This week’s article is something that struck me hard in the most unexpected time; during my weekly grocery shopping spree. When you are looking for instant noodles, do you ask for instant noodles, or ask for Maggi?
Back in my country, Maggi is the king (or queen) when it comes to instant noodles. Even though you may end up NOT buying Maggi instant noodles, you are still going to call that as “Maggi”. Folks, that is what I call brand awareness.
So, how do you actually build brand awareness using social media? I mean, you probably heard about building brand awareness using print or native advertising — but using social media?
Believe it or not, it is workable. You can build your brand from ground up using social media.
Here are the top 5 ways to do so, thanks to the power of social media.
Top 5 Effective Ways To Build Brand Awareness Using Social Media
1. Marketing using social sharing
The concept of creating brand awareness using social media has been a household name for ages. You seen brands doing it every – single – day.
So, what’s the secret sauce that makes social sharing so powerful? Most importantly, how do you make social sharing works for your branding? Take a moment to go down memory lane with me, will you?
Imagine you write a great piece of content and that content get shared across various platforms. Influencers around the world started sharing your article and its a no brainer that your click through rates skyrocketed overnight. You web host may even contact you and ask you to upgrade because of that.
What happens when potential readers click on the link and discovered your content? You get instant brand visibility.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is instant brand visibility. Period!
You may be wondering, “Alright Reginald, I get the point. But how do I actually get others to share my content?” — Here’s where platforms such as Triberr and Dashburst comes into play.
Articles shared there are instantly distributed to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. If done correctly (and being shared by the right people), you are going to open multiple doors to the godly brand visibility.
2. Guest posting, social media and brand visibility
Guest posting is the real deal.
Let’s imagine this. Your well-written articles are constantly published on:
- Entrepreneur
- FastCompany
- TechCrunch
- Mashable
- Forbes
When the above happens, you are no longer writing for your audience. Instead, you are writing for their audience. Hundred of thousands of readers flock over to these websites on a daily basis and your article will be discovered one way or another.
Now, take a quick moment to think about this. Will the readers notice your articles? Most importantly, will they notice those articles are written by you?
3. Organizing contests
Love them or hate them — contests will always play a huge role when it comes to building brand visibility on social media. Did you notice the common trend for contest organizers?
You get more points by sharing the contests and hashtags on social media. And when these take place, the magic begins.
Contest participants will start sharing on social media to attract more members (for better score) and this will carry on for the next 10, 20 or more new participants.
When hashtags are selected carefully and shared, it will create a short-term hype which will increase your brand visibility. Most readers would probably have a few hundred friends and the impact of social sharing (we are still talking about contest) will be bigger than life itself.
4. Publishing on LinkedIn Pulse
Years back, LinkedIn Pulse is said to the the crown jewel for many bloggers. You are given invite-only to become a content writer on LinkedIn. And that is not only it. You get access to the (nearly) whole LinkedIn database of users and you are guaranteed to build your brand awareness.
But hey, it is much easier now. Anyone can become a publisher on LinkedIn. All you need to do is to create powerful content to drive those clicks and reads. Once you have those setup, you could pretty much ‘sit down and relax’.
Of course, there will be time where you need to continue to contribute content to LinkedIn Pulse (to maintain your brand visibility) and share the published content on social.
Yes — you should keep your blog updated from time to time but some of the best content should be published on bigger authority sites to further boost your brand’s visibility.
One of the biggest mistakes done by bloggers and marketers is that they do not see the powerful impact when they published content on social platforms instead of their own blogs.
5. Playing the controversy game
Bold, controversy and having your own thoughts — they all represent the same meaning. But some idealist consider them as ‘being stupid and ignorant’.
If you are playing the controversy game correctly, you are going to build massive brand awareness.
Two years back, I published a controversial post on MailChimp and the reasons why bloggers shouldn’t be using it at all. I stated my points and right after publishing it, it got heated up faster than I could imagine. Representative from MailChimp reachout to me and the rest was history.
It wasn’t that bad after all, I created the name of being ‘honest or having a standpoint of my own’. It was great and right after that, brands were reaching out to me for projects etc.
Controversial posts and building visibility through social media is not an easy job. Various call to actions need to be visible in between the posts to encourage comments, debate and opinion sharing. This can be done thanks to social plugins such as TweetDis and Click to Tweet.
Important takeaway to get increase brand visibility through social media
Make no mistakes; these 5 methodologies are used over and over again by influencers around the world. They are not exactly your walk-in-the-park type of techniques but they certainly work like charm.
You are not required to practice every tip shared here but it is important to choose the best one, and focus on it until you achieve success.
I am tempted to hear what you have to say about brand visibility through social medial. Shall we have a date in the comments?
See also: 10 Ways to Grow An Engaged Audience On Instagram Account
