The Link between Public Recognition and Social Media Branding
4 minutes | Word Count: 791There is a massive difference between brand recognition and brand awareness. Sure, brand awareness definitely has a higher value status than mere brand recognition, however, awareness is impossible to achieve without first passing through the recognition stage. Now, there are many different ways for you to achieve this status but one that is commonly used is definitely social media branding. The problem with this is the fact that although social media branding may be widely used, due to lack of knowledge it is commonly misused or underutilized.
Here are a few tips that will help you avoid making these mistakes.
1. Identifying your target audience
The first step in boosting the public recognition of your brand through social media branding lies in identifying your target audience and learning a thing or two about it. Not only do these demographic groups prefer different social networks (something that we will discuss later on) but they also have different social media habits (this is particularly affect by the age group). We are talking about metrics like social media consumption, the busiest time of the day, the frequency of visits and many other relevant factors.
2. Choosing the right platform for your activities
The next thing worth keeping in mind is the fact that each social media platform has something completely different to offer. For instance, Instagram is ideal for product placement, seeing as how hashtags come in as a particularly handy alternative for a keyword. Aside from this, because it is highly graphic, it is an ideal platform for highlighting a product. If you are in an industry where personal brand and the personality of the people behind the brand play a major role, YouTube might be your weapon of choice. Still, the fact that you are focusing the bulk of your effort on a single network does not give you the right to neglect all others.
3. Engaging your audience
Perhaps the best thing about social media branding lies in the fact that you get a simple and effective way to engage your audience. Each social network gives you a direct line to all your fans and users and you can choose the most appropriate way to get in touch. For instance, you can send them a direct message, yet, for those who find this approach “too pushy”, there are several much subtler alternatives out there. Commenting on a piece of their content or responding to a question they’ve asked in the comment section below your content is equally as effective and respectful. Furthermore, sharing their content or just liking their post may also be interpreted as (and definitely is) a sign of respect.
4. Showing consistency
This next item on the list is one that often gets misinterpreted. You see, even on social networks, you need to display a sense of consistency. Your content needs to be stylistically similarly written, the topics need to remain tied to your industry or field of interest and it all has to be in the same tone. The problem, however, lies in the fact that the term “consistent” does not mean change-proof.
Think about it, as the local market evolves, you will evolve with it, and trying to reverse this process in any way is bound to backfire. Therefore, what you might want to do is entrust this task to professionals. Localizing your efforts is yet another great idea. If you are running a local market based enterprise and aim to stay competitive on the local market, it might be for the best to outsource this task to a brand agency.
5. More efficient feedback
At the end of the day, by branding through social media you get to monitor your brand in a much simpler and more effective manner. Through social media monitoring, you can see what people are saying about your brand when they think you’re not listening. You would be surprised just how much constructive criticism you can pick up in this way and use it to effortlessly boost your brand on social media. Lastly, this kind of market analysis and data gathering is quite low-cost, meaning that it is suitable even for the smallest of startups.
Conclusion
At the very end, boosting your company’s public recognition through social media is a scalable endeavor. What this means is that the effect of your work grows exponentially. Just because things may seem to be advancing slowly at the moment, it doesn’t mean that you’re not doing a good job or that the cost-efficiency of your efforts is not what it’s supposed to be. Think of it as creating a ripple. Initially, you barely stir the pond, yet, as the time goes by, you will start to see the full benefit of your efforts.