We all experience an identity crisis at some point in our personal lives, but if a brand has an identity crisis, it needs to recover ASAP, or else it loses potential buyers.
It is important to consistently maintain branding across all marketing channels, including social media platforms. Branding is the essence of your business’s identity. If you get lazy with your branding on social media, it will be harder for your audience to identify with your content, which in turn hurts your overall revenue. Here are some key practices for maintaining consistent branding across all social media channels.
Stay True to Your Voice
Your brand’s voice should be easily identifiable across all social media platforms. Social Media Today defines “voice” as “the wording and images you create for your social media profiles, the copy you write for your posts and ads, the words in the about/bio section on your page, etc.”
Writing style and language are your tools for building a distinguishable voice for your brand. They should be consistent across all of your digital marketing products. In other words, what you post on Facebook should match what you post on Twitter, Instagram, and any other social accounts. Additionally, the voice of every post should sound like it’s coming from the same person each time. For example, if one post sounds conversational, all posts should sound conversational. Throwing in a post that suddenly sounds academic or formal hurts your brand’s voice, making it harder for your audience to identify with it.
Be crystal clear about the voice you want your brand to have and then implement it across all your campaigns. This will make it easier for users to identify and remember your brand.
Include Your Logo in Visual Content
Visuals are powerful tools in social media marketing. Shoppers rely on visuals when making purchase decisions. But regardless of how amazing your photos, videos, or graphics are, without good branding, your message won’t be as effective.
By including your brand’s logo in all your visuals, you can boost brand awareness and strengthen your social presence. All it takes is a small placement at the bottom of your visual (be sure to choose the right color for your logo). Shoppers will know instantly that a visual is your brand’s when they see the logo.
Social Media Today suggests using a tool like TailorBrands if you do not yet have a logo for your brand. Additionally, you should create three versions of your logo that will preserve your brand’s integrity in any visual. For example, you can have both a colored version and a black-and-white version. Having three versions handy makes it easier to quickly brand any visual content you publish.
Keep Your Colors and Fonts Consistent
Once you have your logo, it will be easier to decide which colors and fonts you want associated with your brand. You should choose a distinct color palette and one or two fonts to use consistently in all your visuals, says Social Media Today. Distinct colors and fonts establish familiarity with your brand, regardless of which social platform you’re on. Users will always be able to recognize when content is yours.
Cadbury, for example, incorporates its signature color purple in all of its visuals on Instagram. There’s never any doubt that the content comes from the brand Cadbury.
Be Selective About the Content You Share
Although you need to engage with other social media content to reach more audiences, you also need to be selective about the content you share. Only share content that is relevant to your brand, says Social Media Today. For example, it makes sense for a health and fitness brand to share or like a post with a healthy recipe. It does not make sense, however, for a health and fitness brand to share a post about the latest Mountain Dew flavor. (Unless the flavor makes the drink healthy, but that’s unlikely.)
Think carefully about the type of content you want associated with your brand before you share it. Doing so will create a strong brand presence on social media.
Post Often
Once you have your voice, logo, visuals, and content type nailed down, the next step in maintaining consistent branding is to post regularly. According to Sprout Social, leaving your social media presence unattended is the fastest way to kill your marketing efforts. You need to keep all of your brand’s social media accounts up-to-date to keep your audience interested and exposed to your brand.
The frequency of your posts depends on your audience. You should use analytics tools and trial-and-error methods to determine the times of the day and week your audience is most engaged with your content. Facebook Insights is one example of the many tools available for learning more about your audience.
A Confident Brand
The more consistent your branding, the more confident you will be with all social media content you publish. Audiences like confidence because they associate it with quality and reliability, both of which help boost brand awareness. If your brand is suffering from an identity crisis, attend to it swiftly. As with all tough times, you’ll come out better and stronger than ever.
Written by Anna Hubbel, writer at AdvertiseMint, Facebook ads company
