Actionable strategies to ensure a consistent brand message on social media

What is a brand? Simply put, it’s the unique features you choose to define your business that differentiate you from your competitors. It’s your business name and logo and maybe a tagline – but so much more too – especially in the new world of ecommerce and social media marketing. Everything you do on social media contributes to your brand, from the verbiage you use in your Facebook updates to the color of your logo and profile picture to the voice-over in your videos.

Think of social media branding as the forward face of your business, supporting everything you do in the marketplace. A strong online brand gives your business an identity – beyond the product or service you sell – that will help consumers relate to it and remember it. Branding – strong branding – can also bring your employees pride and a sense of belonging.

Tepperman’s in Ontario is a great example of a strong, local store brand. From how they’ve evolved during COVID to offer zoom consultations to their vision of sustainability to their scholarship program – everything about their brand is family-focused, community oriented. In a highly promotional industry, their brand-building strikes the balance that differentiates them in the marketplace

If you’re struggling with your small business brand online, we’ve got some actionable tips for creating a strong brand on social media below. But first, let’s review some branding buzz words – and how they relate to the world of social media.

Branding buzz words

• Brand identity. Your brand’s identity goes beyond what products or services you sell. It’s as simple as a personality – your values and communication style – and as complicated as the feeling people get when they interact with your business. If your brand identity online is recognizable, consistent and trustworthy, customers will be able to relate to you, whether they walk into your store or visit you on Facebook. What’s your brand’s personality? If you can’t answer that, begin with asking your loyal customers why they’re loyal to you.
• Brand awareness. If your target audience knows your name, you’ve got brand awareness – good job. If your business is “buzz worthy” or “trending”, you’ve arrived. If the consumers you’re trying to reach, don’t know you have a website or Facebook page, you have some work to do – and strong branding can help. Think of the difference between Casper (buzz-worthy) and the hundred or so wanna-be (nameless) bed-in-the box brands that have hitched their wagon to that star.
• Brand management. Your brand is a living, breathing asset and needs to be carefully nurtured if you want it to grow in the marketplace. Managing your brand can tangible, like your brand guidelines, logos and color palette in the images and videos you share online. But it’s also intangible, like how a customer feels after interacting with your business on Facebook. Even when I can’t travel, I like to visit Away on Facebook – their brand management never fails to inspire me.
• Brand extension. When a company expands to carry different or new products, this is known as brand extension. Chip and Joanna Gains, DIY stars on HGTV, developed Magnolia Home – a brand extension that leveraged their current brand and created more revenue streams. Joanna regularly shares products from Magnolia Home on her personal Facebook page, giving more credibility to both brands.
• Brand trust. If you’ve invested in strong branding and your social media manager, customer service team and marketing department all deliver the same message, a message your customers understand trust, you’ve achieved the holy grail of marketing on social media – brand trust.

5 actionable tips for better social media branding

1. Ensure the basics of your brand are correct. Do a social media audit, checking that your logo, banners and images fall into step with your overall brand strategy. If you’re not managing your social media channels yourself, read the updates being posted – as well as the timing of those updates – to ensure clarity and consistency of messaging. Social media audits are like watching your weight – it needs to be monitored regularly to be sure things aren’t falling off the rails.
2. Map out your long-term plans. Just because you’re on social media, doesn’t mean you’ll be the most popular kid on the block overnight. Like SEO, building a strong brand on social media is a long term goal that will continue to grow as your business grows. Ensure you have a content generation pipeline so that you can maintain a consistent, on-brand posting schedule on your social media channels. Stopping and starting, or random posting, won’t move you toward your goals.
3. Focus your plans on what you can manage. You don’t need to be on every social media channel but you do need to ensure that you’re nurturing and growing the ones you are on. If you can only manage one social media channel, focus on building your brand, one update at a time. Diluting input efforts will only result in watered-down output.
4. Concentrate on quality over quantity. Every business wants thousands of followers overnight but fast growing numbers don’t always deliver better brand recognition – nor do they result in more sales. Check your ego at the door and concentrate on delivering high quality content to the community already there. In this case, if you build it right, they really will come.
5. Celebrate success along the way. Whether it’s a customer that posts an unsolicited review or a loyal fan that regularly shares your content with her friends and family, take time to notice the small but important steps along the way. Continue to deliver excellence and your community will notice – and reward you – as you grow.

If you’re struggling with your digital strategy, I’d love to hear your questions and how I can help. Drop a comment below or shoot me an email and let’s start talking.

In the meantime, these posts might help you begin your content marketing journey:

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• 10 commandments of blogging
• Creating high-quality blog content