8 Branding Questions For YOUR Social Media Strategy?

Up your social media game by answering these 8 branding questions. Don't put the social media cart before the brand strategy horse..

Related Article: Kevin Hart Social Media Branding?

To excel at social media, you must be a social media expert, right?

While this is true in some respects, having narrow social media knowledge can also be limiting.

A social media-only focus can actually hold back your social media strategy from reaching its full potential. You are building more than a social media presence -- you are building a brand. Social media is not an end unto itself. Vanity metrics -- followers and likes -- may be early indicators of good content, but the true test of social media is business impact. Management will eventually stop paying for social media activity that doesn't lead to bottom line action.

Related Article: Grow And Maintain YOUR Social Media Brand?

Despite the hype, spending on social media has failed to live up to expectations. In 2017, actual social media spending was nearly half of predicted levels. This stems from a continued struggle to show the real impact of social media and to integrate social media with wider marketing strategy. CMO Survey results indicate marketers still rank social media low in its contribution to company performance (46 percent) and low in how well it is integrated with the wider marketing strategy (59 percent). Social media actions, and even plans can exist on their own, but without having an understanding of the larger marketing and business strategy behind them, they could be acting in vain. Are you putting the social media cart before the brand strategy horse?

To help understand how social media fits into the bigger picture of marketing and business, consider the following key questions to help develop a basic brand understanding of your business or organization. The questions emphasize the consumer perspective which is especially important in social media. Answering these questions can help create a broader understanding of a business, its marketing and how social media contributes. They can help you gain more of a branding perspective, speak the language of business and move towards integration and improving ROI.

Related Article: YOUR Brand In The Age Of Social Media?

1. Why Does The Business Exist?

Vision and mission matter to today's consumers. To make money is not a sustainable answer for customers or employees. What does the company behind the product or service stand for, and where is it headed? This could be a focus on solving a greater problem or spreading a bigger message. Maybe the business supports a cause, community or the environment. Perhaps the mission is simply being the absolute best at something specific.

2. How Did The Business Get Started?

A brand's backstory is important. People buy for rational and emotional reasons that can come from an organization's origin story. Show the human side of the business starting in a garage, the founders investing their last five dollars or making a childhood dream come true. Perhaps an event put the cause on their heart, or something they couldn't get as a customer motivated the creation of the company. Even large corporations can benefit by showcasing their humble roots.

Related Article: Tweaks To Elevate YOUR Brand?

3. How Does The Business Measure Success?

Business objectives are where the rubber meets the road. All marketing action, including social media, must help support business needs such as sales, average spend, market share, leads, contracts, awareness, customer satisfaction, retention, referrals, volunteer, or donations. To do this, brand building must start with specific objectives clearly defined. Make sure they are SMART:

--Specific (quantified such as XX percent or $XX)

--Measurable (data you can access)

--Achievable (not too high)

--Relevant (support vision/mission)

--Timely (deadline like X months or X years)

Related Article: Social Media To Magnify YOUR Brand?

4. What Does The Business Sell?

Don't take knowledge of the brand's products and services for granted. Start by literally listing every product and service offering, lines and versions. But then go further to describe each from the consumer's perspective. What is the real value to the customer? Turn product and service features into consumer benefits. Then look for gaps in product lines and offerings from the company, but also its competitors. This can uncover key messages to emphasize and may uncover key opportunities for growth.

5. What Is Happening In The Industry?

An industry overview provides valuable context. Is the industry and category growing or declining? What innovations and trends are important? Are there gaps in offerings? What do consumers care about most? What are their pain points, threats and opportunities? What are the consumer's unmet needs? Once identified, clearly communicate how the brand meets these needs.

Related Article: Why Brands Are Friendly On Social Media?

6. Who Is The Business Trying To Reach?

Be clear on the overall market and ensure you have the right target market. Don't merely identify everyone who could possibly use the product or service. Focus limited resources on the segment with greatest possibility of return. Narrowly define the group most likely to have the unmet needs the business provides. Be specific with demographic (gender, age, income, education), psychographic (attitudes, values, lifestyle) and behavioral (products used, brand loyalty, usage) bases. Who needs the solutions the brand offers the most?

7. Who else targets this market?

Brands are evaluated by consumers against key competitors. Identify several top competitors by market share and sales in same industry and/or by replacement products and services outside the category. What do you offer that is different? Why should they pick you? With this understanding summarize the main distinctions of the brand.

Related Article: Finding YOUR Target Audience On Social Media?

8. How Can You Sum Up Your Branding Strategy?

Understanding your main message focuses effort, ensures consistency and improves integration. Summarize all the answers above into a positioning statement written to the target market. Boil it all down to a main overall message. What is the essence of what the brand means to the target audience?

Now that you have a larger brand understanding, take that knowledge and apply it to current social media presence and actions. Where is the target market active in social media? Look at social networks, messaging apps, blogs/forums, ratings/reviews and podcasts. Look for ways to leverage geosocial, crowdsourcing, influencer marketing, social care, user generated content and paid social media. Identify the top social platforms for the target and then compare to the current business social media accounts. Do you need to make some adjustments based on the target market?

Related Article: Brand Awareness With Unexpected Platforms?

What About Messages And Content?

Are you talking about the right things based on your products and services, industry and competitors? Look at business objectives. Are you driving to the right places and actions that matter? Are you telling the complete brand story? Don't miss out on parts of the mission, vision and backstory that could drive consumer action. Finally, ensure that all social media is integrated in message, tone and look with other forms of digital and traditional marketing communication to optimize efforts. It could be a good time to perform a social media audit.

Guest Authored By Keith A. Quesenberry. Keith is Assistant Professor at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, PA. An expert in social media and digital marketing, he is author of Social Media Strategy: Marketing and Advertising in the Consumer Revolution. Follow Keith on Twitter.

Related Article: YOUR Video Content Is King?

"Being a better social media professional can start with improving your business intelligence and gaining a better understanding of overall branding. Having a strong foundation in branding will lead your social media activities in the right business building direction.

The latest CMO Survey results indicate that the top use of social media by companies is for brand awareness and brand building. Answering these questions will increase your brand knowledge and help improve your social media strategy.." -KeithAQuesenberry

• 

  Post Crafted By:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Salt Lake City, UT. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)

Entrepreneur Social Media Influencers?

Over the past week, Barrett Wissman has been working with the model, social media star and actress Alexis Ren to launch her own brand, REN Active.

Many social media stars have launched merchandise: most is usually the typical banal array of t-shirts, hoodies and caps sold at concerts and events by stars and celebrities. What distinguishes REN Active is that it has been beautifully crafted and designed in the very same minimalist aesthetic and style that her 10 million followers have already come to know from her. Alexis Ren has not only launched products, but a genuine brand with a message.

Related Article: YOUR Social Media Influencer Internship?

21st century society has become accustomed to the newly-formed celebrity of emerging You Tube talent, Instagram "hotties" and blogging fashion and beauty mavens.

Over the past several years, so-called "digital talent" have matured from being the millenial outliers of the media world to being becoming part of daily life for middle America and the rest of the globe. Unlike the awe fans feel for traditional celebrities, actors and pop-stars, followers of social media talent are immersed inside the daily life and routine of the influencers they follow.

Because of this direct relationship between follower and influencer, a global marketplace has developed between brands and social media stars buying and selling their influence over the millions of constituents they react with on a daily basis. An entire economy of agents, agencies, media networks and brand consultants has emerged around influencer marketing. Because technology is so closely linked with social media, never before has it been easier to target any particular demographic or measure the direct success of any influencer-based marketing campaign. In the "good old days," it was just a well-founded guess how successful an expensive ad campaign gracing the pages of Vogue might have been. Today, a brand knows exactly how many consumers have clicked through to, commented on or "liked" any digital social media campaign they have invested in.

Related Article: Steps To Becoming A Social Media Star?

After realizing the power of the newly-minted currency possessed by social media stars, the next logical step in their evolution seems obvious.

They are not only the media and entertainment "pitchmen" of the 21st century, but have the capability of becoming brands in and of themselves.

Much like how 20th century tastemakers Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart became moguls creating media and product brands around their lifestyles through broadcast and print, influencers are poised to create the next mega-brands through social media. Why only do it for others if they can also do it for themselves?

Related Article: The Economy Influenced By Social Media?

Over the next couple of years, major brands will be created by social media stars.

The first wave of internet brands created household names like Amazon, Google and Netflix. The second wave of digital brands was dominated by the onslaught of social media giants like You Tube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. Now, the stage is set for a select cadre of social media stars to transform their massive followings into lasting franchises.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen the brand-building successes of beauty blogger Michelle Phan and actress Jessica Alba. Phan's beauty subscription box Ipsy. has already raised capital at valuations in the hundreds of millions. Alba's now well-known brand, The Honest Company, can be found in virtually every market across the USA. Several social media stars have introduced new brands in the last year that are having unprecedented successes. You Tubing brothers Logan and Jake Paul have separately launched enormously successful merchandise businesses. Beauty and fashion blogger Sazan Hendrix has introduced her own lifestyle subscription box, Bless Box. Bless Box delivers a monthly selection of beauty, lifestyle and home products to not only her loyal fans, but now to thousands of new followers who love the service.

Related Article: High School Dropout Social Media?

Major ecommerce and brick and mortar retailers are now also looking to partner and create joint ventures with social media stars and celebrities to help launch new businesses.

From my own experience representing "new-age" digital talent, Walmart, Jet.Com, Target and even traditional department stores are moving into the game. A new class of incubators, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are also emerging, seeing the opportunity to partner with social media talent by contributing their expertise, capital and management skills to help launch new brands.

Guest Authored By Barrett Wissman. Barrett writes about the entertainment business, culture and the arts. He's an avid entrepreneur, philanthropist and concert pianist and the Chairman of IMG Artists, the global leader in digital brand management and the performing and cultural arts entertainment business. With offices in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. IMG Artists manages digital personalities, celebrities and artists, tours artists and groups of all genres, manages and owns branded arts and lifestyle festivals and events and has an active venue management and project consulting business worldwide. He writes about culture, entertainment, social media and the entertainment industry, the travel and culinary adventures he experience's on the road and the world of philanthropy in the arts and entertainment industry. Follow Barrett on Twitter.

Related Article: 7 Top Social Media Influencers Killing It?

"Will Alexis Ren and her fellow social media standouts be the Ralph Laurens, Oprah Winfreys and Donna Karans of the future?

No one really knows, but it is certain that they will have an impact on the landscape of media, entertainment and commerce in the foreseeable future.."

-Barrett Wissman

• 

  Authored by:

  Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)