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Brand Building in the Age of Social Media
In the current digital age where Social Media has infiltrated every aspect of the society and plays an important role in communication, both Brands and consumers are of the opinion that it is now a significant component of our everyday lives. What started as a desktop experience has shifted to apps that runs on portable devices, which means consumers can take their communities that were once geographically isolated with them wherever they went.
As social media companies grew their user bases, the way consumers interact with brands began to take shape. it created an avenue where consumers can discover new products and services, interact with brands and also relate with them. Brands benefitted from this leveraged interaction with an increase in brand awareness, brand engagement, lead generation and customer satisfaction.
Branded Content & Ads
In today’s modern world, where various social media companies offer numerous niches from online chatting and advertising to photo and videos sharing, it has created an avenue where brands can easily engage with their audience without directly meeting them.
Previously, as an important aspect of their marketing strategy, brands invested billions into the ‘Branded Content’ and ‘Ads’ strategy with the notion that it would leapfrog the traditional means of marketing and forge interactions and relationships directly with their consumers or target audience. This worked for some brands whilst others are still missing the mark.
A great branded content campaign can help brands to establish rapport with their consumers or a new target audience, in terms of entertainment, engagement and emotionally resonant content but this has to be incorporated with the right strategy and culture.
Whilst brands have put their faith in branded content and ads campaigns for the past decade, the rise of new technologies and changing algorithms have allowed audiences to opt out of branded ads campaigns, this has made it harder for brands to break through to their target audience. Therefore, to succeed requires brands to break through to the culture.
Brand culture
Presenting the right brand culture and personality encourages trust and engagement, it connects with audiences at a more human level and helps in bridging the gap between customers and a brand. The goal with branding is to ensure that a positive perception is always maintained by your audience even if you’re not actively marketing your brand.
Creating cohesion across all platforms whilst interacting with audiences at a human level is essential for a successful branding campaign but brands might find it difficult to present a consistent brand experience on all channels that reflects their main values, mission and goals due to the ever-evolving environment.
Brand Cohesion & Awareness
Brand Awareness represents how familiar or how well your brand is recognised by a target audience amongst others. In a world where consumers rely mainly on reviews, feedbacks, extensive researches and brand credibility, trust goes a long way by bridging the gap between a brand and the consumer’s loyalty; brand awareness establishes that trust.
Brand Cohesion works hand in hand with Brand Awareness, when both strategies are in place, your brand can reach a wider audience whilst maintaining a consistent brand experience on all Social Media channels.
A Branding campaign is successful when brands consistently deliver on the consumer’s expectations in ways that builds credibility and trust, whilst also evolving with the consumers. First impressions are important for brands, but in order to stay relevant, brands must strive to be connected to their consumers’ lives and patterns of thinking.
To break through in this always evolving world of Social Media, Brands needs look beyond the platforms itself and identify the consumers’ thoughts, wants, needs and solve every puzzle in those needs whilst also evolving with them. Your brand should describe the problems your customers face, guide them to the solutions you provide, and show quantifiable results your solutions bring.
There are usually low success rates when brands venture in the pursuit of impersonal trend strategies whilst involves using the exact same generic trends and strategies thousands of other brands are engaging on. Strategies have to be personal, that is, tailored to each brand and their target audience.
Conclusion
Social Media can be a great avenue for lead generation, creating awareness, reach a wider audience and maintain a positive experience and perception, but as brands jump on the bandwagon, it can be difficult to compete due to its ever evolving nature.
To effectively incorporate branding with social media, social media should not only be used as a marketing tool but it should be used to effectively create a culture, keep audiences engaged, maintain positive experiences and develop relationships. The goal is to seek ways to be embedded into the consumer’s lifestyle.