A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from other sellers’. 

Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and store value as brand equity for the object identified to benefit its customers, owners, and shareholders. 

Name brands are sometimes distinguished from generic or store brands.

What are social media?

Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate creating and sharing information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. 

Users usually access social media services through web-based apps on desktops or download services that offer social media functionality to their mobile devices. 

As users engage with these electronic services, they create highly interactive platforms where individuals, communities, and organizations can share, co-create, discuss, participate, and modify user-generated or self-curated online content. 

Additionally, social media are used to document memories; learn about and explore things; advertise oneself, form friendships, and grow ideas by creating blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites. 

This changing relationship between humans and technology focuses on the emerging field of technological self-studies. Some of the most popular social media websites, with more than 100 million registered users, include Facebook, TikTok, WeChat, Instagram, QZone, Weibo, Twitter, Tumblr, Baidu Tieba, and LinkedIn. 

Depending on interpretation, other popular platforms sometimes referred to as social media services include YouTube, QQ, Quora, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, LINE, Snapchat, Pinterest, Viber, Reddit, Discord, etc. VK, Microsoft Teams, and more. 

Wikis are examples of collaborative content creation.

Define Social Media Branding

Social media branding consistently uses suitable methods to engage with your target audience on social media platforms. The aim or purpose is to boost brand awareness.

Ingredients of a branding strategy.

Purpose

“Every brand makes a promise. But in a marketplace in which consumer confidence is low and budgetary vigilance is high, it’s not just making a promise that separates one brand from another, but having a defining purpose,” explains Allen Adamson, chairman of the North America region of brand consulting and design firm Landor Associates. 

While understanding what your business promises is necessary when defining your brand positioning, knowing why you wake up every day and go to work carries more weight. 

In other words, your purpose is more specific in that it serves as a differentiator between you and your competitors. 

How can you define your business’ purpose? According to Business Strategy Insider, meaning can be viewed in two ways:

Functional: This concept focuses on the evaluations of success in terms of immediate and commercial reasons — i.e. the purpose of the business is to make money. 

Intentional: This concept focuses on success related to making money and doing well globally. 

While making money is essential to almost every business, we admire brands that emphasize their willingness to achieve more than just profitability, like IKEA: IKEA’s vision isn’t just to sell furniture but rather to “create a better everyday life.” 

This approach appeals to potential customers, demonstrating their commitment to providing value beyond the point of sale. When defining your business’ purpose, keep this example in mind. While making money is a priority, operating under that notion alone does little to set your brand apart from others in your industry. Our advice? Dig a little deeper. 

If you need inspiration, check out the brands you admire, and see how they frame their mission and vision statements.

Consistency

The key to consistency is avoiding discussing things that don’t relate to or enhance your brand. Added a new photo to your business’s Facebook Page? What does it mean for your company? Does it align with your message, or was it just something funny that would, quite frankly, confuse your audience? To give your brand a platform to stand on, you must ensure that all your messaging is cohesive. Ultimately, consistency contributes to brand recognition, which fuels customer loyalty. 

(No pressure, right?) To see a great example of character, let’s look at Coca-Cola. As a result of its commitment to consistency, every element of the brand’s marketing works harmoniously together. 

This has helped it become one of the most recognizable brands globally. Even on the surface of its social media accounts, for example, the seamlessness of its brand is very apparent: 

To avoid leaving potential customers struggling to put the separate pieces of your business together, consider the benefits of creating a style guide. 

A style guide can encompass everything from the tone of voice you’ll use to the color scheme you’ll employ to the way you’ll position certain products or services. 

By taking the time to define and agree upon these considerations, your brand will benefit as a whole.

Emotion

Customers aren’t always rational. How else do you explain the person who paid thousands of dollars more for a Harley rather than buying another cheaper, equally well-made bike? There was an emotional voice in there somewhere, whispering: “Buy a Harley.” By providing customers with an opportunity to feel like they’re part of a larger group that’s more tight-knit than just a bunch of motorcycle riders. 

Why? People have an innate desire to build relationships. Research from psychologists Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary best describes this need in their “belongingness hypothesis,” which states: “People have a basic psychological need to feel closely connected to others, and that caring, affectionate bonds from close relationships are a major part of human behavior.” 

Not to mention, belongingness — the need for love, affection, and being part of groups — falls directly in the middle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which aims to categorize different human needs. 

The lesson to be learned? Find a way to connect with your customers more profound, more emotionally. 

Do you give them peace of mind? Make them feel like part of the family? Do you make life easier? Use emotional triggers like these to strengthen your relationship and foster loyalty.

Flexibility

In this fast-changing world, marketers must remain flexible to stay relevant. On the plus side, this frees you to be creative with your campaigns. 

You may be thinking, “Wait a minute, how am I supposed to remain consistent while being flexible?” Good question. 

While consistency aims to set the standard for your brand, flexibility enables you to make adjustments that build interest and distinguish your approach from your competition. 

In other words, “effective identity programs require enough consistency to be identifiable, but enough variation to keep things fresh and human,” explains the president of Peopledesign, Kevin Budelmann. 

A great example of this type of strategic balance comes from Old Spice. These days, Old Spice is one of the best examples of successful marketing across the board. 

However, recently, wearing Old Spice was pretty much an unspoken requirement for dads everywhere. Today, it’s one of the most popular brands for men of all ages.

The secret? Flexibility.

Between new commercials, a new website, new packaging, and new product names, Old Spice managed to attract the attention of a new, younger generation by making strategic enhancements to its already strong brand. 

So if your old tactics aren’t working anymore, don’t be afraid to change. It doesn’t mean it’s working now because it worked in the past. 

Take the opportunity to engage your followers in fresh, new ways. Are there some out-of-the-box partnerships your brand can make? Are there attributes you never highlighted?