Branding is all about going beyond simply selling to your audience. Branding involves an emotional connection between a company and its key stakeholders, including customers and employees. For a small business, branding is ultra important when you consider local competition between stores, retail locations and restaurants, for example.
Coke and Pepsi are both soft drink colas. On the surface it’s really quite difficult to tell the difference between the two (although my wife will argue this point). But millions of people consistently choose one over the other because they’re emotionally tied to one brand over the other. It’s more than just the taste they love. It’s a much deeper connection that emotionally engages them. Remember this sentence because it’s the whole key to why social media is so critical in shaping a brand for a company.
The first step in developing this deep emotional connection is identifying with your customer what it is that they like above and beyond just having a good price (you’re lying if you say price never plays a role in your shopping decision). Social media lets you reach out to your audience on a one-by-one basis to deeply understand what motivates their behavior. Use this excellent reference to strategize how you can use social media for your branding efforts: The Social Media Bible
Next consider which social media tool you’re using. Consider Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, for example. Twitter is great to get instant feedback on current events and all kinds of corporate issues. If a company makes a decision to implement something (new logo, new promotion, changed pricing) Twitter allows people to immediately talk about it and get feedback (assuming, of course, the company truly engages in the conversation). LinkedIn is a way for employees of certain brands to network with other professionals and represent the company in a business environment. If you’re thinking of applying for a job at a specific company, you can connect with other employees at that company and develop a relationship to find out much more about that company. And finally, Facebook allows companies to provide excellent entertainment value. Many consumer brands encourage users and customers to engage with their brand by submitting and sharing user-generated videos and other content for specific promotions on their Facebook page. Here’s a good resource on how to leverage Facebook for business purposes: I’m on Facebook–Now What???
Here are different ways companies can extend brand attributes via social media:
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace - Social networking and relationship building
Flickr - Photo sharing with others
YouTube - Sharing videos
Stumble, Digg, Del.icio.us - Social bookmarking pages and online information
LinkedIn - Professional networking
Keep in mind that just because you use social media in your branding efforts, it doesn’t give you a license to neglect your other brand building strategies which involve more traditional marketing (identity, positioning, research, advertising, etc.) and put them on auto pilot. Social media should be used to enhance your brand building efforts.
Here’s a fantastic list of 100 different ways to use social media in your branding efforts, courtesy of Chris Brogan. I can’t underscore enough the importance of his thoughts on conversation and community, which to me are the keys of social media in your brand building.
Social media can also be combined with PR to help build your brand. Here’s a PR Toolkit resource to help you gain excellent media exposure and build your brand through the news media.
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