Building your brand on social media is a key part of becoming known in your industry and establishing valuable relationships with your audience.
In our last blog post, we showed you how fast food chain Wendy’s used clever social media branding to take advantage of an opportunity presented by a follower’s tweet – with incredible results.
Whilst there was an element of luck in Wendy’s social media success, the fact they’d built a strong brand persona definitely played a large part.
This week, we’ll show you how you can do the same. Read on to discover our tried and true method for building your brand on social media.
Know your audience
Before you can start building your brand on social media, you need to know the community you’re aiming to reach.
Do a bit of research into your target audience. Find out who they are, what they want, what their concerns and problems are, and how they use social media.
Think about your values
Your brand persona should be an expression of your company’s values. To help identify your values, ask yourself and other people in the company the following questions:
Why was the company founded? What do you want to be known for? What sets you apart from other brands? What do you want to tell the world?
Perfect your profiles
The ‘About’ and bio sections of your social media profiles will play a key role in establishing your brand.
Take some time really perfecting the description of your company. Think back to your values, and try to distil them in a few sentences.
Complete your profiles with up-to-date photos, logos and a colour scheme that matches your branding.
Find your tone of voice
Your tone of voice is not what you say but how you say it. To find your tone of voice, imagine your brand as a person. What adjectives would you use to describe their personality?
Your tone of voice might be playful, caring, bold, irreverent, cheeky, adventurous, authoritative, fun, whimsical, trendy, sophisticated, helpful, inspirational or educational.
Once you’ve pinned down a few key adjectives, think about how to encapsulate them through the language you use on social media
Have conversations and interact personally
Don’t just sell to your audience – have meaningful conversations.
Tell stories, ask questions and listen to your followers. Try to respond personally to everyone who interacts directly with you.
As we saw with Wendy’s, personal interactions can sometimes lead to wonderful things. At the very least, the customers you interact with will feel more connected to your brand.
Share success stories and behind-the-scenes content
Posting behind-the-scenes content is a brilliant way to strengthen your brand persona and engage your customers on a personal level.
The best way to do it is with photos. If something exciting or amusing happens or you’ve got some new products in, snap a quick picture and upload it.
If you’re proud of the work your company is doing – perhaps you’ve won an award, or a member of staff has been promoted – share that with your followers too.
Use humour
Humour can be a powerful way to connect with your audience – after all, who doesn’t love to laugh?
That doesn’t mean you should overload your followers with every meme going. Instead, find or create humorous content that reflects your values or is relevant to your industry.
Or, as Wendy’s did, respond with humour to customers who interact with you – you never know what it might lead to!
Building your brand on social media: a conclusion
A strong brand persona will help set you apart from your competitors and develop that all-important rapport with your customers.
As we’ve learned from Wendy’s, cultivating your brand can have great results – so take every opportunity to reinforce it.
As a leading social media agency in London, if you’d like to know more about building your brand on social media with UWP Group, give us a call today – we’re always happy to chat.