Building a social media presence improves your brand’s reputation and overall awareness
Standing out as a brand in today’s world has become increasingly difficult. There are so many channels that exist today and each can greatly enhance a brand’s visibility and overall awareness. The terms brand awareness and brand visibility are often used interchangeably, and for good reason, you can’t have one without the other. But what do they really mean? Well, to put it simply, brand awareness, and brand visibility are marketing efforts that successfully increase a brand’s recognizability while allowing consumers to make educated buying decisions. With so many avenues available, standing out in an ever-growing crowd of brands has become increasingly more challenging. Here are a few simple ways to increase your brand’s awareness and visibility… social edition.
To begin any online marketing effort, it is important to understand your target audience and market. Broadly speaking, this would include the individuals that are most likely to benefit from the service(s) or product(s) you provide. To better understand who to target, market research can be done. It’s helpful to brainstorm buyer personas and from there, isolate key similarities in your audience.
It should come as no surprise that most large brands see social media as a marketing must-have. For starters, social media is generally free and can serve as a great starting point, even for smaller brands. Additionally, a recent study found nearly 94% of internet users are active on social. Beyond that, studies suggest nearly 81% of consumers shop online before shopping in a store. Having an active social media presence aids customers in developing shopping expectations which can lead to greater satisfaction and increased retention. The best part is, this isn’t difficult to do. There are so many tools that exist today like Canva, Visme, and Easil, just to name a few. These tools are great for creating, quick, high-quality content for most platforms.
When considering which platforms are best for your brand, there are a few questions to ask yourself. 1. Where’s your target audience active? While Facebook may have the largest active user base, if your brand is looking to connect more professionally then LinkedIn may be a better place for that message. It’s not to say a brand shouldn’t explore multiple platforms but prioritizing a platform that aligns more closely with a target audience or your campaign’s message can help net better results.
2. What is your brand’s personality? Consider your brand’s products or services when selecting your channel(s). Highly visual brands can rely more heavily on platforms like Instagram, while B2B brands with case studies, testimonials, and other results-driven, lead-focused content should definitely focus on platforms like LinkedIn. 3. Where are your competitors posting? A competitive analysis may help you determine what platforms they’re using, what’s working or not working, and generally how engaged the audience is on each channel.
(PRO-TIP: Look at engagement like reactions, shares, and comments)
To get the most out of social media marketing it’s crucial the goals surrounding the campaigns are properly set. Consider the reason your brand is on social media in the first place. Is it to engage directly with customers? Or is it to share client feedback? Whatever the overall goal, each social media platform has its own strengths. Twitter has become the go-to platform for customer-to-brand communication, and it’s a great place to start brand-to-customer conversations around trending topics. Snapchat can be a great tool for promoting pop-up events and giveaways. Spending time understanding each platform’s pros and cons in tandem with your marketing goals will go a long way toward increasing your brand’s awareness and visibility.
The world of digital marketing can be tricky, but we can help. At UMI our dedicated team of web experts, along with our creatives, provide multi-location brands with the tools they need to stand out! Elements like social media templates and pages dedicated to creating and organizing social media assets make digital marketing a SNAP!
Stay tuned for more brand-boosting strategies in part 2 coming later this week…
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