Brand identity is crucial in almost all business, online, or physical. It helps establish the personality of the brand and how customers perceive its products and services. It is therefore very important that brand owners spend the time and energy to ensure their social media branding is clear, positive, and effective. Here are 5 tips on doing just that.

1. The basics

Social media is all about visual spectacle. The more your brand stands out, the more it will get attention from users. The basics of social media profiles can be summarized into five key things, namely: handle, logo, color palette (some would say aesthetics), bio, and what’s known as the boilerplate. Let’s go over each of these by one.

• Handle

A social media handle is another name for username in social media. Across all platforms, handles are unique and can’t be duplicated between accounts.

In choosing the perfect handle for your brand, choose one with 15 characters or less. The shorter it is, the more memorable the handle is.

Try to come up with a handle that’s exactly, if not close to the brand name. Most medium to big companies even pays to get the exact handle for the brand name.

• Logo

After the handle, the logo will be the next thing that jumps out of your brand’s social media page. You want to have one that is unique but at the same time appealing and goes with your brand image.

Most social media platforms put logos into thumbnails that are either square or circle. Take the time to adjust your brand’s logo to fit nicely into the icon size.

If your brand logo is laid out vertically, then spend the time to redesign a logo specific to your social media profiles.

If you have text or graphics in your logo, make sure those are clearly visible without the users having to squint or enlarge the picture.

• Color Palette

The perfect color palette is, sadly, one of the things that are commonly overlooked by many brands but something that adds a level of uniqueness to their social media page.

A good rule of thumb is to match your brand’s website colors to the color palette of its social media profiles. You can also draw inspiration from the colors present in your logo.

Colors should play off of each other, too. Make sure each one complements each other nicely and to do this you have to limit the number of colors you use to 3 to 5 choices. More and the page will look cluttered.

• Bio

It writing an effective social media bio, think about what you want to say to visitors. It needs to be concise at the same time express what the brand is all about.

It also has to be original. Avoid using cliche buzzwords and write one that really stands out.

And it is on a bio that you are allowed to brag about your brand a little bit. Tell visitors what your brand has done and how you want to be perceived.

• Boilerplate

In public relations, the boilerplate is the last paragraph inserted in all the press releases given out by companies. You commonly see these on all social media platforms. It’s essentially the important information on the brand’s size, location, presence, website, as well as all their social media profiles.

2. Choose your area of expertise

Finding what sets you apart from others is key if you want your brand to stand out against your competition. This will not only help you target the right audience but it will make your brand be memorable.

Before developing your expertise, you first have to decide what you want your brand to be known for. It’s not enough for you to choose a general field like human resources or publishing. You have to insert yourself into a niche and be well-known among its members.

Once you have a niche, you can start building your credentials and experience to become the go-to “guru” within that small community. Establishing your name as an expert will help leverage your brand’s reputation. Though the audience might be smaller, they will be more receptive to your ideas, opinions, and ultimately your product.

3. Create a voice for your brand

We’ve been told time and time again to find our distinct voice. It’s part of how others identify us. In the e-commerce space, establishing your brand’s voice is how you show your audience a little personality. A brand’s voice can have a significant impact on how consumers perceive the brand. Is it trustworthy? Credible? Or is it fake and revenue-driven? Customers are more likely to spend their money on a brand they perceive as reliable.

Here are a few tips in helping you find and sustain your brand’s voice.

• Take the time to put the right words

Thought it might sound simple, it’s something that many businesses overlook. You need to document the words that you use on your website and social media if you want its voice to be consistent.

• Be consistent in every content

An effective voice needs to be consistent across all platforms. You can’t be formal on the site and informal in your social media engagements.

• Use the right channel to promote

You want to avoid your brand’s voice sounding off across different channels since where you share your message is as important as what you’re sharing. You want to invest your resources in the specific channel where it’ll have the most reach and impact.

• Grow and adapt

As your brand grows and evolves, so will your brand’s voice. It’s just like a regular person growing – their experiences will mold them slowly. This is very normal and almost expected.

4. Post Every Day

Once you’ve made your brand’s profile accessible, the next step is to share your expertise with others.

Be active on your social media channels to boost your influence as well as followers. According to many influencer marketing youtube videos, the key to effective social media growth is by posting consistently.

A study done on Twitter followers found that users who tweet more get more followers. The right amount of posts your brand should make each day depends on the social media platform.

• Twitter – 5 times a day
• LinkedIn – 1 time per day
• Facebook – 2 times per day
• Instagram – 1 to 2 times per day

Back in the day when social media was in its infancy, you’ll need to create a posting schedule to be consistent. Now, there are tools and applications where you can queue up scheduled posts and it will automatically post them on your brand’s social media profile. This means you only need to spend a couple of hours every couple of days to think of posts.

The kind of content you share on your brand’s social media profile will depend on each platform.

• Facebook

Facebook favors a variety of posts that helps boost engagement. Posts that ask questions encourage people to comment and like a post. Behind-the-scenes is also great content that can be shared with Facebook. You can show the manufacturing side of the business as well as day-to-day photos of your staff.

• Instagram

Instagram users love experiences. Videos and pictures of travel, events, and adventures are very compelling to Instagram users and receive a lot of attention and engagement. A show of creativity is also highly prized on the platform. Works by artists become very popular on Instagram.

• Twitter

Twitter, although considered to be a form of microblogging, favors the same content as Facebook. Pictures, videos, and simple tweets are all welcomed. News is also easily disseminated on Twitter.

5. Measure the impact of your efforts

It is the goal of every brand to grow its awareness online. The hard part is executing these strategies. Following all these suggestions will get you started in the right direction in creating a personal brand on social media.

When it comes to branding, it’s no longer just about choosing the right logos and colors. It includes establishing a voice, choosing the right visual content, and knowing when and where to post content.

But all these efforts will fail if you’re not measuring its effectiveness. As you implement all these efforts, pay close attention to your brand’s mentions and engagement. You can also employ the use of regular surveys to gauge people’s brand recognition, how they perceive your brand, and if you’re reaching the right audience.

There are a lot of available tools you can use to measure your social media branding efforts, both paid and free.

• Keyhole

Keyhole is great at understanding what your customers are thinking as well as simplifying your reports so it’s easily shared among your team. It also shows data on what your customers like most about your brand.

• Agorapulse

Another great social analytics tool is Agorapulse. It can help you identify the best content that users respond to the most. The tool saves you time by allowing you to do all your tasks in one place.

• Brandwatch

With Brandwatch, brand monitoring is made simple and easy. It provides great insights into what your customers are thinking which makes it easy to market to them.

Final Thoughts

Many marketers often think of personal branding as a way to become famous or popular online. While that is true in individual users, for brands it points more towards how customers see the brand as a whole, including its products and services. Being able to control this perception will have an immense impact on the success of your business.

Author Bio:

Sarah Brooks is a passionate blogger and informative content writer who loves to write about social media marketing, seo tips, and web designs. She is currently working with Adfluencer, Germany’s leading agency for influencer marketing.