Launching your own brand?
Here’s how you can stand out from the stalwarts on social media.
If you’re launching a new brand of product or service, it’s possible that you’re entering an already crowded space with a few Goliaths already ruling the roost. While, bringing down Goliath may not be possible for Little David, with the right strategy it’s possible to create your own little kingdom in the internet space.
Create a persona
Right at the outset define your brand’s social media personality. Get your cues from the current pop culture – what do people like? Where does your brand fit in? How does your brand talk to it’s audience. It really works well if you can find a real life embodiment of your brand personality. It helps your team get the right picture together. For example, Fast Track has a tongue in cheek, bold and flirtatious brand persona. It’s very different from every other brand in their space.
Create your own visual style
A distinct visual style for all your creatives will help create a brand recall. Your visual style will pay high returns over a long period as your fan base grows.
Cash in on trends
If you have your ears close to the ground, you’ll find it easy to pick on current popular trends. With every passing year, these trends tend to get increasingly sublime. So, it pays to be quick and get into the flow.
Acknowledge every comment
Be a brand that listens and communicates. It’s important that the people who actually bother to drop you a line feel recognised. Even if some (or many) comments seem really random, it’s a great idea to pop in an interesting open ended question to see if it can lead to some kind of conversation, within the zone of your brand but not necessarily pushing a sale. Most people check the number of comments that a post has received and engaging in a conversation is a great way to push that up.
Have guidelines but not templates
Steer clear of cookie cutter responses and try to be more spontaneous. Many brands have ORM teams handling responses,and in that case invest some time to train them how to handle comments instead of given them pre-created responses to work with. The human touch is essential.
Bolster your online efforts with on-ground activations
Walking out of the online world into the real world goes a long way in building credibility. Make a presence at popular events or venues and focus on creating a fun experience for your audience so they can check you out online.
Promptly handle complaints and negative remarks
I have gone through several brand pages that are peppered with negative comments and experiences posted by customers with no response from the company. Nothing speaks ‘disregard’ louder than this. Don’t shy away from taking up customer issues head on and making a genuine effort to resolve them. Your customers will respect you. In fact, this is a great area for you to stand out in.
Make your customer and employees a part of your stories
Increase the sense of ownership and belonging by talking about your customers and employees at the right time and opportunity. Acknowledgement is a powerful tool that has a positive impact as you go along.
With these pegs holding up your social media plan, you have multiple opportunities to carve your own niche in your space. History is rife with underdog brands that have challenged and even offered stiff competition to the industry leaders. We know you want to be the challenger that breaks the glass ceiling. So develop a great social media culture and reap the benefits.
Reverse Thought Creative Studio is a 360 degree creative digital agency that helps brands achieve their goals through social media & digital marketing. We also create stunning websites, print & digital collaterals and winning videos.
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