you plan posts 15 minutes to 10 days in advance, whereas Instagram lets you schedule posts up to 75 days in advance.
These platform-specific tools can help you plan your brand’s social media posts, which is especially helpful if you manage multiple social media accounts. By creating content in advance and ensuring it is published on time, you can prevent losing track of important events.
Social media analytics tools can also increase engagement and help you gain a deeper understanding of your audience. Some of these popular tools include:
- Hootsuite: Hootsuite allows you to schedule posts across multiple platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn
- Buffer: Buffer supports many social media platforms and offers analytics to help monitor engagement and reach. It also has a browser extension, making it easier to share content on the go.
- Sprout Social: Sprout Social combines scheduling, monitoring, and reporting into one platform. It provides in-depth analytics and engagement tools, allowing you to plan your content and track how well it performs across different channels.
- Engage With the Social Media Community
Maintaining a regular presence on all social media platforms is a must. Social media branding is not all about posting content; updating it is much more than that. Try to engage with your audience, hear what they say, and pay attention to their pain points.
To increase engagement, you can also build your brand’s community on specialized platforms and forums outside of the usual social media channels. Consider joining or creating communities such as:
- Reddit Communities (Subreddits). Subreddits like r/Entrepreneur, r/SmallBusiness, and r/Marketing provide a platform for business owners and professionals to discuss strategies, challenges, and industry trends.
- GrowthHackers. GrowthHackers is a community specifically for growth marketers and business strategists. It focuses on strategies for growing businesses and offers a space for discussions, case studies, and actionable advice for marketers and entrepreneurs.
- BizSugar. BizSugar is an online community for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Users can share articles, tips, and resources related to business development, marketing, and finance.
- Connect with Influencers
Linking with influencers is crucial for social media branding. However, establishing these relationships may take a considerable amount of time and may never happen quickly. If you study influencers, then you will know how to contact them. Consider the following things when choosing an influencer:
- Niche. Those offering inventory management solutions would benefit from the services of a retail technology blogger. You might make audience members puzzled if you engage with a Twitch streamer.
- Budget. Can you afford a high-level influencer with several million subscribers, or should you stick with micro-influencers? Bigger is not always better.
- Influencer’s tone and voice. The personality of this influencer should complement your brand’s identity. Selecting an influencer whose personality contrasts with your brand’s identity can confuse or alienate your audience.
Finding influencers can be challenging when your brand is not active in the niche you would like to occupy. For your help, here are some of the popular social media influencers who can help you grow your business:
- Huda Kattan: Huda Kattan, founder of Huda Beauty, is a top beauty influencer. She promotes beauty brands through makeup tutorials, product reviews, and behind-the-scenes content.
- Marques Brownlee (MKBHD): Marques is a tech reviewer with a massive following. He partners with tech companies to review gadgets, often giving in-depth, honest reviews of smartphones, laptops, and accessories.
- David Dobrik: David incorporates product promotions into his light-hearted and entertaining vlogs.
- Take Advantage of User-Generated Content (UGC)
Any content that people create about your brand is user-generated content (UGC). It is the most powerful content you can share on social media since it is authentic and comes directly from your customers. In other words, people trust other people’s content more than brand content (e.g., reviews, ratings, etc.).
In addition, you can allow your customers to participate in the growth of your brand by creating user-generated content. This establishes a sense of community and trust among your audience.
Here are some actionable tips for encouraging and sharing user-generated content:
- Engage your audience by running a hashtag contest. Ask them to create a specific kind of content using your brand’s hashtags.
- Make sure your audience knows how to use your branded hashtag.
- If you repost your customers’ content about your brand, ensure that you tag them or mention their names. This will make them feel important enough to wish to contribute more UGC to your company.
- Consider organizing giveaways in which you ask people to provide UGC to win your product.
- If someone shares the best UGC for your brand, you can offer them a discount.
- Analyze the Results and Iterate
What are the most effective ways of measuring the success of social media marketing strategies? It is important to understand how your social content is performing on different platforms.
Your social media branding strategies must be more polished and developed based on historical data from social media metrics. These metrics can be useful for getting a clearer idea of how people engage with your brand on social media and how you can do it better.
The first step is identifying which metrics are relevant to your brand depending on the social media goals set. Here are some key social metrics to monitor and analyze for your brand:
- Impressions
The impression metric lets you determine how often your content is displayed in your followers’ timelines.
- Reach
Impressions is the number of people who have seen a post. The existence of many non-followers means that your post is getting attention and is popular and doing well.
- Rate of engagement
Having many followers is not very productive if you cannot reach out to them with your posts. For this reason, track the overall engagement rate of your social media posts to measure the effectiveness of your social media marketing strategy.
Your brand’s overall engagement rate can be described as the number of engagements your content garners (retweets, shares, likes, and comments) divided by the number of followers.
- Click-through rate (CTR)
Click-through rate (CTR) is the number of times people click on your post (ad) to get to the next content page. Additional content is your website, product pages, videos, and blog posts. In other words, CTR is the ratio of the number of clicks on a post to the number of impressions. A higher click-through rate means a particular social media post or an advertisement is more effective.
It is important to remember that these metrics should be used in conjunction. For example, a high impression count does not necessarily indicate that a post is performing well. Although the post may have a high impression count, it may not have a high engagement rate.
Every platform has native tools from where you can monitor these results, such as:
- Facebook Insights
- Hootsuite Analytics
- Sprout Special
- SEMrush Social Media Tracker
- Socialbakers
- Zoho Social
- Consider Outsourcing Services
If your social media marketing strategy is not generating the expected results, it might be time to bring in some big guns. Although all of these elements play a role in social media success, you may not be able to devote the time and resources necessary to ensure their success.
Look for a social media company near you. Those companies possess the skills, expertise, and knowledge that may be necessary for you to boost your social media presence.
In addition to staying up to speed on algorithm updates, industry trends, and Industry Influencers, they’ll also have access to trade secrets that you might not be aware of.
Conclusion
Branding your company on social media channels provides your company with a unique identity in an area crowded with other businesses.
Understand your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behaviors. Create an identity that resonates with them. Set a schedule for posting on social media regularly. Target key influencers to increase brand engagement. Improve your online presence by engaging your audience across different social media networks.
Last but not least, monitor your results. Building a brand on social media is not easy, and it is important to know if your efforts have succeeded.
