Leveraging social media for brand building

In the present scenario, influencing the select target groups has become challenging because of the deep penetration of social media platforms and ultra-conscious customers. Even the brands with enormous market presence struggle to be relevant. All this is simply because of ineffective market planning, strategies framed without sufficient homework and understanding. These irrelevancies can further lead to the side-lining of the brand.

In this article, I have discussed a couple of approaches that can help in keeping your brand relevant and effective.

 1)    Identification of biggest and brightest challenges – While doing so, remember that social media strategies are more like cross country runs and not casual sprints. Hence, define realistically which challenges you would want to get addressed in the short term and long term, while keeping it reasonable and affordable.

2)    Setting up goals to address your challenges – Your challenges can range from increasing brand awareness, higher quality of sales, improved ROI, building a loyal follower base or understanding what your competition is up to, your goals should be in absolute sink with these as they will influence everything ranging from your budget to the type of social network/s you’ll engage.

3)    Audience outreach – Thanks to the social media analytics and an army of demographics tool, you exactly know what and where your audience is consuming your content. This insight should play a vital role in designing content and then putting it on the preferred platform.

4)   Data-driven approach: Always remember, marketing and assumptions is a poisonous cocktail, social media strategy should always be data and statistics-driven.

5)   Peep into the competition: “Whether you're creating a new business plan or revamping an old one, knowing what your competitors are up to can save your business.” - Tim Berry.

One should, at all times, know exactly or as far as possible, what your competition is up to. You may want to employ some third-party tools or may use some off the shelf tools to get insights into your competition. This will help you to get to your own space and away from the competition.

6)   Content is the KING: All social media assets revolve around engaging content. The content should always be in line with your brand goals and address challenges that you derived while designing the social media strategy.

7)    Being on time is a wonderful thing! Customers, in the present scenario, expect speedy/timely and significant responses that are relevant to them. Ensure that someone in your team is always available to answer the concerns about your brand or products after the posts. Most of the customers expect a good turnaround time for responses which can be within 3 hours’ time.

8)    Analyze your results: Knowing what is working for your brands and what is not going so well is the key to any social media campaign. This should be an ongoing exercise for the best performing content as well as not so good content. Fine-tuning your campaign on the basis of these inputs can be groundbreaking.

Hopefully, these pointers will help you keep your brand relevant to your customers and will help you achieve your social media goals.

Feel free to write to me with your feedback and suggestions.