Social media is a huge part of any digital branding campaign: without it, nobody knows. From knowing how to extend to the farthest reaches of your audience to grabbing and retaining the attention of your audience, here are 7 useful social media techniques for your branding campaign, regardless of the niche or message.
Be it for a personal brand or digital brand, these 7 social media techniques will help you stay ahead of the competition. I’ll also suggest how to implement these in your branding campaigns.
SEE ALSO: Digital Branding vs. Personal Branding
Let’s begin!
1. USE PHOTOS OF REAL PEOPLE/ YOUR PRODUCTS
Cliché? I think not. This may sound like an obvious thing to do. So, if this did not come to you as an obvious fact, then you seriously need to do some changes around your branding techniques.
Your brand followers deserve to share in the behind-the-scenes part of your brand. There is this feeling of belonging when a client gets to see all the magic that goes on when their favorite product or service is “cooking” something new.
Don’t just use random photos. Post photos that are related to your brand. Keep the followers engaged and coming back for more of what they are already familiar with.
HOW?
ONLY upload quality HD photos of your products on social media. If you have departments, you can rotate group photos each week: featuring each team member each day, all week round.
2. BUILD UP CURIOSITY
Curiosity doesn’t kill any cat unless, of course, you are a cat. First of all, always have your followers curious about what is coming next. This keeps people yearning for “new” stuff from you always. Of course what you post should be interesting. Nothing kills curiosity more than having a different thing from what was expected.
HOW?
“We’re going to introduce a new feature that will allow you to make payment on our website using just your mobile money wallet.”
This is one of the many ways you can build up curiosity and keep your followers expectant.
3. USE THE FOMO TECHNIQUE
FOMO – Fear Of Missing Out. Have you ever had that feeling where you missed out on a very trendy topic? Yes, we’ve all been there.
How you can implement this in your branding strategy is to offer something irresistible and put a timer on it.
HOW?
Let’s say you have a new product coming up. You run a bakery shop for instance and your chef tells you of a new recipe he has discovered. Or, you can share this news on your page and inform customers to sign up for a cool discount.
You can run such a campaign for a week. Any loyal customer (and potential customer) wouldn’t want to miss out on this.
FOMO is at work here. The same principle can be applied to a clothing line shop, restaurant, or even a hotel booking site. Any brand can successfully implement this.
4. FOCUS ON INCLUSIVENESS
No one wants to be left out of the fun. Or maybe you do? Your followers sometimes want to feel part of the whole brand stories. One way you do this is to feature some of your top customers in your posts.
You can do this by way of awarding the top buyers with a free gift and posting it on your social media accounts. Tag them of course.
This helps to incite other customers or followers to want to be featured as well.
HOW?
The point raised above is a good example on how you can implement this strategy successfully in your branding campaigns.
5. CREATE URGENCY
A sense of urgency always has a special appeal to it. Got a new product launch coming up? Inform your followers (curiosity still applies here) then make them aware that the early bird will certainly catch the worm. Make the customer/follower know that the earlier they jump on the train the better:
Make the customer/follower know that the earlier they jump on the train the better: urgent action that requires urgent response.
SEE ALSO: How Effective is Social Media for Driving Sales?
6. BE RECIPROCAL
Often times, we tend to want the follower do something before we give out something free. While this is necessary in some cases, the reverse is also true. Not every follower may be attracted by the former.
Start by giving out something for free. If it’s gonna cost you, give it to a certain number of top followers. The objective is that you want people to have an opportunity to experience your service or product. Then, if they love it, they will surely come back for more. And even more, they recommend it to friends and colleagues. It’s a win-win for all.
HOW?
I call this “The Baiting Technique.”
- Start by looking at one of your top selling products.
- Do a little research in your niche to find out what customers are mostly shopping for.
- Give it out for free.
If you give out something precious for free, you are most certainly going to get it back one way or the other. We do this all the time at my Tech firm GeniusTech Hub.
7. BE ENGAGING
Finally, I cannot stress this enough. There are certain big brand names that have a huge number of follows and page likes, but their engagement is low. When a follower takes time to comment on a post you shared, the best (and most necessary) smart thing to do is to acknowledge them with a “thanks” or some other friendly reply.
Let them know that at least their favorite brand actually really cares. There are so many items to consume on social media. So, if a follower takes time to leave a comment, the least you could do is appreciate it.
Be proactive and make the most out of social media!