People often ask me the importance of social branding for companies and brands. I would say it’s exactly what TV and Radio commercials stood for, during the 80’s and 90’s. Although I was quite young back then, I could still remember the impact of those short stories played, watched and heard respectively. And I’m not talking just about the impact on people as consumers, but the feelings and memories those commercials left in their hearts and minds. That is, after all, what drives a consumer’s final choice, right?
Facebook posts, Instagram stories and LinkedIn updates have almost taken commercials’ place, and it will soon be for good. Branding through social media is the new era and has come to make a difference in the market’s feelings, memories and engagement. It’s what empowers organizational growth, net sales and brings out the culture of the people a company employs, in seconds. That is the main reason companies have turned their heads towards corporate and employer branding via social media. Both practices are strategically implemented to convince audiences on a brand’s quality and business potential, not to mention an employer’s credibility.
Now, when it comes to which channels your company should focus on, it mostly depends on each brand you own and industry you fall under, as well as the specific communication strategy decided, and audience targeted.
LinkedIn for example, since this is the medium we are exploring as worth investing upon, is one that serves mostly business objectives and targets audiences that can vary in (millennials are included!). To be precise, LinkedIn was firstly built to serve three kind of needs:
- business/career opportunities,
- networking and
- knowledge sharing.
Up until today, it still serves these needs but has totally taken the game up a notch, by forming 3 main pillars of services; Talent, Sales & Marketing Solutions. Each of you as users, have a different need, closely related to the aforementioned solutions, and can reach out to LinkedIn to build your brand based on those. Hence, you can certainly promote B2B (mostly) services, establish and advertise your brand, look for a career/professional opportunity or offer one.
Why it seems hard?
However, LinkedIn is a hard-to-solve riddle for many. This is plain because, most of you seem to be seeking easier and fastest solutions to build needs and generate leads. Well, this cannot stand with this medium. Time is its passepartout key you will need to master, so as to conquer its full potential. That is why the medium’s organic use vs. paid can get you confused, as to which you should aim for, or will work to your benefit.
First things first, I say. It’s always better to build up your audience organically, educate it, create habits and then invest upon it, rather than spending your financials on content and audience-targeting you haven’t first tested and received feedback from. This applies to any organization you may own and wish to empower with digital marketing strategies; no matter if it’s a StartUp, a small business or a multinational. Remember, the trick is to know your digital audience and that takes time, A/B testing, optimization and surely, afterwards, investment.
In a nutshell
A more risk-assessment, proactive and hard-working type of mentality would work better in regard to utilizing LinkedIn. No fast moves and cold-calling would effectively lead to productivity and return-business. Actually, LinkedIn platform’s algorithms have the hots only for users who believe in a more “members first” attitude and sharing practices towards the community.
Maybe that’s why LinkedIn advertising is so expensive; to avoid companies’ “cold-calling” use and mass approaches. Or at least, this is one reason why.
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