Branding extends beyond just your website and your marketing collateral. Your specific company branding should also be present across all of your social media platforms as well. Consistency is the name of the game when it comes to marketing, and implementing consistency across all levels of your marketing strategy, including social media, will even get consumers to trust you more.
You might be wondering where to start when it comes to branding your social media platforms - luckily, we’re here to help. Keep reading for five essential tips when it comes to expertly branding your social media platforms.
Choose the right social media platforms
The worst thing you can do when starting out on social media is being on all the platforms. While many business owners and marketers think this is essential to get maximum exposure, it doesn’t make sense for the fact that each platform has a different audience.
Are you trying to target everyone in the world with your products and services? If the answer is no, then why would you be on all the social media platforms the internet has to offer?
If you’re targeting 40-65 year olds, it doesn’t make sense to be on Instagram or Snapchat. Likewise, if you’re targeting a younger demographic, LinkedIn is probably not your best choice.
Think about your target demographic first, and then venture into choosing which platforms might work best for your brand.
Keep your profile picture and biographies the same across all social media platforms
This first tip might seem obvious, but not everyone follows it! You want to make sure that your profile picture on all of your platform is the exact same, but of course ensure you’re always adhering to the different sizes that are needed for each platform.
Use your logo for your profile picture so that your customers can recognize you on whatever platform they might find you on, and can tie you back to other marketing pieces such as your website. Take a look at how Ikea utilizes this tactic across their different social media channels:
Photo Credit: Instagram
Photo Credit: Facebook
Photo Credit: LinkedIn
On top of keeping your logo consistent, you want to make sure that your biographies on all of your social media channels stay consistent as well. For example, Coca-Cola is currently running a campaign in conjunction with Stranger Things, and so Coca-Cola’s biographies have all been changed to reflect that:
Photo Credit: Instagram
Photo Credit: Twitter
PRO TIP: When creating all of your social media accounts, and choosing your social media channels, make sure you are staying consistent here as well. Choose similar social media channels across the board to really amplify your branding!
Use brand colors and fonts in all graphics and photography
This is a big one. Chances are, you’re going to be posting content on all of your social media platforms. Maybe you’re only posting on one social media channel, but you could be posting on more than four!
This is where you really need to align with your design department. If your brand font is Arial, then your team should be sticking to this font when creating social media graphics and not veering into different fonts (unless that is needed for a specific campaign or promotion that your team has already talked through).
Additionally, a great tip for staying on-brand when using graphics is by also utilizing your brand colors. If your brand colors are blue and white, think about how odd it might look to be creating graphics that are yellow and red (again, unless it’s for a specific campaign). You have the opportunity to really nail your branding if you work hard on connecting the dots when it comes to colors and fonts. This will also undoubtedly help your audience with brand recognition as well! This goes for photography as well. Make sure that you keep your brand colors and vibe while you’re shooting new images.
Take a look at Pepsi’s latest campaign for summer and how the color blue we’ve all grown to associate Pepsi with is actively present in this social media graphic:
Photo Credit: Instagram
Kylie Cosmetics does a stunning job of this as well when it comes to the brand's photos for social. They never stray far from the matte pink that characterizes the brand:
Photo Credit: Instagram
Stick to your brand tone and voice
When creating captions and responding to comments, make sure that you are always staying dedicated to your brand tone and voice. Ask yourself a number of questions before putting anything on social:
- Would my brand use this specific word?
- Would my brand react this way?
- Would my brand turn this into a funny situation?
- Would my brand use this emoji in this instance?
Play-Doh’s brand voice tends to always be very sweet and friendly:
Instagram: Play-Doh
Wendy’s, on the other hand, is a bit more humorous and witty:
Photo Credit: Twitter
Once you nail down how you think your brand might sound, make sure you are implementing this same voice across all platforms. Try and come up with 2-3 words that might describe the type of voice and tone your brand might take on. For example, maybe these words would be “warm and friendly.” Or, they might be “humorous and helpful.” Whatever you decide on, make sure to stay consistent once your establish your brand’s online personality!
Stay relevant and true to your key messages and values
Another way to stay on-brand is by staying relevant. This comes into play when you are thinking about what sort of original content you might want to post, and what sort of user-generated content you might want to post.
Would Nike post a photo of a Starbucks coffee on Instagram? Would Dove post a blog about what sort of equipment to bring rock climbing? No, because none of that ties into their branding, or overall marketing strategy.
Social media platforms, although at times seem very casual, should be treated the same as your website. If you wouldn’t post it on your website, don’t post it on social media! By working hard to stay relevant, you will also inevitably stay on brand as well.
Create a social media style guide
An essential step to managing any sort of social media strategy is creating a style guide once you’ve nailed down all of the elements that we’ve already discussed above.
Your social media style guide should include:
- What is on-brand for your brand to post versus not on-brand
- Content pillars to guide your social media schedules (for example maybe your content pillars are user generated content, product posts and educational posts).
- Are your photos and graphics meant to be light or dark?
- Which logo is to be utilized across all platforms?
- What is our brand tone and voice?
- Which hashtags are we allowed to use?
Make sure that everything you put in your social media style guide makes sense, and can easily be handed off to other employees. Check out Instagram’s style guide as an example: Instagram Style Guide.
Need help making sure that your social media platforms are expertly branded? We can help with that!