Does your content need to be associated with your logo in order to give it an identity? If so, then you may need to make a few changes. One of the best things you can do for your digital marketing campaign is to develop the same voice and tone across all channels to build Branding Ideas for Singapore firms.

Why is this? Well, it’s about being consistent. Sure, your content may have a human tone to it but your audience needs to be able to instantly associate it with your business every time. It ensures that your content marketing goes more smoothly. The good news is developing a brand voice is pretty simple. Take a look at these tips.

Step 1: Sort Through Your Content

In order to get a better look at what is going on with your brand voice, you need to sort through your current content. This means that you should gather as much of your content as possible–from your website and ebooks to your videos and social media. Analyse the content and figure out which pieces could have easily been written by your competitors. You can then further pinpoint other pieces until you are eventually left with content that is unique to your particular brand. Place each of these unique pieces on a whiteboard.

Step 2: Assign Character Traits

Schedule a meeting with your content creators. Don’t just limit it to a few writers. You want to include all who has anything to do with your brand’s voice. If your company is particularly large, you may include the PR department and your sales team. You can then take time to review these pieces with them.

Try to identify the common themes that are taking place in the copy. Also, try to come up with a personality for your brand. If it were a person, what would it be like? Come up with three adjectives to describe them. For instance, your brand’s personality traits may be humorous, passionate, and unique. You can then further define each of these characteristics. For example, Humorous would be defined as light-hearted, silly, and whimsical.

Step 3: Create a Chart for Your Brand Voice

In this step, you can create a chart for your employees. This chart will give them a more concrete idea about how they should go about crafting your brand voice for each and every post. This is also a way to ensure that your brand voice remains consistent, no matter who is writing the article.

Create three distinct rows. Each row should feature one of your brand’s characteristics. Each row should also have three columns–one that describes the characteristic, and the other to should be the ‘do’ and ‘don’ts’ categories. You could also create another row if you would like to add a few extra characteristics.

Step 4: Explain the Perfect Approach

Once your brand voice has been defined and you have made it as easy as possible for your team to understand, it is time to give an in-depth explanation of the chart. You need to give examples of what you expect from the content they craft.

Give examples of content that exceeds your expectations as well as those that don’t meet them at all. You can even demonstrate how your team can go about revising the copy so that it agrees with your brand’s voice. It is a good idea to provide everyone with a copy of the chart so that they will be able to follow along until it becomes second nature.

Step 5: Continue to Revise

It’s important to keep in mind that your brand voice chart should not be your final chart. This particular tool should constantly be revised. And that’s because your company is bound to evolve and improve over time. It will go through different phases of its life. Whether you phase new competition or you would like to market to an entirely different audience, things will change. And it’s important that your brand voice changes with it.

So it’s a good idea to have a meeting with your team a few times a year to take another look at your chart. Is there an element that is no longer working for your company? Perhaps your editors are noticing that a certain voice is not working for you or cannot be conveyed well. Has the company changed? Or would you like to venture into a new market? Consider these things when making changes.

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Elevate Your Brand Visibility Online Using Social Media Branding

The branding steps discussed above will help you get started. However, understand that branding is a continuous process more like a long-term investment in your company that will ensure that you continue to be visible online.

With more than 4.7 million Singaporeans on social media, it is not difficult to see why businesses spend thousands of dollars on social media brands. If you haven’t started leveraging these platforms to promote your branding efforts, now is the time to spring into action.

What is Social Media Branding

Social media branding refers to the consistent use of the right strategies or methods to interact and engage with the targeted audiences via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The main goal of the interaction is to not only promote your brand but also create awareness. 

By taking advantage of the potent power of social media to communicate with thousands of people at a go, you will build a strong network of loyal fans and generate unlimited leads. Like other marketing campaigns, the branding campaign should be monitored continuously to ensure it’s functional.

Actionable Social Media Branding Strategies for 2021

Did you know that social media has been in existence for about four decades now? But it wasn’t until the inception of Facebook that brands started to take the platform seriously. Before, the companies relied heavily on broadcast ads and print media.

Social media presents a new practical and efficient way for companies to communicate with customers. One of the hurdles in achieving brand consistency across the different platforms. Without consistency, customers will get confused and most likely fail to take the desired action. They will not respond to the content you publish on the platforms as expected.

Therefore, as you start the journey of using social media for branding, it is imperative to make sure that you provide customers the same experience across the different touchpoints. That way, they will easily recognise it when they come across an ad or post on social media or even a TV ad. 

Here are actional social media branding strategies you can start using today to promote your business regardless of its size.

• Work on the Basics

Most social media branding efforts that fail to yield the expected result is failing to cover the basics. Even before you get deeper into this facet of marketing, you need to make sure that the logo, bio, handle, boilerplate, and bio is consistent across all networks. 

That said, some companies adjust the logo styling to match the available photo space and the audience. Doing that is OK but make sure you do not alter it too much. The goal is to make sure that your profile on all the platforms is the same so that people can recognise you regardless of the platform they come across your profile.

As shown above, Burt’s Bees have the same logo for Twitter and Facebook profiles. The banner is also the same, which dramatically helps tell the audience on both platforms that it’s the same company. The banner doesn’t have to be the same on all networks, but it is recommended.

If you decide to use different banners, use one of the many free and premium design tools available online. Even as you do that, make sure that the brand colour palette, imagery, and text match other profiles.

With the basics now covered, you can proceed to the next steps. Be sure to edit and update the profile regularly to continue to enjoy high engagement levels with the customers. Below is a summary of the action steps you should take to cover the basics.

• Carry out a social media audit on all platforms
• Make sure the banner, bios, logos, post cadences, and handles are consistent with the set in-house guidelines
• Post fresh content consistently to keep the audience engaged

Consider hiring a social media manager or outsourcing the posting tasks to an expert to free up your schedule for other business tasks.

• Visual Branding

With the basics now covered, the next thing you need to do is extend your visual branding further on all the platforms, be it Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Make sure that your posts (images, videos, graphics) have the same font and colours. 

When a potential customer comes across your Instagram profile, the pop of colour in the images and graphics should tell them automatically they are on the right page. The overlay text fonts in the videos should be similar to those used in your blog posts. 

As the business grows and actively posts on the platforms, the target customers will notice the consistency in your posts and begin to tie them back to you. They will recognize you even before looking at the social media handle or logo. Such brand recognition is precious and will promote the growth of your business.

Above is a photo of Anthropologie’s Instagram profile. It is best known for its exceptional earthy and pastel colours. Judging by the models’ clothing, the brand intends to create a feeling of airy and light. By sometimes not complying with the norms such as seasonal clothing, their posts get massive recognition on this platform. Note the consistent design approach and font across the story. 

Creating such stories will enhance your brand identity amid the stiff competition for visibility on Instagram. A unique approach will help you stand out from the crowd, so don’t shy away from using visuals that other brands are hesitant to use. 

Here is a summary of what you need to do at this juncture.

• Create a unique visual brand guide to include different fonts and their uses and colours to be used in the images. Concisely, write a visual styling guide.
• Come up with graphic templates for various purposes, such as announcements and promotions.
• Design photos and create videos that radiate the brand’s vision and aesthetics. 

Experiment with different colours, and if you find that a particular font or colour is not working, be sure to change it slowly. 

• Create Marketing Personas

Marketing personas are a true reflection of your brand’s vision and goals. It will vary from one social media platform to another due to the different audiences and system settings. For example, the Facebook audience is older and more mature than the TikTok audience. Therefore, if you post the same content on both platforms, rest assured that the response will not be the same. 

Based on this fact, it is recommendable to create multiple personas for each platform to get the utmost results and spend your budget wisely. The first thing you need to do to achieve this goal is to segment the existing customers based on the social media platforms. 

Twitter, for instance, can be used to engage millennial parents. Use it to popularise upcoming promotions or new products by posting eye-catching images and infographics. On the other hand, Instagram is perfect for targeting small business owners. 

Having a list of marketing persons will help you break down your content ideas appropriately. It will also enable you to adjust the voice and style of the content. You will no longer guess how customers will react to a particular post. 

To get a clearer picture of what we mean by creating marketing personas, check out the Chipotle Instagram account. The brand uses memes to connect with their specific clientele base that uses the platform. The memes are funny and make sense to their customer base, but anyone who has never come across them may feel out of place. 

Here is a summary of the action steps you should take to create marketing personas for social media branding.

• Have defined marketing personas and match them with the respective social media platforms
• Evaluate your social media pages demographics
• Set up listening queries to segment your audience appropriately
• Create stellar content that resonates with the marketing personas

Would you please not rush through this stage? Take the time to put into consideration all the factors to avoid making costly mistakes. 

• Define the Brand’s Tone & Voice

Now that you have the visuals and market personas set, the next thing you need to work on is the brand’s voice and tone. Copy and captions will help you get the job done by giving your social media pages a personality.

For some brands that want to remain super professional, the profile is informative, but brands in the creative sphere can have a profile with a snarky personality. The goal is to ensure that the profile personality matches the goals and vision of your brand.

You probably already have a brand voice if you have been actively doing digital marketing. Incorporating it in your social media branding efforts will ensure that the marketing efforts work in tandem with the branding campaigns. 

When starting, you may be tempted to copy what competitors are doing to engage with their customers. Even though you may be targeting the same customers, you should cease being a copycat. Instead, invest time and resources in research to create your unique tone and voice.

Concisely, your voice and tone guide should have details such as brand persona, catchphrases unique to your company, personality traits as well as vocabulary. Details such use of “client” instead of “customer” when writing copy may seem minor but have significant ramifications on the brand’s overall tone.

As your business grows, you will need to have a team to help you manage the social media accounts. Make sure that they all understand and follow the guide to avoid posting content with disparate perspectives. Such differences will compromise your branding efforts and make it much difficult to achieve the set goals.

Above is a Mailchimp style guide or blueprinting highlighting how their team writes newsletters and creates social media posts. As you can see, it is easy to understand and uses examples to explain the processes. 

Even though the voice and tone guide is an in-house document, it is wise to furnish copywriters with it to enable them to write top-notch sales emails and website content. That way, everyone on your team will be on the same page and working towards the set goals and objectives.

Here is a summary of the action steps.

• Create your brand’s voice and tone guide. Test different writing style options using social media listening tools to understand the target audiences’ needs better.
• Experiment and audit the social media posts to know the areas that need to be tweaked
• Share the guide with the entire team to ensure consistency when writing copy.

• Consider Creating Multiple Accounts 

This social media branding tip applies to large businesses with a diverse array of products or services. Creating multiple accounts for the different products will help you focus on specific groups of customers instead of blasting the whole clientele base with the same emails and ads. 

You not been focussed means that you will spend time creating ads for customers who may not be interested in the product or service you’re offering. Here are ideas on how to create multiple accounts.

• Have a dedicated account for each location. Facebook has a location feature you can activate when creating the pages.
• Separate the customer service and marketing Twitter account based on the number and type of enquiries you receive on each
• Create a mascot account like Manchester United and other famous sports teams
• Create accounts for different departments
• Borrow a leaf from Nike and create accounts based on the audience

GEICO has multiple accounts for different company projects and objectives. The corporate responsibility and general announcements are done through the main account. The GEICO Racing Twitter account is dedicated to the sponsored NASCAR team. This account is commonly used to provide racing updates to followers.

What you need to do:

• Evaluate your audience and offerings to identify the best spot to segment the focus
• Use the same branding processes in each account to guarantee consistency. However, in some instances, you may have to change the tone to match the customer profile. Maybe be more sarcastic when dealing with the young generation and formal with the mature audience.
• Use new generation social media tools to manage the accounts under one roof. 

The market is dynamic, so should you achieve optimal results from social media branding in Singapore. Keep tabs on the changes and trends in the market and adjust how you communicate with the customers in each of the accounts accordingly. 

Measuring Performance of Social Media Branding

Increasing brand awareness on social media is a common goal that every online business wants to achieve. Executing the above strategies and achieving the set goals is a whole different process. It is the tricky part that most entrepreneurs dread.

The above five steps and the examples of businesses actively using social media to expand their brands will point you in the right direction. Soon, you will realise that branding in the modern era is no longer limited to a specific colour palette and logo. It’s about creating the right voice and imagery and maintaining it across all the social media platforms.

Unlike digital marketing campaigns where performance is measured based on the number of leads and organic traffic generated, measuring the performance of social media branding is more qualitative than quantitative. This characteristic makes it a bit complicated to know whether a particular branding effort was a success or not.

However, as you start posting more on social media and applying the five strategies, you will notice changes in your business. Pay close attention to the engagement level and mention how the target audience responds to your posts. 

Share your voice and tone by posting regularly. Create a posting calendar to engage the audience with fresh content every day or several times per week, depending on your schedule and goals. To best understand your audience, we recommend administering a survey and using social media listening tools. 

Strive to learn as much as possible about the audience as possible. The information will help you come up with the right content for each group of customers. It will also save time and other resources that you would have spent on the wrong content.

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Sprout Social is one of the best-known tools for monitoring and managing multiple accounts. The tool will give you a clear perspective of the trends in the networks. You can adjust the report based on dates to see how the audience responded to specific periods when posting a particular type of content.

Finally, create robust brand recognition on social media platforms is not a walk in the path. It takes time and effort, so be patient and avoid taking shortcuts. 

Social Media Branding Mistakes to Avoid 

It’s no secret that a solid social media presence can help brands generate more sales and connect with new customers. The most successful companies in Singapore have a large group of loyal brand advocates who help them generate sales and remain at the top of the food chain.

Already, we have extensively discussed how to do social media branding in 2021. Let us shift gears and look at common mistakes that can hamper the success of your branding efforts. Note that these mistakes apply to all social media platforms.

• Profile Missing Important Details of the Company

The target customers need to learn everything about your brand before placing an order or contacting you for more information. An incomplete profile means that you miss countless opportunities to convert regular profile visitors into customers. 

As you expand your brand via social media, it is vital to make sure that the profile has all the essential details about the company. Your focus when creating the profile should be to provide engaging and informative information that is consistent with your brand’s overall voice and tone. Remember the voice and tone guide we discussed earlier in this article? Use it as a blueprint when formatting the profile.

• Targeting the Wrong Crowd

Segmenting the customer base is essential not only when doing email marketing but also branding via social media. Having a well-structured and informative profile won’t cut it if it’s been presented to the wrong audience.

Concisely, it would be best if you focused on finding followers who are genuinely interested in your brand. Understand when they are mostly online and the type of content they enjoy interacting with to get the highest ROI.

As you continue refining your social branding efforts, you will pinpoint which platforms each group of customers use and channel your efforts there. It’s best to create a solid following on one platform than cutting yourself too thin by focusing on all social media platforms out there.

• Not Factoring in the Strengths and Weaknesses of Each Platform

Yes, all the platforms are for social communication purposes, but each is unique. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and they should inform the social branding strategies that you implement. A huge part of winning via social media is playing to the pros or strengths of the platform.

For example, Instagram is ideal for quotes, high-resolution photos, HD videos, and stories. Twitter is ideal for distributing newsworthy content as well as commentary on industry trends. 

Some content formats will flop on one network but perform exceptionally well on another. Here are few questions to help you understand the strengths and which platform to use.

• What is the current user demographic on the platform?
• Which are the recommended practices for posting, the preferred content type, and frequency?
• What are the unique features of the platforms that can help achieve the goals?

The answers to this question will help customise your branding strategy and content for each platform. Like Google, the platforms continuously change their algorithms, so stay abreast of all updates.

 

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Conclusion

Social media branding is the way to go if you want to scale up your online business in Singapore. Carefully implement the five strategies discussed and avoid the three mistakes to get maximum results from your efforts. 

MediaOne Marketing team can help you with social media marketing and branding. Our services are designed to match the current market trends and data, so rest assured the desired results will be achieved. Reach out to us for more details.