Social media plays a crucial role when it comes to building your brand online – it allows you to be visible and available in the virtual world so you can expand your success in the real world. If you were to look at the most successful brands across social media there is a common thread – they all have consistent branding. Being both visible and available isn’t enough. The success of your social media efforts will suffer greatly if you do not have consistency in your messaging and visual branding.
Consistency is one of the most important, yet overlooked elements in marketing. You wouldn’t purchase a billboard that has a completely different look, feel and message then the television spot you’re currently running. Then why would you want your company sending mixed messages on different social channels? You wouldn’t. It’s important that your company’s tone, message and image are consistent throughout not just your traditional media outlets, but throughout your entire media ecosystem.
5 reasons brand consistency is important in social media:
1. Strengthens Brand Recall
The reality is that people don’t make their buying decisions instantly. Instead, they take their time to research and evaluate all of their viable options because they reach a conclusion. This is one of the reasons brand recall is so powerful and should not be taken lightly. Your goal as a company should be to make brand recall easy for your consumers.
2. Shows Professionalism
Brand consistency shows that you take your business seriously and that you have committed to a public image.
3. Eliminates Confusion
Competition is fierce and consumers are more powerful than ever. If you can’t provide them with the value they seek, they will move onto someone else without hesitation that can. In order to increase your chances of a consumer choosing your business over someone else’s you need to eliminate any potential confusion. For example, If we used “Mittcom” as a Facebook page name, we shouldn’t be using “MittcomAgency” as a Twitter handle. This would not only create a lot of confusion for our audience and fans, it would weaken our brand recall rate and make it harder for people to find our social media pages. The more frictionless you make a consumers purchase path, the greater your chances are of obtaining their business.
4. Separates you from competitors
In order to develop a successful branding strategy your business needs to stand out. Allow your branding to emphasize what you have that your competition doesn’t. Ingrain this into your consumer’s minds by delivering consistency throughout your images and messages.
5. Maintains Brands Personality
If you’re a company like Pixar that appeals to the light-hearted, you should be light-hearted throughout all your social media platforms. This includes everything from your daily postings to your profile photos and cover images. You want to avoid the “split personality” problem that many brands face on their social media channels. People should be able to determine your brands personality regardless of the platform they find you on.
Takeaway
Social media brand consistency is very important because it allows people to verify the authenticity of your communications. Most companies already do this for their traditional media platforms but fail to tie it into their social media marketing initiatives. Now, this doesn’t mean that all of your communications need to look absolutely identical, but it does mean your key messaging and visual branding should be clearly identified. Strong consistent branding reinforces your identity and drives positive sentiment and brand affinity. – both critical components in a customers decision making process.
