How to Ensure Your Social Media Strategy Reflects Your Brand Identity

By Dan Matthews

Image Source: Unsplash

Branding is a cornerstone of a company’s success. It creates and supports the brand’s reputation, helps the company stand out from its competitors, and communicates values to customers. Creating and utilizing a brand identity can also help consumers recognize your company the second they see a post on social media. While branding should always be considered in marketing, businesses can fall into the trap of putting conversions first. Forgetting what your business stands for is a mistake, though – your branding, not your technical strategies, are what will make a difference with consumers. Here’s how to ensure your brand has a presence in your marketing efforts.

Choose Your Social Platforms Wisely

 

There are a lot of social media platforms out there to choose from, and the ones you’re on should reflect your brand and your audience. If you have a highly visual brand or you sell retail online, create accounts on Instagram and Pinterest. If you go heavy with video marketing, Facebook and YouTube will be best for you. Brands that cater to young audiences will do well on Tumblr, while serious B2B companies will gain traction on LinkedIn. This doesn’t mean you can’t be on the other platforms to see if they work for you, but these are what you should start with.

Create a Consistent Style Across Your Platforms

 

If you have Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter accounts, they should all look relatively the same. You can mix up the content you post, but the visual style should be cohesive. That way, your customers will know they’ve landed on your brand instead of another company with the same name.

 

• Stick with the same colour palette.
• Use the same fonts whenever possible.
• Use the same avatar or symbol for all of your profile photos, even if it has to be cropped differently.
• If you use filters, always select from the same two or three.
• Use the same descriptions and taglines for your company.

 

The more you use your visual style across your social media accounts, the more recognizable it’ll be.

Create Templates for the Whole Team to Follow

 

Do you always use the same branded hashtags on Instagram or Twitter? Do you like writing your calls-to-action in a particular way? All of these preferences go toward your branding. To ensure your social media content is consistent, create fill-in-the-blanks templates. This will make it easier for you to schedule content, and it will also ensure that your team members create on-brand posts every time. Here’s an example of a Twitter post template for an announcement:

 

Hey [Followers Nickname]! We couldn’t be more pumped to announce [one-sentence announcement]. Stay tuned for so much more info. [link] #BrandedHashtag #IndustryHashtag

Stick With What Works

 

If you’re scrambling for ideas and coming up against a tough case of writer’s block, you may think you have no options. Instead of reinventing the wheel, why not stick with what you already know works? Yes, you want to be creative and innovative in your job, and that’s great, but sometimes relying on tried-and-true techniques means greater impact and reach. Take a look at your older content to see what made an impact, then update it or repurpose it to breathe new life into it. This is particularly helpful if you’re feeling stuck about what to create next. Instead of pressuring yourself to post something completely original, take inspiration from your own brand and reuse an idea that made a splash last time.

Regularly Check in With Your Branding

 

Branding isn’t permanent. Even some of the most famous brands have updated their logos to be more modern, like AT&T and Apple. Your brand is only powerful if it appeals to what your customers need. Those needs will change, though, and your brand has to change along with them. Keep up with changes in the market to ensure you’re remaining competitive.

Let Marketing Tools Help You Out

 

Marketers have a lot of balls to keep in the air. Luckily, there are plenty of tools out there to help you.

 

• If you have a marketing team that needs to collaborate and keep tasks organized, consider a project management tool like Asana or Trello. These tools are also helpful if you end up outsourcing some of your work.
• To manage a running list of social media content ideas, Evernote is a great tool that can be accessed online or from a mobile app, synced in real-time and shared with your team.
• Use Headline Analyzer to ensure your article titles are clickable – you don’t want to over-brand to the point where your headlines aren’t clear.
• Feedly collects industry headlines so that you’re always consuming the most relevant information.
• Marketing tools with built-in analytics are excellent. Facebook and MailChimp both have rich analytics that makes data accessible. You have to know what’s working and what’s not to tweak your strategy.

 

Until your branding becomes second nature, you may have to actively incorporate it into your social media strategy. That’s hard to do if you feel disorganized. Marketing tools can keep everything running smoothly so you have more time to devote to creative and complex tasks.

Final Thoughts

 

Think of your branding as your company’s wardrobe. Impressions matter and they can influence or discourage customers. Decide what you want others to see when you’re out in public. When you know how you want to be perceived, it becomes easier to decide what to put forth.

 

 Dan Matthews is a writer with a degree in English from Boise State University. He has extensive experience writing online at the intersection of business, finance, marketing, and technology. You can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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