Building your brand on social media is most definitely a challenge. From how you position yourself, to building an audience, and taking the impact offline – there is a lot to think about.
The first step in building your social media brand is to create your social media profiles. There are a bunch of companies out there who offer social media branding services, but generally you can do this yourself either by using a templated service like Canva, or by getting a cheap bit of design done by a freelancer on the likes of Fiverr. Ultimately, you’re not looking for a full re-brand here, it should just be a case of using your brand assets in slightly different ways to make sure that your profile and cover images on the main profiles are in line with your brand. Spend a little time creating the content for your Twitter bio, and Facebook about section to ensure that people know who you are, and make sure you put in those important links back to your website in these sections.
Once you’ve got your profile and cover images all branded up how you want, it’s time to move into building your audience. This is probably the most difficult section for most. Just have a look around Facebook or Twitter and you’ll find plenty of businesses with nice looking profiles with around 20 likes or followers. The problem is that people assume that people will just find them, whereas these days that simply isn’t the case.
No matter which social channel you’re focusing on, the first place to start is in creating great content. Say something that’s relevant, and that people will want to share. Once you’re doing this regularly, try to get people you know and your current customers and partners to engage with you and follow you. Next, follow influential people on Twitter and engage in their conversations (they’ll soon follow you back), and consider advertising with Facebook Ads. Make sure you advertise to the right people so as not to waste money – make sure that you’re targeting people in your country in your target age range as a minimum.
Once you’ve got your audience building up, it’s time to try to generate ROI and to take this new audience offline. You can run competitions, offer vouchers, and all sorts with Facebook apps – and you can share all of these on Twitter to increase performance. Consider sending out branded marketing collateral such as custom USBs from the likes of USB Makers to your audience to engage them further in your brand when you send out competition prizes or vouchers. You’ll need to be creative to get the offline world working well with your social media – but if you have a physical location your at an advantage as you can ask people to check in, review, or like your business when they are physically in front of you. Some even offer discounts or special offers for customers that are happy to do this.
Building your brand on social media is a tough task, but if you follow through this three step process you will get there. It takes time and effort, and you won’t see a return right away, but if you get it right, it can be well worth it in the long run!