Well, that is a no-brainer question, and yet I literally get asked that every single day. The fact is that the trend of marketing has changed, and there is an increasing need to get your personal brand message across to more audiences. This makes social media a potent tool for brands, whether small or large, to build brand awareness, expand reach or exposure, as well as build trust, credibility, and loyalty.
Think of the over three billion social media users spread across the globe, and you need no more facts as to why you need social media presence.
But how can your brand tap into the potential of the media in brand awareness building?
It may interest you to know that every post, tweet, retweet, like, share, and comment you make on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, and other social sites determines your place among your competitors. Consumers now seek real-time communication with brands to express their opinions and lend their voices.
Getting the right exposure can create an explosion in you and your brand, but it’s not for everyone – at least not right away. Without proper planning, your article may be relevant today and go with the winds next tomorrow. Planning out your media exposure is key, and then using it to promote your personal brand is a strategy that I work on with all my covers on. If you are ready for it, you will reap the rewards.
Here are a few things media does for you and your brand.
Establishing brand awareness
Think of situations where you want people to recognize or recall you – you introduce yourself properly and leave positive impressions that leave you on their faces. One of the things that help to bring brand awareness is your social media presence and activity. How much do you engage people through your content? Does your content appeal to the interests of your target audience? Is your content share-worthy?
Social sites are a good place to engage your audience through conversational content, promote your content, and make your brand a subject of discourse. To reap this benefit, it may be impossible to have your brand all over multiple social sites. The goal is to identify your target audience and get there where they spend most of their time. With one to three social sites, you can be sure to have manageable platforms.
Generating leads
Social media offers the opportunity to market to a selective audience at a low-cost scale. Facebook, for instance, introduced paid marketing in 2010, which allows marketers to target users based on their interests. This feature was also replicated on other platforms following the increase in the segmented population of audiences.
Before employing the lead generation feature, it’s important that you identify the best platform to use. This may require that you create a target audience and identify your social media marketing goals. Also, you’d want to share valuable content on your page, even if you aren’t the owner. This could be promoted through a lead magnet. You simply offer a free ebook for download. Users submit a form to gain access to the file, and you get direct leads.
All the same, it is very easy to generate new leads when you’ve already established your brand in the hearts of your target audience. Providing industry tips that appeal to your audience on a first encounter may lead them to crave more and probably check out your product someday.
Getting connected with your audience on a deeper level
Now that you’ve established your personal brand, you may be tempted to think you don’t have to make any more efforts to sustain your audience. One of the greatest mistakes you can make is to stop feeding your audience. Most times, your customers are bored and would want to get engaged. Besides, they have a number of questions to which they seek answers. What about if they want to give feedback on your product or service? Where do they go?
Beyond product or service promotion, your audience wants interesting content that is personal and relatable.
What is your brand story?
Did you encounter challenges while building your personal brand? What do you have to say about the topic areas that are relevant to the target audience? Of course, they want brands that are insightful and trustworthy. Remember, the decision to buy a product or use a service often leaves customers in a train of doubt. Therefore, never be scared to show the real part of your brand to your audience.
Building positive online relationships
It is not enough to promote your product or service on your media platforms alone; of course, you can establish positive relationships with other businesses and influencers such that they mention your brand on their page or platform. This serves as a form of referral. By recommending your brand, they’ve successfully helped your target audience trust you even before they meet you.
Brands that are solo players hardly make waves. Even with that, you wouldn’t want to build relationships with brands with a damaged reputation. Otherwise, the purpose of establishing good relationships with other brands would’ve been defeated. While building a mutual relationship, be sure that there are mutual benefits involved too.
How do you establish brand awareness?
One common mistake made by brands is having different ideas representing their brands. This is a concerned brand awareness voice and tone across various platforms. Essentially, you should have a single voice. Your tone, on the other hand, may depend on circumstances. Your voice is just the way you would talk. It could be sarcastic, friendly, authoritative, or even formal.
In fact, one of the things that set you apart from other brands is your voice. It’s your unique way of conveying your message to your audience. If you already have an established voice, it would be great to extend it to your social media.
Each time you make a post on social media, you’re simply operating your brand voice. You don’t want to create an impression that your brand content has been written from different perspectives. Also, you would avoid using jargon that makes your audience feel dumb and unintelligent. Otherwise, you’ll lose their trust and, subsequently, their following.
Even if you have different people managing your social media accounts across many platforms, find a way to make sure the tone is consistent.
Make a difference!
With the realization that media helps to increase brand presence, many businesses are getting on board, thus making it a bit challenging to become visible. Beyond using the media as a branding tool, you need to stand away from the crowd by providing value through quality content delivery, telling a compelling story that keeps your audience engaged, and maintaining a consistent brand tone, voice, and style across social media platforms.
Expanding your business isn’t an easy process, as it comes with its hurdles. You need the right strategy that targets the right audience with a bit of endurance – then, you’re most likely to get atop the competition. You simply sell your product without selling your product. Sounds counterintuitive, right? Think of the number of times you’ve made a purchasing decision at the instance of stumbling on a product or service.
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