As you will explore in the next segment, social media can be a lucrative platform for you to grow your brand. It offers access to a large following, as well as targeted marketing strategies and paid advertisement options. You can reach out to your audiences on social media and engage in personal level interaction, which will be guaranteed to boost your level of personal sales.
You need to watch your social media activity carefully as it can affect the performance of your brand significantly, both offline and online. A bad reputation will hand your competitors an advantage and could be difficult to get over. You need to take up social media best practices to reduce the risk of this happening.
First, we explore whether joining social media can prove to be beneficial for your brand.
Is joining social media the right step for your brand?
Joining social media can be a great way to market your brand to billions of people for an inexpensive cost. It is proving to be more popular with brands and marketers than traditional avenues of brand advertising, and has recorded a notable rise in the level of investment that has been injected onto the avenue.
Social media is an inexpensive and effective way to market your brand. It will provide an avenue for your brand to increase its visibility levels, which will boost brand awareness and recognition. By setting up your brand page on social media and choosing insightful content for your followers, you could be able to increase brand awareness levels. More people will be able to view your brand page, and could be interested in your products and services.
How can social media help grow your brand?
With up to 80% of users across many platforms, and up to 99% for certain demographics, following at least one brand, there is sufficient interest and reason to go online. If you choose not to market your brand on social media, you will miss out on the potential of the platform to generate higher client numbers. The high number of active social media users makes it an ideal marketing avenue for brands looking to make inroads into their industry. You can leverage this interest to market your brand and build lasting relationships.
Social Media Examiner suggests that 59% of marketers that have invested for at least a year in social media marketing for brand awareness have noted changes in their SEO ranking. If you have a business website for your brand, being on social media could help you rank highly and may impact your visibility levels. More people may also be willing to trust your brand and make purchases, which could increase the likelihood of development of brand loyalty. Combining a social media profile and an optimized website could help increase your rankings even quicker.
Social media provides the right avenue for your brand to network and communicate with people and other brands. You can humanize your brand by being active on the platform and using it to present your company values. Most of the time, this may be as easy as providing timely and personalized responses to your followers’ queries, claims and comments. Users will be more likely to acknowledge your brand’s attentiveness to the client needs, which will play a big role in increasing satisfaction levels. All interaction with social media users on your page represents a great way to display your brand’s values. You can engage in interpersonal dialogue with your clients on the platform, which will make it easier to build trusting and lasting relationships with your followers.
Does social media activity attract any risk?
Social media hosts a large number of people, with some platforms almost hitting the billion follower mark. There is very high interest in brands, which presents a precarious marketing platform. Any wrong move could be amplified significantly, and may affect the trust and confidence levels in your brand. You need to monitor your posting frequency, interaction and content to protect your brand from any negative reputations.
As a business, your reputation will contribute to customers’ decisions to make purchases or interact with your brand. In many cases, your brand’s reputation could be the only definitive factor of difference between you and the competition. If you have a negative reputation, no matter the quality of your products, you will lose out on followers and experience reduced growth.
The second biggest challenge of haphazard social media management is that the negative reputation, which will affect your brand’s performance, will be extremely difficult to shake off. You could be stuck with a bad reputation even after efforts to sanitize your brand image. The popular phrase ‘the internet does not forget’ should be your brand’s mantra for any activity on the platform because the potential consequences are severe and lasting.
What are the best social media practices for your brand?
Do not spam your clients
You should not contact your current or potential customers without their express consent. Even though you may have contact and e-mail details, you should make sure to contact clients that provide these details themselves. Spamming, which requires the use of mass messaging, will make it difficult to engage in personal selling and may hinder any development of relationships with potential and existing customers.
Do not overly advertise your brand
Using too many advertisements could push away customers from your brand. People on social media will expect personalized, interesting and human interaction with your brand. Users have access to this type of content, with many brands looking to build relationships with their followers by progressive engagement and interaction. They may expect some adverts but will be put off by brands that overdo it. If you are considering paid advertisement options, you should keep your followers’ possible responses in mind. You can get likes on Instagram app will help your profile grow without placing your brand at the risk of loss of followers.
Find a unique identity
Brands are defined by different metrics, goals, resources and expectations. Even if they may be of a similar size, brands will be unique. You need to find a social media presence that embodies your personality in order to stand out and attract more followers. You should avoid appropriating any social media presentations by brands on the basis that they have performed successfully.