Best Practices for Rebranding Using Social Media: Changing a Company Image

This is part two of my three-part series on tactical methods companies can use to carry out rebranding across multiple social media accounts. Last week, I discussed common pitfalls companies face during the process of changing their names on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and how to overcome them. Today, I’ll focus on the steps required to change your company’s image across these social media channels, as well as YouTube and blogs.

It should be noted that rebranding is far more than just a change in visual identity and must be regarded as part of an overall strategy. If a brand has lost its relevance, changing its image will not fix its problems. You can put lipstick on a pig, but it won’t hide the fact that it’s still a pig. If this is the case, the company must reevaluate its answers to those core marketing questions about relevance, uniqueness, value, positioning and why people should care.

However, a branding reevaluation can provide a company with the opportunity to reassess its old, perhaps exhausted, image and move forward by reworking the existing image or adopting an entirely new look to reflect its evolution. Even the biggest companies in the world know that an image must change over time and as their brands grow to maintain relevancy in the eyes of their markets.

Just take Pepsi, for example. Since it trademarked as Pepsi-Cola in 1903, the conglomerate has changed its logo 10 times. Though each change wasn’t individually drastic, the final logo doesn’t bear resemblance to the original. Yet people know what Pepsi looks like at first glance thanks to the tremendous efforts of its marketing team, which goes to extensive lengths to ensure its image is updated across all its channels. Check out Pepsi’s homepage and you’ll see a consistent theme faultlessly carried across all of its social accounts and website pages.

Changing a company’s image on social media is more complex than simply uploading a new avatar or profile picture. Your old image can linger on in other forgotten places, such as your YouTube videos linked to through other social media channels, logos that still lurk on old blog posts and news articles that you may have linked to in the past. While you can’t control all of the content floating around on the web, you must take great care to ensure you update your social media sites where a great portion of your audience likely resides. You must also prepare your audience for the change well in advance, especially if your new company image doesn’t resemble the one with which your audience has become familiar.

It ain’t rocket science

Updating images on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube is quite obvious. On each channel, you can simply upload a new profile image through “Settings” (for Twitter), “Edit” (on LinkedIn company profiles), “Account” (on YouTube) or by clicking on the image (on Facebook company pages). Your blog, depending on if you have a custom design, may present you with some challenges. You may have to contact the business or individual that does your blog design to have it updated. If you have a general WordPress account, you can update your image by following the steps here. Updating account images ain’t rocket science, but you do need a keen eye to spot all of those not-so-obvious places where old content can hide.

A simple checklist

Facebook

• Profile picture
• Photo, video, notes and events tabs that may include old content
• Wall links to old articles (blog post, press releases or news coverage)

Twitter

• Profile picture
• Retweets and other shares of old content that may still be viewable from your stream
• Profile page backgrounds that may include old images
• Other accounts affiliated with the main page, such as help, support, reseller or various language accounts
• Other accounts that are indirectly affiliated with the company’s accounts, such as advocates, employees and other supporters. While you cannot change these accounts personally, you can encourage their owners.

LinkedIn

• Company profile picture
• Careers and products and services tabs, which could include old images, videos and content
• Recent blog posts link, which may display old content.
• Your LinkedIn Group’s image must be updated. This is also a good place to explain the new image to your audience.
• LinkedIn Today is another area where old content may surface. These articles link directly to the sites that published them and so their owners can be contacted if necessary.
• The profile pictures of your employees may contain parts of your old company image and may therefore need to be updated.
• The company profiles of your affiliated companies, such as resellers, may also need to be updated.

YouTube

• Profile picture
• Videos that include old images
• Shares of old content (you don’t have control over this, but depending on your thoroughness, you could contact the sharers and ask them to remove the videos)

Blog

• All old images on the blog, including those that could be hiding within various tabs and posts
• Blog content that could link to content on other channels that includes old images
• Images associated with authors. Sometimes bloggers create an “admin” account that represents the company and assign the company image to the account.

As with company name changes, your audience must be informed of your new company image well in advance. This can be done by sending out multiple status updates and tweets on each of your accounts that tell your audience when they can expect the change. If your company image change coincides with a name change and involves you switching over to new accounts, you must also inform your audience. I suggest you read my previous post that discusses company name changes on social media for more information.

With all of the suggestions above, your level of commitment to your company rebranding will decide how thoroughly you purge each account for old content. I’ve listed all areas I can think of where old images could reside, but the difficulty in retrieving and eliminating all of this content depends on how long and active your company has been on these accounts.

Did you find this post helpful? Did I miss any key places where old content could hide?

Francis Moran and Associates is an associated team of seasoned practitioners of a number of different marketing disciplines, all of whom share a passion for technology and a proven record of driving revenue growth in markets across the globe. We work with B2B technology companies of all sizes and at every life stage and can engage as individuals or as a full team to provide quick counsel, a complete marketing strategy or the ongoing hands-on input of a virtual chief marketing officer.