Bolstering Your Brand via Social Media

YLE Blog March 30, 2020 0 Comments

Bolstering your brand via social media is all about continually being innovative, different, and unique. Since it’s induction in the early 2000s, social media has changed the way companies market products and services.

1844

The telegram was invented by Samuel Morse, revolutionizing the way we communicate.

2004

Facebook was created, changing our interactions and perceptions of social media.

2006

Twitter hit social media, marking the start of how we can gain and utilize online virality.

2010

Instagram launched, transforming the way we engage with photos on social media.

Fast track to 2019 – less than two months away from a new decade, the social media evolution isn’t stopping anytime soon. Social media has now become a necessity for business, as forty-five percent of the world’s population (3.5 billion) are social media users. Insane.

What’s even a billboard anymore? The answer? A great way to lose money.

Fortune 500 brands such as McDonald’s, KFC, and NIKE stay relevant in today’s society due to constant innovation on their social platforms and the ability to cater to the modern-day person. Here are some ways to ignite that innovation to bolster your brand on social media.

Choose the Right Networks

The social networks your business is on can impact your business’s reach and success. It’s best to maintain two platforms that cater to the demographic you’re targeting. Choosing one too many can lead to inconsistent posting (hyperlink-to-article), which can make customers lose interest, undermine your credibility, and lose out on potential sales. Follow this guideline to see which platforms work best for your business:

Facebook: As the most popular social media platform (2.27 billion users), it’s good for promoting any brand due to its heterogeneous user population. Facebook Marketplace, in particular, has grown in popularity over the years. It’s currently used in seventy countries by 8-million people every month.

Instagram: A strong choice for brands that depend on visuals, which is almost every business. It’s especially great for brands targeting a younger age group, as seventy-two percent of thirteen-to-seventeen-year-olds use Instagram. But you’ll have to be consistently active with posting on Instagram, as 200 million users visit at least one business profile a day.

LinkedIn: Great for anything relating to business professionals and connecting with other corporate moguls. With 3 million users sharing content every week, it’s similar to Twitter through gaining engagement by linking and tagging other businesses.

Focusing on platforms catering to your demographics allows you to provide better customer service to them and establishes authority. Seventy-one percent of consumers are more likely to promote your brand to others if they’ve received attentive and welcoming social media service. That’s made possible once you’ve chosen the right networks.

Market Social Campaigns with Incentive

Phrases like “70% Off Sale!” and “Buy One, Get One Free!” will instantly grab the attention of any consumer passing by, drawing them into the store to get that deal. Those phrases are simply marketing campaigns with an incentive for customers.

A social campaign with valuable incentives will do the same, making them a great investment in promoting your brand. It invites people to your content and encourages them to engage, boosting your brand awareness and visibility. They will also increase your chances of getting leads, bringing you more customers and possible sales.

Whether it’s a sales promotion or a contest, you’ll find that your engagement will soar if the incentives provide the right value for your target audience.

View Your Reviews

Studies show that reviews impact a consumer’s purchasing decisions, with ninety-seven percent using reviews to shape their perspective on businesses. People reading experiences of other consumers gives insight into what could be expected when it comes to that company’s customer service. If all the reviews are bad, do you think they’d buy what you’re selling?

Reading and responding to your reviews will give you insight on how your business is faring with customers and give you an opportunity to interact with them. This insight is valuable as you can tackle any problems that are upsetting your customers and preventing them from becoming loyal to your brand. When people see that your business is making efforts to improve, they’ll be more willing to engage with your brand and recommend it to others, bolstering your presence online.

Tag Influencers

Tagging influencers with a significant amount of followers will increase the reach of your business online. An influencer is a hub of popularity where people “hang out,” and gives the influencer/consumer a chance to see your post. That activity is seen within that following, generating a cycle of engagement as your post circulates among more and more people. Make sure you tag relevant influencers to utilize that leverage to the fullest. You can do so by tactics like tagging and referencing names or citing websites in your content.

Jump On Trends

Topics that are trending online can boost your social media presence if you engage with it. Their online virality means that people are paying attention to that story – participating in the latest craze might have people paying attention to your business as a result. This marketing tactic is called newsjacking when you leverage these popular stories to boost your business’s exposure. Big brands do it all the time to stay relevant and part of the conversation.

A prime example is Oreo’s “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark” real-time tweet that was created during the 2013 Super Bowl blackout. With more than 10,000 retweets in an hour, the tweet was well-received and shared.

If you do it right, you will establish a creative brand personality and, as a result, drive traffic to your business. Twitter is a perfect place to start – you can just browse for hot topics through Twitter’s trending hashtags. The method works best when the trend is still breaking news, so write your content to be relevant to the trend while also promoting your business.

Social media can do wonders for your business’s success – if done properly. We are industry leaders in social media marketing, bolstering your brand through innovative marketing tactics and methodologies. Innovation generates change and change is always a good thing!

Citations

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/79030/tragic-event-led-samuel-morse-develop-telegraph

https://wearesocial.com/global-digital-report-2019

https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/23865/13-mind-bending-social-media-marketing-statistics.aspx?_ga=2.193846702.2038659197.1573228175-124644863.1557767571

https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/importance-social-media-business/

https://www.digitaldoughnut.com/articles/2018/february/7-reasons-why-social-media-marketing-is-important

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-social-media-is-important/285809/#close

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244677

https://www.lyfemarketing.com/blog/social-media-branding/

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#LinkedIn

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-marketplace-is-used-in-70-countries-by-800-million-people-monthly/

https://blog.hootsuite.com/instagram-statistics/