If you have a company, you have a brand. Your "brand" is the impact and lasting impressions that someone will have from the experiences with your company. These experiences include what is both seen and heard when someone comes into contact with your products and services.

Your company’s brand is evident at every touchpoint where you communicate to the public, including on social media. 

There are over 3.5 billion social media users around the world, and this number is always increasing. That is about 45% of the world's population (Emarsys, 2019). This stat is telling us that you want to make sure your brand has a social media presence.

Aligning your social media presence with your brand is an essential step to the marketing process to ensure that your customers and future customers have a cohesive brand experience.

The following are crucial steps that are needed when ensuring that your presence on social media is cohesive with your branding:

Define Your Brand Voice

The words that you use and the tone that you use those words defines your brand's personality. This voice will be a significant factor in how people identify your brand's character and who they will begin developing a relationship with.

This element is essentially your brand's identity, and it needs to translate across all mediums, including social media.

Complete Your Profiles

The biggest mistake brands make is that they don't fill out their social media profiles. Use the same tone and vocabulary as your website and other marketing channels. Don't forget to include who you are, what products/services you offer and your logo or brand images.

There is the possibility that your social media profiles will show up in search engines ahead of your website. Your social media profiles may be one of the first times someone experiences your brand, so filling them out is to your advantage.

Create a Plan and Content Calendar

If you put in the time to create a social media strategy and a content calendar, you have a plan to follow when generating posts for social media. This plan should outline the type of content that will be posted and on what days, along with any potential local or national holidays that influence your industry and community.

Knowing which content you will need to create ahead of time will help you with time management and organization. If you know what type of photos or videos you will need for future posts, you can create and obtain them in advance. It's best to make a routine by creating daily themes and following that system to create content.

For example, if every Monday is "Motivation Monday," you know that every Monday's post will inspire and motivate your followers. 

Repurpose Your Content

Your website and other marketing materials are full of brilliant content that is on-brand. You may even have a blog that contains a wealth of information. These are great resources and places of inspiration for what content you can create for social media.

 

When you repurpose content that your brand has already made, it enforces your brand's alignment and maintains a consistent brand voice.

Social media is a great place to build a relationship with your customers and future customers. People do business with people they like, know and trust, so ensuring that your brand is on social media will help build that relationship.

When your brand is the same at all of the contact points, people will know what to expect when they come across you. So, connect your social media channels and website and perform an audit to ensure your social media presence aligns with your brand.

Filed in // Brand Identity, Social Media, Branding, Social Media Marketing