What is Branding?
“Branding” is a term that gets thrown around a lot in business marketing circles. But what exactly does it mean? Think of your favorite beverage. What brand is it? What comes to mind when you think of that brand? Chances are it’s much more than just the brand’s name. You probably associate enjoyment with drinking that brand of beverage, and most likely you also associate high quality and trustworthiness with it – you trust your favorite beverage brand to be consistently satisfying.
If your beverage supports a particular cause, you might even associate social responsibility with the brand, which in turn heightens your satisfaction with purchasing and consuming that beverage. So, at the simple mention of a brand name, you instantly conjure feelings of enjoyment, quality, trustworthiness and satisfaction. That’s a pretty impressive feat – and that’s branding.
Build Your Platform
The most common elements of a social media platform are a blog, a Facebook page, YouTube and a Twitter account. Each of these elements needs to be a reflection of your brand and must work together to move potential customers to your website where they can then purchase your goods or services. It’s important to develop a brand narrative that social citizens can follow throughout your social media platform that will in turn help develop brand passion.
An effective way to do this is to make sure your content is both relevant and engaging. The more creative and entertaining your content is, the more excited your audience will be, and the more likely it is that they will not only spend time with your platform, but they’ll spread the word, too. Some of the most successful recent marketing strategies include tying the online and offline worlds together as well as linking social media with traditional media.
Track Down Your Audience
Once your platform is built, the next step is to find your audience. Consider who your target audience is and then find out where in the web they hang out and go there. Google is a great tool for this. By using keywords to search for similar products and services to your own, you can land in the same places your potential audience does.
Take the time to follow conversation threads to find out what that audience is thinking about a given product, what matters, what excites them and even what doesn’t. Use this valuable information to help refine your platform and your approach.
Nurture Relationships
Once you find your audience, connect with them by joining the conversation. Offer your insight and expertise, but be careful to avoid self-promotion. Attempts to simply get people to go to your site will appear pushy and insincere. Genuine dialogue will help build a relationship of mutual respect that will lead to potential customers seeking out your goods and services.
While searching for and engaging with your audience, take note of the influencers and make it a point to develop a relationship with them. Influencers are the bloggers who are in a position to spread the word and recommend your brand. Introduce yourself and become a part of their online community and be sure your interactions add value to the conversation.
How have you integrated branding and social media? What have your experiences been? We’d love to hear about them. If you have questions about making social media work for your brand, please leave them in the comments section below. We look forward to helping your business and brand make the most of social media platforms.
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