How Do You Use Branding in Your
Social Media Campaigns?
By Natasha Gayle | SEO Specialist, BGD Digital Marketing
June 13, 2022
Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
It’s time to talk about branding again! Who’s excited?!
We are! That’s because we know how much this service can impact your business - for the better - and we are ready to get you on board.
Specifically, we want to talk about how to use branding in your social media campaigns.
Why Is Branding on Social Media So Important?
Perhaps like a boring history class or any good Ted Talk, I’m going to start with a few statistics. As of 2021:
There are more than 200 million small business profiles on Facebook.
There are over 200 million business profiles using Instagram.
There are 58 million companies on Linked In.
If those numbers seem overwhelming to you, it’s because they are!
Social media is a highly saturated market, but it’s where soooo many people spend their time, which means it’s a vital avenue of marketing for your business.
But if there are so many social media pages in the world now, how does your business stand out? How do you market your business on social media with that amount of competition?
Branding.
With branding, you help users easily identify it’s you, especially if you aren’t a lifestyle brand where your face is the brand. You need branding to show users who you are so you can grow your business on social media. And because these platforms are so saturated, you only have a split second to capture their attention and show them that you are worth paying attention to.
No pressure!
Our piece of advice: “When it comes to your marketing, don’t be the commercial; be the show.”
Make users look forward to watching your brand on social media and help them easily recognize it’s you as they’re fastforwarding through all of those commercials, or, let’s be real, tapping through all of those Instagram stories.
How Do You Use Branding in Your Social Media Campaigns?
The best way to build a brand using social media is to focus on people-focused branding. This means you are going to plug into themes we talk about at BGD.
Say you have 6 things you focus on for your brand. They aren’t the same all the time but users are going to have to be able to identify them. And if you are going to be the show, not the commercial, you need to have a jacket portfolio of things you say about your brand. It needs to be exciting and entertaining and easily identifiable!
As an example, let’s say I’m going to talk about my branding and consulting package. Those are two different services I offer, but even though those are two different things, viewers need to know they are coming from the same camp.
To do that, I’m going to:
Use the same font
Use the same language
Use the same colors
Use the same photo style
Use the same brand voice (Warm and friendly, but innovating and exciting!)
If you don’t have this kind of consistency, your content is going to go all over the place and people aren’t going to know it’s you. And that’s often why a lot of companies believe social media doesn’t work, when it does. It’s also why BGD offers both Branding and Social Media as a package deal when you come to us for digital marketing help. We use branding and social media together to grow your business!
Should Your Branding Differ by Social Media Network?
It depends largely on your consumer.
When we help our clients develop their social media strategy, we think about their consumer base on each social media platform. Then we take the brand messaging we want to present and cater it to those consumers.
As an example, say I want to talk about why branding is so important and I want to share it on three different social platforms: Linked In, Instagram, TikTok.
On Linked In, I’m going to create an article about why branding is so important and share it on that platform.
On Instagram, I’m going to communicate some of that same information, but I’m going to do so using a graphic carousel that I can share as a post.
On TikTok, I’m going to be talking about my day, but maybe I’ll say something briefly about working for a branding company.
Each message is being shared on a different social platform but it’s the same message, just presented in slightly different ways.
But why does the presentation have to be different? It’s because the main consumers on these platforms are different and they will react and respond in different ways.
If we can relate social platforms to real, living people for a moment, I think this might help. Imagine you’re talking to three different people in your life about self-driving cars: your child (TikTok), your dad (Linked In), and your grandma (Instagram). Your approach to each will be slightly different because the response is going to be quite different:
You’re communicating the same thing, but you have to explain it in a different way to each one so you can address their reaction before it even comes. And you also have to do it in a way that lets them know you are the one speaking to them - the branding. You are familiar and trustworthy to them so they are willing and ready to listen.
Another reason why this social media strategy is so effective is because it is sustainable. One of the pillars of BGD Digital Marketing is sustainable marketing. We want our clients to be able to follow through with the social media marketing strategy we put together for them. We pick one topic and, according to their consumer bases, talk about this topic in different ways that all hit that target.
How Does BGD Use Branding in Social Media?
I’ve offered some personal tips already on how BGD uses branding on social media, but I’ll offer a quick recap here, plus one more awesome strategy for you to try!
Don’t be the commercial; be the show.
Make users look forward to watching your brand on social media and be able to easily spot when you are back on the air.
Provide consistency across all messaging.
At BGD, we will do the following practices to keep our presence consistent on social media:
Use the same font
Use the same language
Use the same colors
Use the same photo style
Use the same brand voice
Cater messaging to the consumer. Remember talking to your child, your dad and your grandma (a.k.a. TikTok, Linked In & Instagram).
We have one message and a certain way we want to present that message, while also being willing to present it in slightly different ways depending on the network and how consumers use that platform (i.e. articles for Linked In, graphic carousels for Instagram, casual videos for TikTok).
Create sustainable marketing.
We don’t stretch clients thin with too many messages to share across too many social platforms. We stick to one message, shared in a few different ways, that can be used in their marketing.
BONUS: Update assets periodically using the same style.
At least once a year, or every 6 months, BGD does another photoshoot with the same photographer. We may have different backdrops and different clothes, but we are still wearing the same colors, same hair style, etc. It gives us some updated assets while retaining our brand.
You don’t have to grow stagnant just because your brand has a particular style. You can refresh your assets for your website, email and social media, as long as it stays true to who you and your brand are. When we use photos, people are beginning to identify our photos as something from BGD.
We see the power in branding and that’s why we offer it to our clients. In our comprehensive branding and social media package, our clients will get to do a photoshoot to develop a portfolio of brand assets that can be used in branding across their website and social media marketing.
Sounds pretty awesome, right?