Most marketers are focused on selling, which can be a short-sighted approach. Instead, focus on building brands. You leave an indelible in mass consciousness that will translate to sales sooner or later.

Given the current environment, social media is one of the best, if not the best, way to build brands. According to Statista, 3.76 billion people active on social media, and Facebook is the biggest and the most popular. People worldwide, on average, spend about 144 minutes on social media. Leverage it, and you could make a lasting brand impression.

Doing your homework

If you wish to build your brand through brand through social media leverage, then it pays to do your homework first. Do not go about it haphazardly but plan everything down to the last detail keeping in mind how each social media channel operates. It involves considerable time, money, and effort to plan what image your brand should project. Carry out a bit of research to know your competitors' brand image so you can carve out a niche.

· Spruce up your website. This is where visitors will arrive.

· Use just one profile photo for all social media channels to remain consistent.

· Plan to be regular in your posts and prompt responses.

· Adopt different strategies in line with the target audience's perceptions to create your brand character persona.

· if your logo and company color theme needs a redesign, get it done. It is essential to use an attractive color scheme since signature color, studies show, increases brand recognition by 80%.

· Craft text content, images, and videos to populate your social media pages or to go across as tweets.

Projecting the brand persona

There are many sides to a person's character. Your brand is like a persona and must have different facets to make up an impressive personality. What can you use as facets of your brand?

Informative posts: People want information that is educational or useful. Be a fountain of knowledge, and it builds brand authority to create the right perception in your audience. People love to buy from experts. Maintain continuity by posting informative content in parts, so people wait for your updates. Use simple language and tone. It should never appear you are talking down to your audience.

Friendly, honest, direct

Be friendly with everyone regardless of the tone of their post. It helps to be direct instead of being obtuse.

Humor

Humor helps. You could recount humorous episodes from your life or simply share posts and tweets with a touch of humor. Bring a smile to someone's lips, and you create a positive association. Your audience should think…" Yeah, we are on the same page."

Concern

Show a bit of concern for the current situation and your audiences. Something like "I am deeply moved and can understand how you feel…" by way of response.

Be authentic

Your posts need to be authentic and not lifted from elsewhere. It helps to be consistent and transparent in your messages. 86% of customers say authenticity is a key factor in brand preference.

Creating Trust

A 2019 Edelman study shows that 81% of customers value trust in the brand. A simple way to do it:

· Prioritize human being and relationship over sales

· Respond promptly and try to resolve issues. Even answering trivial questions is important.

· Show examples of what you did right to build trust through social media posts and interactions.

· Get customers to post their content.

· Authenticity builds trust and engenders your brands trusted authentic voice

· Be consistently positive in your attitude with everyone, especially customers on social media.

Tell a story

It helps to build brand associations through storytelling in social media channels. You could recount an incident or a story about your company or an employee and end with associating the good work with your brand.

Specific content for specific social media sites

You have just 140 characters available on twitter to make an impression. Facebook will let you write longer content, and Instagram requires pictures. You get the point. Craft content for each channel separately. Twitter contents need to have a bite. It can be thought provoking or humorous. Facebook content can tend towards being informative or explanatory. Pinterest is where you spread ideas, mostly image based.

If you have a customer on Facebook, it is likely they are on Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and Google Plus. So, if you post content on a topic on Facebook, it helps to have relevant images and videos on Instagram and Youtube.

Rope in customers to tell their story

You can keep talking till you are blue in the face, but a few words from one customer to another will get the work done. Invite customers to contribute to social media pages with their story and let them revel in it. Promote such content and let them earn praise.

Use your social media pages to highlight customer talent

Think of a budding singer or artist who needs exposure. Go out of your way to highlight their talent and take the initiative to request your group to do something for such talent as part of your social media branding activity. “This is one helpful brand” is what they will all think.

Let the influencer talk

A shortcut to giving gloss to your brand is to get an influencer to do the talking for you. People trust celebrities implicitly. Even if they do not, there is a certain snob value they take pride in by following influencers and their preferences.

Crow about your company and brand

There is an old saying that he who is the loudest sells the most or something to that effect. Be modest, helpful, caring, and concerned for your customers or target audiences. However, do not hold back on boasting about achievements on social media, especially a feature that is praiseworthy. If you have made product innovations, launch a video to showcase it. If your company just won an award or an employee earned a prize, then post your corporate video showcasing the event and linking it with how it is all thanks to customers.

It is a slow process. The best way to leverage social media branding is to stay committed across several media channels, not just one. If it is all too much, you can simply leave it to an expert in social media branding.

About the author:

Rakshit is a content marketer at PeddleWeb, an internet advertising company in India. He holds spectacular skills in digital marketing, branding, lead generation, customer retention and few more.

Leveraging Social Media To Make The Best Brand Impression