Membership on social media has its perks. Of course, it’s not too hard to become a member–many people have. But when utilized correctly, the social media community can be an incredible group to have at your disposal.
There are a lot of ways to use social media, but in terms of harnessing the sheer power of social media, few uses are as common or effective as increasing brand awareness.
Brand awareness as a blanket term encompasses many different uses though not as many as its parent category, social media. To help give you a better idea of what social media can do for you on the branding front, here are a few ways our team at SMC has used social media for clients to increase brand awareness:
- Prepping for a website launch: A client approached us because he was in the process of launching a web-based business, wanted to grow his audience, but wasn’t starting from scratch upon launch. Despite the fact that he didn’t yet have a website, we were able to curate content relevant to his audience, find the right people to go after, and build a following worth talking to upon launch.
- Expanding into new communities: In another instance, a client that already had a fairly high profile in some circles got in touch with SMC because they wanted to expand. Specifically, they wanted to start getting in front of bigger clients and also wanted to pursue publication opportunities outside of their blog. By helping them keep up a regular drumbeat on their own blog (showing folks that they had lots of good thinkers in their organization) and keeping up a quality presence on social media, we were able to take important steps towards both of their goals.
- Educating the public: Finally, for several clients in verticals from government to nonprofit, we’ve helped spread the word about many different causes, all of which the public knew little about before. The amount of exposure we’ve gotten has varied from client to client, but in all cases, easy-to-read educational blogs, short videos, useful databases, and more published to social media has had a noticeable impact on each client’s growth and educational goals.
Many things are possible with the right strategy and the right execution. Companies shouldn’t expect to get on social media and start posting haphazardly, then start seeing a higher profile or more attention. Brand awareness means little if you aren’t getting in front of the right people, and you won’t gain it unless you’re calculated about what you post. But when you plan properly and execute your plan, the community you have the potential to be in front of–and their impact on your broader brand image–is huge.
Building brand awareness certainly isn’t the only way you can use social media, but in my opinion, it’s one of the best. So if you want to raise your brand’s profile or accomplish goals similar to those we listed above, it may be time to finally give social media a try.
Reprinted by permission.
Image Credit: CC by Rupert Ganzer
