Social media brand awareness can deliver huge advantages to businesses.
A successful brand awareness strategy can expand your reach, improve your credibility, and dramatically increase your conversions, web traffic, and sales.
With the right approach, all those benefits can translate to big profits and a healthy ROI for your business.
But in a world where nearly 5 billion people upload 2 billion photographs and videos to social media daily, finding a way to stand out can be challenging.
Fortunately, you don’t have to wonder how to get noticed on social media because we’ve got answers for you in the guide below.
I reached out to several industry experts who shared first-hand experience and creative tips for building brand awareness on social media.
You’ll find their tips and success stories below, along with 23 ways to increase your brand awareness on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
What is social media brand awareness?
Brand awareness refers to how familiar and likable your business is on social media. It reflects your reach and visibility but doesn’t stop there. Brand awareness also encompasses your reputation and credibility.
Increasing brand awareness on any social media channel is the first step toward building an audience. It’s also an ongoing process of building, engaging, and converting your target audience so they become happy customers.
Why does brand awareness matter?
Brand awareness is the first step to getting people interested in your business. On social media, it translates into more followers and larger audiences.
Brand awareness also builds your business’s trust and credibility, which makes people much more likely to purchase your products or services.
Finally, a strong brand awareness can make your business stand out in your industry and on social media.
Keep your target audience in mind as you browse the tips below, and you’ll be on your way to creating successful brand awareness campaigns in no time!
25 Super-effective ways to increase brand awareness on social media
The following tips will help you grow your audience, reach, and brand awareness on nearly any social media channel. We’ve included some priceless expert tips, so take notes, bookmark this page, share it on social media — do whatever it takes so you can return any time for inspiration and ideas!
#1 – Understand Your Audience
You probably already have a target audience in mind, but how well do you know them? Check out your competitors, industry influencers, Reddit forums, and other online groups. Find out what your audience wants and needs, and support them with content that engages them.
#2 – Encourage user-generated content (UGC) campaigns
Contests and giveaways that encourage UGC can quickly expose your business to hundreds of new audiences.
“Encouraging user-generated content with branded hashtags or photo challenges can also help to expand your reach and generate buzz for your brand.
For example, a beauty brand might launch a hashtag campaign encouraging customers to share their favorite makeup looks created with a specific product in exchange for prizes.”
Gabrielle Marie Yap, Senior Editor & Culinary Entrepreneur at CarnivoreStyle
#3 – Live video broadcasts
Use live video broadcasts to interact with audiences and gain new followers.
#4 – Publish highly-shareable, non-promotional content
Every time someone shares your content, it exposes your brand to a new audience. Shareable content helps boost your brand’s reach and credibility.
For example, digital marketing agency NP Digital shares marketing tips that appeal to its target audience.
Images, videos, illustrations, memes, and GIFs that are heartwarming, funny, informative, or entertaining are good examples of shareable content.
According to Museum Hacks CEO Tasia Duske, memes are responsible for helping her company’s Instagram page grow to nearly 35,000 followers.
“We were able to quickly grow our Instagram following by thousands (30,000k +,) rack up hundreds of likes per post, earn tons of shares, and make thousands more people aware of our ‘renegade museum tours’ through the power of social media memes.”
Tasia Duske, CEO, Museum Hack
Duske shared a few tips about how her brand developed the viral memes.
“Rather than chase the meme of the moment, we centered our strategy around our own, personalized meme format. Since it wasn’t directly brand-related, it was instantly relatable and attention-grabbing and encouraged sharing — yet, it was still on brand enough that people also learned about our product at the same time.”
#5 Interactive social media content
Publish interactive social media content that engages followers and encourages them to share with friends. For example, quizzes, polls, and surveys are excellent interactive content on any platform.
#6 Partner with influencers
Partner with influencers whose audiences are similar to yours. Experiment with different types of influencers and partner content to learn what drives the most engagement and awareness for your business.
For example, Dunkin’ Donuts partnered with e.l.f. Makeup for a “Wake up and make up” campaign that resulted in 2.3 billion impressions in one day.
You don’t have to be a giant company to create successful partnerships that boost your brand awareness. Micro-influencers and niche influencers often generate higher engagement rates from smaller audiences.
“Influencer partnerships can help you quickly build brand awareness, and a long-lasting relationship with a trusted influencer is invaluable.
Build a group of reliable influencers for partnerships, but keep introducing new ones into the mix to test new strategies and expand to new audiences.”
Rex Huxford, Director of Demand Generation, MD Clarity
#7 – Post consistently at ideal times
You can learn the best times for audience engagement by monitoring your social media insights. If you don’t have enough analytics history to determine your best posting times, you can start with general posting guidelines and improve as you go.
#8 – Share behind-the-scenes videos with your audience
Behind-the-scenes clips are popular because users love seeing the real people behind their favorite brands. Brands love them because it helps to build a personal connection with their audience.
For example, Spread Great Ideas shares a fun video of its “Global rockstar team” on its YouTube channel.
#9 – Experiment with formats
Experiment with a variety of formats to find out what resonates best with your audience.
#10 – Use analytics to guide your content
Increase your content’s reach and engagement by monitoring your insights to learn what sparks engagement and sharing from your target audience.
#11 – Use location tags whenever possible
If you have a physical location, you can significantly Increase visibility by adding location tags to your posts on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
#12 – Optimize your captions
Include keywords and hashtags in your captions to expand your reach on search and other feeds.
#13 – Email marketing
Use email marketing to promote your events, contests, and collaborations: Send an email invite to your subscribers and encourage them to share it with friends.
#14 -Share brand awareness content
At the brand awareness stage, the ideal content is non-promotional and designed to entertain, educate, teach something new, solve a problem, or share a life hack.
For example, the Stallion Express Instagram post below provides helpful information and tips for shipping within the U.S. — without trying to sell or promote its services.
These 14 tips can help you boost brand awareness on nearly any social media platform.
Keep reading to discover platform-specific tips for Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Instagram brand awareness tips
#15 – Run contests as often as possible
On Instagram, contests get about 64 times more comments than any other post type.
#16 – Understand and apply Instagram SEO
Don’t rely on hashtags for SEO – they’re only a small part of the puzzle. Implementing Instagram SEO techniques provides greater visibility in the Explore and Search feeds.
#17 – Use eye-catching visuals
Use high-quality images and videos in all your content, to match the Instagram aesthetic.
“When it comes to creating content for social media, especially Instagram, my top tip is to use the power of visuals to your advantage.
Create eye-catching content that showcases your products and tells an exciting story.
Building a presence on platforms such as Instagram isn’t just about showing off your products; it’s about creating an experience your audience will remember for years.“
Diana Zheng, Head of Marketing, Stallion Express
#18 – Reels, Reels, Reels!
Short-form videos are popular on every social channel, especially Instagram. Whether you post filmed videos or create videos with an app like Canva, Reels can go a long way toward expanding your reach.
For example, NP Digital consistently posts Reels related to digital marketing.
Kimberly Deese, marketing and PR leader at NP Digital, recommends using short form videos to entertain and inform your audience.
“The best way to build brand awareness on Instagram is by featuring subject matter experts in consistent and persistent short-form video posts that provide value and entertainment to the audience while aligning with your brand’s messaging.
These short form videos can make an even bigger impact when they offer unique perspectives on current industry trends, feature text-on-screen, and have eye-catching thumbnail images.”
Kimberly Deese, Digital PR, NP Digital
#19 – Respond to all comments and DMs in a timely manner
On Instagram, engagement is your key to getting in the good graces of its algorithms. Responding to comments on your page and in messages (in a timely manner) helps boost your visibility in its feeds.
Facebook brand awareness tips
#20 – Long videos
Yes, you read that right. Videos over one minute long receive the most median interactions and reach on Facebook.
#21 – Join Facebook groups
Join Facebook groups in your niche and participate: Look for ways to encourage, advise, and support group members.
#22 – Run Facebook ad campaigns
Use its sophisticated ad targeting features to deliver engaging content to your target audience.
Will Yang, Head of Growth and Marketing at Instrumentl, uses storytelling to create an emotional connection in Facebook ads.
“My favorite tactic for building brand awareness on Facebook is running video ad campaigns that tell a story.
In my experience, nothing grabs attention and builds an emotional connection with potential customers quite like video content.
The key is using video ads to showcase your brand’s mission, values, and impact in an authentic, human way. “
Will Yang, Head of Growth and Marketing, Instrumentl
Yang tells the story of a video campaign he once ran for a nonprofit organization that helps underprivileged youth.
“The video followed a student’s journey from a challenging background to graduating college thanks to the nonprofit’s programs. It highlighted the organization’s inspirational work while tugging at viewers’ heartstrings.
We received tons of positive feedback from people who felt connected to the cause after seeing the student’s story. This just goes to show how powerful video storytelling can be on Facebook.”
YouTube brand awareness tips
#23 – Optimize YouTube videos
Optimize video titles and descriptions: to improve your visibility in YouTube feeds and encourage people to subscribe to your channel.
#24 – Invest in high-quality sound equipment
Invest in high-quality sound equipment to ensure that the sound quality of your videos is professional.
Creating a high-quality sound doesn’t have to be expensive. The video below provides excellent tips for achieving high quality sound on a budget.
#25 – Collaborate with other YouTube creators
Collaborate with other YouTube creators to instantly expose your content to new audiences.
Vaibhav Kakkar, CEO of Digital Web Solutions, highly recommends YouTube collaborations for building brand awareness.
“For YouTube, my favorite tactic for building brand awareness is collaborating with other creators in our niche.
Collaborating on content exposes the brand to a wider, targeted audience and adds credibility through association with established names in the industry.“
Vaibhav Kakkar CEO | digitalwebsolutions
As you build social media brand awareness for your business, remember it’s a process.
Keep publishing unique, engaging content on a consistent basis.
Regularly monitor your industry influencers and competitors to discover new trends and learn what’s working in your niche.
Network and collaborate with others in your industry as often as you can.
Along the way, allow your target audience, marketing goals, and analytics to steer you in the right direction.
How to measure social media brand awareness
Determine how well your brand awareness campaigns are performing by monitoring the native social media insights on each platform.
The following metrics help measure brand awareness:
- Reach & Impressions: How many people see your content and how many times is it viewed?
- Engagement: Are people liking, commenting, and sharing your posts?
- Mentions: How often do people tag your brand or use your hashtags?
- Follower growth: How does your follower count increase over time?
- Competitor growth and engagement: Compare your engagement and growth rates to competitors on the same social media platform.
- Off-platform accomplishments: How many people click on your external links, and how does that affect traffic, conversions, and sales for your business?
Consistently tracking the progress of the above measurements will give you a crystal-clear understanding of how well your brand awareness campaigns are performing on social media.
Turn social media brand awareness into profits
Building brand awareness on social media is an ongoing process that requires creativity, consistency, and a deep understanding of your audience. But building awareness is just one part of a successful marketing strategy.
Turning brand awareness into conversions and profits is equally important.
At AWeber, we provide the marketing funnel you need to turn social media followers into customers. You can guide followers along the entire customer journey from one platform that includes:
- Email marketing software with behavior-based segmentation and personalization, and automation that does most of the work for you.
- Landing pages to feature your products, lead gen content, and link in bio hubs.
- All inside an easy-breezy drag-and-drop interface with a massive selection of templates plus a built-in Canva Designer.
- PS: You’ll love our help resources and blog, packed with tips and tutorials to help your business succeed with digital marketing!
Ready to turn your social media success into profits? Try AWeber for free today and start driving traffic, conversions, and sales right away.
The post How to increase brand awareness on social media: 25 tips with expert insights and stories appeared first on AWeber.
April 11, 2024
Original Source https://blog.aweber.com/learn/increase-brand-awareness-on-social-media.htm
