There’s a very good chance that the first (and possibly only) interaction that your audience will have with your brand will come via social media. With the vast majority of consumers spending their time on these platforms, your social media presence could be the difference between becoming a brand that finds success and being just another brand that falls by the wayside.
How branding and social media interact is a topic that covers a number of different perspectives and points of information, but today we’re going to look at how you can impact and improve your brand’s image online.
Here are three ways that your brand strategy and social media strategy can work together for the benefit of your brand image:
1. Choose Wisely.
There are thousands of different social media platforms out there for brands to use, and that number seems to grow every day. It would be virtually impossible for a brand to even create accounts that serve all of these platforms, let alone be successful in any aspect. This is why the first step to integrating social media and branding should be to identify those specific platforms that best fit your brand’s image and brand strategy.
For instance, if you are a consumer brand with strong visual branding characteristics, then visually-heavy platforms like Instagram and Facebook will be the first stops on your social 
media strategy. On the flip side, if your ideal consumer audience consists of a younger demographic, maybe LinkedIn isn’t the place to go.
2. Stay the Course.
Your brand strategy and branding efforts should include well-defined and relevant messaging, which should be present in all aspects of your social media work. This is not a place to try and break free of your what characteristics make up your brand – it’s actually the ideal place to further express your brand character.
This concept should expand to include all aspects of your brand, including your visual brand elements – your logos, images, etc. These are often the first point of contact with your brand, and as such should be formatted to fit the platform, consistent and on-brand across your entire social media presence. It’s not a good look when your Facebook profile picture is a partial image of your logo that doesn’t fit the image box or when you have images throughout your Instagram profile that have no connection with your brand.
Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t be creative or provide new and interesting ways to expressing your brand, but always be sure that you can connect it back to a core brand principle.
3. Think of the Big Picture.
This is an aspect of social media strategy that is often lost – it’s easy to get caught up on the post-by-post mindset, where each individual piece of content becomes its own strategy. There is often a lot of time and effort that goes into creating quality social media content (as it should be), but don’t lose sight of how your audience will connect that content with your brand.
Much like point number two, keep your brand’s overall principles and characteristics in mind and work to create content that doesn’t just show quality itself, but connects that associated quality back to what you want your brand to be.
Some of the best social media brands are the ones that follow these tips, but also find ways to put their own spin to them in order to create and post content that keeps your audience engaged and brings your brand more exposure (in the right way).
Addison Whitney is a global branding firm with a passion for building strong brands.
To learn more about Addison Whitney, visit our website at AddisonWhitney.com, or contact us here.