If you have yet to build your brand through social media, then you’re missing out on opportunities to grow your business.

Imagine visiting an ecommerce store with no social brand presence. It would be difficult to identify or recognize its marketing messages in the future. Your business will hurt the same way if you don’t create a branding strategy for your social media accounts.

Online stores with a social media presence produce an average of 32 percent more sales than those that don’t. Among the reasons you need to build branding on social platforms, it also builds stronger customer relationships that result in higher conversions. Branding is about more than colors and logos; it’s also about how your business presents itself to the world.

Let’s look at four strategies you can use to successfully build your brand through social media.

1. Pick the right platforms

Your target audience doesn’t hang out on every social platform out there, and chances are, neither do you. It takes a lot of energy and engagement to be proactive on several social channels. If you run a business, it’s important to pick the few where your customers hang out so you can market to them effectively and easily.

The most popular social media platforms include:

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Pinterest

Pick the channels that support your brand image and house your target market. The best way to do this is to know who you’re targeting. From there, you can pick and choose two to three platforms to center your marketing strategies around.

2. Create personas for each platform

When it comes to the platforms your brand is on, you have to remember that your audiences may differ. On Twitter, you might market more to Gen Z while on Instagram, you target millennials and small business owners. On average, 87 percent of marketers say that social media helps them boost their exposure, which is why it’s crucial that you know who you’re targeting on each social channel.

To keep up with who you’re marketing to, you need to create buyer personas for each social media platform. It keeps you organized and lets you create content for each separate account so you’re able to reach your audience more effectively. Spreading the same marketing message to every type of customer won’t do your business any good and won’t increase your conversions.

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3. Stay consistent

The entire point of branding is that it’s unique to your business and makes it easy for site visitors and customers to identify. Building brand awareness starts by creating elements that are specific to your business. If you copy or use components that are businesses are using, how do you expect your audience to easily identify you?

Make sure your social media branding is consistent across all platforms. If not, anyone can visit your profile or page without knowing who you are or what content and products you sell. Using different colors, voices, and tones does nothing but confuse your audience and lower their trust. Consistent branding builds credibility for your business so it generates more sales.

4. Choose a color scheme

With millions of brands in existence, it’s easy to get lost in the sauce. It makes it difficult for your target audience to identify your brand versus so many others, which is why picking and sticking with one color scheme is important.

If you struggle to make your brand stand out or build brand awareness, consider its color palette. If you switch up your brand colors or don’t have a color scheme to begin with, then your audience has to use other components to identify your brand. For some, this is frustrating and a waste of their time. It also does no good for your business conversions if your customers can’t easily identify you in their emails, on social media, and more.

Norwegian coffee roastery Talor Jorgen Coffee uses pastel versions of the primary colors as their color scheme so they’re easily identifiable to their audience:

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So, pick a color scheme and stick with it. You want to make sure that the colors accurately represent your brand and make it easy to guess what it’s about. For example, Hot Topic is a retail store known for its music-related apparel, jewelry, and accessories. Its main focus is on punk-rock bands, and as such, its branding uses a lot of black and reds to give off the right vibe. This invites members of their target audience to step inside their store immediately because they can tell what kind of products and merchandise they’ll see.

Use your color scheme on social for the:

  • Banner image
  • Profile photo
  • Images
  • Videos

Conclusion

Creating a branding strategy for your business’ social media is crucial to boosting conversions, growing your email list, generating sales, and much more. It’s how your audience and customers identify you and continue coming back. How will you build your brand through social media?

Read more: Creative Tools to Your Social Media Branding Efforts