Customers are more likely to judge your company based on your social media than they are on your website. 

In some cases, social media will be the first touchpoint customers have with your brand. So, how do you make that first (or second, third, or thirtieth) impression count? 

Exceptional social media branding is key.

A strong and authentic brand can help your company stand apart from competitors, increase your reach, and encourage customers to make a purchase. 

In this article, I’ll explain all that contributes to your social media brand, why you should start improving it today, and five best practices to get you started.

Key Takeaways

• Your social media brand encapsulates your company’s image, identity, and messaging across all social platforms. It doesn’t have to be the exact brand you portray on your website, but it should be consistent across all social channels. 
• Social media branding helps companies solidify their brand perception, reach a wider audience, and increase engagement levels.
• Creating a consistent visual identity and tone of voice is an essential part of any social media branding strategy.
• You need to post regularly on a variety of platforms. Use a social media content calendar to enforce a schedule and ensure every post meets business objectives. 
• Understand who you are speaking to with well-defined customer profiles. The better you understand your audience, the easier it will be to create content that aligns with their interests.
• Partnering with influencers can help you piggyback off established audiences. Work with micro-influencers to get the best value for money. 
• Use native and third-party social media monitoring tools to track your success.

• What is Social Media Branding And Why Is It Important?

  Social media branding is the art and science of sculpting your business identity on social channels like X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Your social media brand is your company persona—your look, tone, and message. It should distinguish you from competitors and give your target audience a reason to follow you.  

  You can establish your social media brand by posting engaging content and building meaningful connections with your target audience. Once you’ve got it locked down, your followers will be able to identify your content even if your name isn’t next to it. 

  Think about brands like Wendy’s, Red Bull, and Nike.
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• These brands are super-successful on social media. They have incredibly strong brand personas to the point where I bet you could instantly pick out one of their post. 

  Social media branding isn’t the be-all and end-all, however. It’s an extension of your company’s wider digital marketing strategy and one part of a social media marketing strategy. A strong social media brand can support other marketing efforts like SEO or paid ad campaigns by increasing touchpoints and nudging customers further down the funnel with every informative or funny post.

• On the other hand, weak social media branding can cause confusion and apathy. If you don’t convey a consistent image, come across as self-promotional, or fail to provide value, potential customers won’t follow you. It’s as simple as that. 

  Benefits of Effective Social Media Branding

  Whether you’re a startup or a well-established company, there are plenty of reasons to invest in social media brand marketing. 

  • Build or improve your reputation: A strong social media brand helps users understand what your company stands for—even if they’ve never heard of it before. Effective branding is also a powerful way to change user perceptions. Side note: I’ll show you exactly how my agency leveraged this benefit at the end of this article. 
  • Reach a wider audience: Posting consistently engaging and informative content will help users discover your brand. If your branding is really strong, you’ll also stick in the minds of your target audience in the same way the three brands I mentioned above do. 
  • Increase engagement: A strong brand also increases engagement with your existing audience. When you post something meaningful, users are much more likely to interact with your brand, share your content, and click through to your site. 

  Best Practices for Social Media BrandingLooking for advice on how to build a brand on social media? Dive into my five best practices below.

  Have A Consistent Presence

  Your brand should look and feel the same across every social media platform. 

  The more you reinforce your brand image, the more easily followers will recognize your content in the future. A consistent brand also builds trust, makes it easy for audience members to follow you across different platforms, and gives them the confidence to buy from you. 

  It starts with visuals. 

  Use your website’s color palettes, logos, and images to ensure the visual branding of all your social profiles is very similar, if not the same. Make sure to use the same colors and images in your posts, too. 

  For example, my agency maintains a consistent image on LinkedIn even though we can only show our logo and a thin banner image. We manage to work in our brand colors, strapline, and some of our most prominent awards.   

  You don’t just want your profiles to look the same, though. You want them to sound the same, too. 

  A well-defined social media brand will have a recognizable voice and use the same tone and style in every post. 

  If you already have brand and style guidelines for your website, you can use them for social media, too. But don’t worry if your social voice differs slightly from the voice you use on your corporate website. It’s okay — even encouraged — to be more informal and friendly on social media. 

  If you’re creating a social media branding guide from scratch, then include the following elements to make it easy for anyone to pick it up and start posting:

  • Your logo and color palette
  • Other common images 
  • Relevant hashtags
  • Your tone, with examples
  • Other posting habits, like the use of emojis

  • While a consistent presence is key, be careful of spreading yourself too thin. I recommend prioritizing the platforms most important for your business. B2B brands, for example, should probably prioritize LinkedIn. A B2C brand with a Gen Z focus, on the other hand, should prioritize TikTok. 

    Provide Relevant Content On Socials

    Excessive self-promotion is not appropriate in a social media branding strategy. Instead, your posts should offer value to followers.

    That could be advice, entertainment, or something else entirely. Whatever you post, the key is to be original and relevant. Try to say things others aren’t saying. Going against perceived common wisdom can be particularly powerful, for example.

    High-quality, engaging, and informative content will position your brand as an industry authority. Users are more likely to engage with great content too, which means more shares, clicks, and followers. 

    One-off posts aren’t enough to build a brand on social media—even if you go viral. You need to be posting consistently. Not so much that you flood your followers’ feeds, mind you, but enough to stay relevant. 

     

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