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Marketing has evolved quite a bit throughout the years. Gone are the days when people were forced to go around the streets yelling to passers-by about the wares and services they offered. While you could still do that today, online marketing has made it so much easier and much more convenient for businesses to make their presence and brand voice known to potential customers as well as bring them a whole lot more value in the process! This is especially true with the rise of social media and subsequently, social media marketing.
However, even though online marketing has granted advantages to businesses, it also poses its own challenges. The internet is huge. With so many businesses marketing themselves in the social media space, how can you stand out in the crowd? One word – branding.
The way you talk and interact on social media is an extension of your business. It can be a reflection of your company culture and values, as well as provide a platform for customers to engage with you. Designing a social media brand voice may seem like it’s not that important, but it’s one of the first steps in creating an authentic brand presence.
Your brand is your identity. It is what sets your business apart from others. It’s what makes you recognizable in a sea of enterprises offering a similar product or service. As a business, you want customers to instantly recognize your brand. But how do you build a unique, strong, identifiable brand?
Well, you definitely need a social media management company to help you sort everything out. Here are 5 things that can help you with your branding, whether you do them yourself or put your business in the hands of an experienced social media manager:
1. Audit Your Brand Voice
Make a thorough examination of all the content you’ve already put out. Does your content echo a consistent brand voice? (More on brand voice later) Check old social media posts, the copy on your website, and any other places where your content exists. If you find any content that may come across as problematic, subject to controversy, or negative scrutiny, it would be in your best interest to remove it.
Rework your social media account. Provide any additional information about the business that you want people to see and remove any info that may be outdated, inaccurate, or irrelevant. If you have inactive accounts or pages, it’s best to delete them.
2. Target a Specific Demographic
It’s normal for a business to want as many people as possible to buy their product. Sometimes, this means trying to market to everyone. This is likely not going to work well. It’s very rare for a company to make a product or service for literally every person on the planet. A more effective marketing strategy is knowing your audience and honing in your campaign to cater to that specific demographic.
Make a list of relevant factors and specify what your typical customer looks like: age, gender, profession, online behavior, income, level of education, etc. Remember that the factors will vary depending on the specific product or service you offer.
Other things you should take into account when connecting with your audience include:
- Assessing which social media platform most of your audience are active on (Tiktok, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube, etc.)
- Taking note of their online behavior to determine what type of content engages your target audience more effectively and scheduling posts based on what time most users are online and more likely to see your post
- Focusing more on customer service to increase customer retention
3. Build on the Right Platforms
As mentioned previously, effective marketing is choosing the right social media platform for your business. You have to determine which platform your audience uses the most, but that’s not all. You also need to assess which platform has the better tools to engage your audience based on your business.
Wherever you have chosen to begin, generate a report every two weeks. This will help you to track how your brand strategy is performing. By looking into the details that the report gives you, you can see where your strategy is lacking and where the platform is lacking as well. Then you can make choices regarding both your strategy and the platform, but be cautious not to make a decision too quickly on changing platforms, as building a strong presence takes time! Here’s an image from Visualize Value that I like a lot. Distraction vs Focus. Stay focused and build for a while, before you call it quits on a platform. Your knowledge of the platform is a compounding asset!
A good performance report will tell you if your audience is engaged on the platform. If after reviews/audits from multiple social media experts if you are still not getting a good amount of engagement, then potentially think about concentrating on a different platform.
[bctt tweet=”When it comes to brand voice, it boils down to one important aspect – consistency. Consistency makes your brand recognizable and, with a good reputation, a brand that people can trust.” username=”ThatCompanycom”]4. Develop Your Brand Voice
Now we come to the topic of brand voice. Brand voice is essentially the character of your brand – what your brand represents. You can think of it as your brand’s personality. You essentially create and grow a brand voice in the same way that you would develop a brand logo or your social media strategy.
What is your brand’s core message? What values does your business abide by? How do you want to come across to viewers? What impression do you want to give off? Do you want to come off as more sophisticated and professional? Do you want to come off as more fun-loving and whimsical? These are questions that you can use to hone in on what you want your brand voice and unique brand identity to be.
Brand voice and tone
When it comes to brand voice, it boils down to one important aspect – consistency. Consistency makes your brand recognizable and, with a good reputation, a brand that people can trust.
Maintain a consistent brand voice, whether it be through writing social media posts, videos, advertisements, word-of-mouth advertising, or even simply replying to comments on your posts. This builds a particular impression of your brand in the minds of your followers as you relay your brand message to them.
Make sure to write down your ideas for how you want to stay consistent in how you relate to people across all social media channels. Note that you should be using the same voice and tone on other channels, too, like your website and any online marketplaces where you have a storefront. Stay focused on what makes you stand out, that unique selling point that makes you special. Keep top of mind the strategy that you want to use to effectively implement word-of-mouth marketing through your brand voice.
5. Create Engaging Content
You can make the best decision regarding which social media platform to focus on, establish short and long-term business goals, know your audience, and even develop a strong brand identity, but that isn’t enough. All of that is pointless without content that grabs the attention and engages your customers. Fret not though, because what I just mentioned as pointless without content is exactly what can help you create that content. If you have a good idea about your audience, then you’ll know what content they respond to. Below are a few strategies and ideas that you can implement that may be effective in catching the attention of your audience. Test them out and see which one yields the best results.
Content Themes
Creativity gives life to a brand. Whatever medium you are using, you will find some forms of content work better for you than others. These might be graphics like charts or computer-generated images, illustrations like memes, or product photos that show them in use. If you use a white label social media management service, they can give you a whole lot of ideas that have already been proven effective for your line of business.
As you return to the same creative formats time and again, content themes will emerge. You will want to take special note of these themes because they will help you to stay consistent in delivering content to your audiences. Themes can give your content not only a sense of character but structure too. Your aesthetic can play a crucial part in building your identity, especially when you know that it’s what your audience likes.
If you decide to go it alone, at least pick up a social media management tool to help you keep all the content organized. You must be sure to post quality content on a schedule if you want to stay consistent.
Written by, Julia
