Five Social Media Branding Tips

by    |   31st Mar 10 10:56 am   |   2
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Branding Five Social Media Branding TipsYour brand — whether you’re a corporation, a small business or an entrepreneur — is, in some senses, who you are. It’s how people identify with you or your company. When using social media to further your brand, it’s so very important to understand how finding the right balance between brand and personality can lead you to success.

Here are five tips to get you started:

Write a blog and create content regularly

Content rules all. Please understand that. Creating original content can do things for your brand that you never thought were possible. Think you’re in a niche that doesn’t allow for much news or commentary? You’re just not thinking out of the box enough. The best way to establish yourself as an expert in your niche is to write about it — anything about it — regularly and promote it through your social media channels. It may take some time for your content to catch on and find the right people, but when it does, you’ll be amazed at the results. Don’t let your competitors be the only voice for your industry in the social space.

Provide value to your niche

This goes hand-in-hand with the first tip, but providing value can really help you establish your brand in social media. Again, think outside the box. Take a look at your competitors and take note of what they’re doing. Then, take note of what they’re not doing. Is there a space you can fill in where they’ve left a void? I bet there is. That’s where value comes from. It’s creating something or providing information no one else can. Who knows your brand, company or industry better than you? No one. If you believe you can create content your friends, followers and fans can’t find anywhere else, you’re on your way to providing great value.

Get on specialty sites and network

LinkedIn is a great tool to build your brand since it’s all about the professional side of the social world. Create a profile, fill everything out as best you can and — this is very important — start networking like crazy. Find other people in your niche, send them an e-mail and introduce yourself. You can create great, long-lasting professional relationships on LinkedIn by just taking a few simple steps. Want to go even further? Visit a site like Brand-Yourself.com and try their branding services. Brand-Yourself is a growing social space that walks you through building your personal brand step-by-step. I highly recommend giving them a look.

Leave your logo behind

I’ve mentioned this before in previous posts, but I think it’s so important and a mistake that a lot of companies make. Step out from behind your logo. Social media is about personality, not your really cool logo. There’s a place for your logo, but it isn’t as the identity of your social space (i.e., your profile picture or avatar). Find someone with a great personality in your company — hopefully that’s you — and let them become the face of your brand. We made this change on our Legends Poll Twitter page and the results were immediate. People can indentify with a person. They have a hard time identifying and making a connection with a logo. Take advantage of this advice.

Stand out where you can

So you might be saying to yourself, “I’ve got this really great logo. Where can I use it?” Good question, and like I said, there’s a place for it. If you’ve got a Twitter page (and if you don’t, you really should), creating a custom background for your page is really advantageous. If you check out my Twitter profile (www.twitter.com/JayAdams70), you’ll see that I used my logo and created an original design that adds to my profile. If you’ve got Photoshop and some design skills, you’ve got more options open to you. If your design chops leave a bit to be desired, there are some great sites out there that will help you. Check out this post by Ben Parr of Mashable.

What other steps have you taken to establish your brand in the social space?

Jay Adams is a graduate student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University focusing on new and social media. Jay spent six years in the newspaper industry as a sports reporter before going back to school to pursue his passion of social media marketing. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/JayAdams70.
  • carolchapman

    Hello Jay,
    This is a well written post and to the point. These tips give every business the opportunity to really stand out by demonstrating their knowledge and expertise and offering it to others. That's what gets a brand and those who represent it noticed and followed.

    I would like to add that a brand is a perception based on emotion and defined by the experience others have when doing business either directly or indirectly with the brand. The logo of a brand is only a small part—it has a symbolic meaning. How people feel about a brand comes from the consistency or inconsistency in the experience and the feeling is often triggered by what comes to mind when thinking of or seeing the brand and its logo.

    Understanding what you stand for and how you want to be perceived and showing up that way is absolutely critical for every brand, particularly in the world of social media. I strongly suggest that businesses define their unique Brand DNA by digging deep to uncover their unique style (personality), core values, standards and differentiators, and by putting a stake in the ground by declaring and living up to a brand promise. Providing value in the social media arena starts internally, with defining who you are and showing up in every way possible that reflects your unique value proposition.

    We have an online step-by-step program that helps businesses define and build their brand from the inside out so they consistently walk their talk. It enables every brand to give to world based on what they believe in and what they uniquely have to offer.

  • http://twitter.com/kcesarz Kevin Cesarz

    Good point about leaving your logo behind. Hard to convince companies to go easy on the broadcasting.