What Is Social Media Brand Building?

Ask a lot of marketing “experts” what social media marketing is all about and they’ll look at you as though you’ve just fallen off Mars.

“It’s all about branding!” they’ll tell you. “Nothing builds a brand faster, better, stronger than social media.”

Ask them what exactly that means though, and they’ll look confused.

That social media can “help with branding” has become a mantra. It’s something that every business owner with a Facebook page or a Twitter account says when asked why they spend time tweeting and updating.

They’re right – even if they don’t know it. But here’s what branding on social media really means…

Social media gives a business one aspect of branding: the most important aspect.

It doesn’t give a company universal recognition. Twitter won’t make the name of your business known from Bogota to Bangladesh in the way that Coca Cola is known.

It won’t give you a fancy logo. Nike didn’t find its swoosh on Facebook.

And it won’t turn your one-man business into a multinational with its own helicopter pad overnight.

What it will do though is give you trust – and that’s what branding is all about.

That’s the goal of being recognized around the world. That’s why firms invest in easily identifiable logos. That’s how they grow into multinationals.

Buyers don’t just know who they are, they trust them to deliver the goods. They know that when they hand over their money, they’ll never get less than they paid for.

That trust is built firstly by creating a great product. No amount of brand-building is going to help if buyers try your product and find they don’t like it. You have to deliver first.

But that trust is then maintained by making buyers understand that you’re on their side, that you’re one of them and that you care about giving them what they want. Traditionally, that’s been done through advertising. On social media though, it’s done through authenticity.

Create an honest relationship with your market, show them who you are – show that you care – and you’ll win their trust. That’s the kind of branding help that social media brings businesses.