Building Your Business Brand Through Social MediaHow’s Your “Business Brand” Doing on Social Media?

It’s an important question. There are business brands that got started entirely through social media and succeeded in going viral. For instance, Wine Library (Gary Vaynerchuk) and “$#*! My Dad Says” (with William Shatner). Both of these multi-million dollar businesses have been built entirely on social media branding.

How can you use smart brand-building techniques to improve your brand with social media?

First: Define Your Business Brand

Before you do anything – before you even sign up for a social network, define your brand. Answer these questions:

  • What does your business brand stand for?
  • What’s the “vibe” of your brand?
  • What are your primary spoken and unspoken messages?
  • Who are you targeting?

Everything needs to fall in line with the brand you define. Your profile photos, the color of your pages, the content you post and everything else needs to match the brand you want to create.

Select Your Primary Social Networks

There are dozens of social networks you can join, many of them specific to your industry or topic but it doesn’t make any sense to join them all. Who has that much time? I recommend starting with  building your presence in one or two social networks.

Choose the social networks that make the most sense for brand building and marketing to your audience. If you’re in a corporate setting, you might choose Facebook and LinkedIn. If you’re in a tech-savvy industry, you might choose Twitter and Facebook. If you’re primarily targeting music fans, you might choose just MySpace.

The one or two networks that you choose depends entirely on where your audience is. Figure out what networks your audience uses the most and be there.

Regularly Post Brand Relevant, Value-Added Content

If you don’t stay in contact with people consistently, they’ll forget you exist. It doesn’t take long! Posting regularly helps to insure they maintain an awareness of your brand. Build loyalty by posting content your audience will love — and what they love depends on who they are.

  • A corporate or professional audience might love a daily three-minute video giving powerful tips on public speaking.
  • College crowd might be more interested in shocking or humorous pictures and/or videos.
  • A political audience might appreciate links to news stories not covered by American media.

Know your audience. Focus on providing value rather than trying to get people to buy. Build sincere loyalty rather than going for the quick sale.

Building a strong brand using social media involves 1. clearly defining your brand, 2. choosing the right social networks and 3. posting content they will love. Doing this on a consistent basis while being true to your brand,  will help it to become stronger and stronger — in your customer’s mind and in your market in general.

Already Started Without a Definite Brand?

It happens!  Get going on building your brand now.  It’s never too late to get going in the right direction.  You may want to be a bit more subtle so the change doesn’t shock or annoy any of your current “Friends, Fans or Followers,” but it’s important if you want brand recognition and business growth. And you do, right?

How’s your brand recognition? Is it firmly established or getting there?  Does it need work? Are you confident about it?

Let me know your thoughts, concerns, questions or objections in the comment section.

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