A Re-Brand Is More Of A Makeover Than A Face Lift
In today’s world of digital domination, your business's image is completely controlled by your social media presence. Your aesthetic is what defines your brand to the public. According to Statista, 78% of the U.S. population has at least one form of social media. Outlined below are 8 key steps for re-branding your business’s social media. Before undergoing a major re-branding, you have to understand just how much time this is going to take.
It is no longer just posting a photo once a week to your business's Instagram profile- it’s curating creative content to stay relevant. It’s summarizing your vision in 240 characters. It’s projecting your image on a 1080px x 1080px photo. In this blog, Hollywood Branded examines eight steps for re-branding your social media and the effect your content has on consumer engagement with your business.
What Does "Re-Branding" Mean?
The Economic Times defines "re-branding" as the process of changing the corporate image of an organization. It is a market strategy of giving a new name, symbol, or change in design to an already-established brand. The idea behind rebranding is to create a different identity for a brand, from its competitors, in the market.
8 Steps to a Re-Brand and a Re-Vamp
1. Identify Your New Target Audience
Not saying to toss aside your loyal consumers, but there is always room to expand- especially if your business is consumer-focused. Consumer-focused marketing is the process of determining customer needs and wants in order to drive the working force behind the company’s products or services. How do you reach your consumer target market? By simply breaking down these categories: what age group are you targeting? Where else do they shop? How do they communicate? What platform will we use to reach them?
2. Identify New Tone/Voice to Best Reach Them
Using the last question from the above step, we can ease into phase two: what platform should we use to reach our targeted consumer audience? Is your business more image focused? Meaning, can you rely on a series of visuals to capture the goal of your business? The key here is to make your social media feel personal. Even though you are potentially reaching thousands of people, your voice can make it sound as if your product was made just for a single individual. Using audience analysis can benefit your business. Think of Netflix’s “Recommended for You” page- you can do that on social media too! See: Social Bakers 9 Ways Audience Analysis Can Transform Your Marketing
3. Get Rid of Any Previous Photos That Do Not Match That
If you’ve chosen to rely on Instagram as your primary form of social media, you have to start at the beginning. Toss any photos that don’t capture your brand, own the re-brand, and address the change. Let your audience know that you’re in the process of switching some things up to stay current.
4. Look for Inspiration/Create Mood for Direction
Pinterest: the holy grail for social media content inspiration. Create a mood board (an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept) that fully captures what direction you want to head in. Follow other accounts that also express your goals.
5. Create an Aesthetic for Content Creation
This is the easiest step: take the inspiration that you’ve gathered from above, and post it! Make sure you’re not posting anything that violates Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter’s copyright laws, so creating original content is always a good idea. Host an in-house photo shoot that relates to your business and toss on subtle filters that make your page look cohesive. (Tip: a great app to use is UNUM. You can create grids with your visual content that show you what to post where, when to post, and who will see the things you ‘gram.)
6. Use Hashtags to Reflect New Direction and Who You Want to Reach
Hashtags are a great tool to utilize. Consumers find content through hashtags. Promotions are made through hashtags. Using the Instagram business profile option can actually show you how many people saw your page through hashtags.
7. Post/Plan Posts as Often as Necessary for Brand/Audience Engagement
We revisit UNUM. UNUM tells you when to post a photo so it reaches a maximum audience. If there is room in your budget, you can also pay to have your post sponsored and you can reach an even larger audience for specific posts. You don’t want to over-post and annoy your audience, so it is recommended by SocialBuddy to post between 1-2 times a day. ReQueue is another beneficial app that allows you to schedule social media posts so you don’t have to think about it. 
Photo Credit: CoSchedule
8. Watch Competitors with Similar Feeds
Your business is unique, and your social media should be too. Make sure you aren’t copying competitors' feeds and that your content is distinct to your brand. Think things are falling too closely together with your competition? You can do a minor re-brand of content without having to re-brand your social media again. Fresh is always best!
Think of Your Re-Branding as Another Form of Spring Cleaning
Before embarking on your rebranding journey, assess how much room you have in your budget, how much time you have to dedicate to this, and how necessary it is to your business. Do a minor test run by downloading UNUM and switching to a business profile on Instagram and Twitter and analyze the given information. If everything points to a re-brand, use these steps to make the process go as smoothly as possible! Hope to see you on the ‘Gram soon!
Be sure to check out these other Hollywood Branded blog posts for more tips and tricks on how to manage your social media:
- 5 Tips For Social Media Marketing In The Wellness Industry
- 5 Ways To Make Your Brand Stand Out To A Social Media Influencer
- Why Brands Can Benefit From Micro-Influencer Partnerships
- How To Implement An Influencer Marketing Strategy That Works
- 3 Insights To Create Affordable Influencer Marketing That Sells
And if you're interested in taking your social media a step further, be sure to check out Hollywood Branded's info-graphic on how to connect your brand with social influencers.
