Answering Important Questions About Your Social Brand

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When it comes to working your business and gaining more and more success through social media for your business, it is reasonable that you expect some return on investment (ROI) because of all of the time and effort that you put forth. The ROI may not initially have anything to do with money; however, that is your ultimate goal, just like everyone else’s.

Watching the ROI

You devote a large amount of time and a great deal of effort on your social media interactions. It is only fair that you should want something to show for all of the efforts that you are making. You will want your online connections to read your content and comment on what you have shared. Then you will want those online connections to love your content so much that they want to share it with other people. At that point, your hope is that it will go viral. If it goes viral, many people will read it and comment on it. The more people who are aware of what you have to offer, the better your chances of increasing business. A part of that process (in the earlier part) is people “liking” whatever you are sharing. That is how you gather momentum for your brand, products and/or services. 

When it comes to your social brand, which you can also look at as your social image (or presence), you should be asking and be able to answer some key questions.

  • What are you attempting to accomplish? When it comes to working your social brand, it is important to really understand exactly what you want to accomplish. You should bear in mind that quality is much more valuable to you and your business than quantity. In fact, if you have a huge number of fans and followers, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be successful at selling anything. If one of your online connections likes your offerings, it may be a pretty big leap for them to actually buy what you are selling. You will probably find it helpful (and useful) to look at the connections that you have and then to cultivate those relationships to the best of your ability. They will prove to be very beneficial to you and to your business.  At first, your social media interactions are the infancy stage of your relationships. They are absolutely necessary for your eventual success but they are far from your endpoint. It is very important for you to remember never to give anyone a hard sell, no matter what your relationship is with that person. Nobody will respond positively to that. Instead, concentrate on building a meaningful, fruitful relationship with the other person that will last for a very long time. You must be well aware of how your social brand ties into your relationships and you need to make sure that you create an alliance between the two. If you work your brand properly, you will be engaging other people and they will  be delighted to interact with you. 

  • Are you using what you are learning from your social brand as much as you can? First of all, there is a lot more to the social media channels and how you use them than you may think. They go way beyond merely posting content and sitting back to see how other people react to that content. Each social media channel has tremendous capabilities and you owe it to yourself and your business to become educated about all that each and every social media channel has to offer. After you understand what the tools are, you should take advantage of them as much as  you possibly can (of course, that only means that you should take advantage of the aspects that make sense for your business). There will definitely be a great deal from which to choose. You should also take advantage of an analytics tool. Gathering the analytics is very important and it is the best way to understand what you are doing effectively and what you are not doing effectively so that you can hone your material and efforts appropriately. 

  • How do I recognize if my social brand is successful? It isn’t enough for other people to “like” what you are sharing. It is all well and good but it isn’t enough! What you really want is for them to truly want to connect with you and to express themselves in a way that helps you to really work your material or improve your material, if that is necessary. You really want the next level of communication to become your constant reality with the other person on the other end. The only way to accomplish that is if you have an actual relationship with that person. Otherwise, they won’t tell you how they feel and what they want and need. It is extremely important to remember that when you are interacting with the other person, you must always make them your first priority. It must always be about your ability to solve their problems. No matter how amazing you and your business are, if you are not able to solve their problems, the rest of it won’t matter at all. 

Conclusion

Your social brand and how you present it (and how other perceive it) are critical to your professional success. Your social image is something that may require a great deal of time and effort. Another important thing to remember is that you must always share your story and it must be genuine. Developing your social brand will require a great deal of thought. Your brand must hold value that the other person feels cannot be found anywhere else. Don’t worry. Your efforts will definitely pay off and you will accomplish everything that you set out to do.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a complimentary assessment of your online presence, let’s have coffee.

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Author

  • Michael Cohn

    Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has decades of experience in IT and web technologies. Michael founded CompuKol Communications to help small businesses and entrepreneurs increase their visibility and reputation. CompuKol consults, creates, and implements communication strategies for small businesses to monopolize their markets with a unique business voice, vision, and visibility. Mr. Cohn earned a Master’s degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master’s degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

11 Responses

  1. Paul Lewis says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    Great question. From a personal brand perspective I share the individuals LinkedIn SSI (Social Selling Index) scores with those that have LinkedIn premium accounts and then with each individual to improve certain aspects where they may not be scoring too highly. From a company brand perspective we measure various aspects, from follower growth to engagement, social link clicks through to positive/negative sentiment.
    By Paul Lewis

  2. Linh Johansson says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    Agreed. I like the point about making real connections in the article and also believe in measuring the result against your goals and objectives for that specific channel/campaign. @Lewis, could you tell me a bit more about LI SSI? Sounds interesting, I haven’t worked with it..
    By Linh Johansson

  3. Scott Chacon says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Small Business & Independent Consultant Network
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    I think those are all fabulous points. I looked at some of your other posts as well while I was on your site. Being able to measure ROI is so important to help determine whether you’re spending your time effectively generating content or if your ads are worthwhile. How do you measure the financial ROI of social media? I get that one way to measure ROI is to set engagement goals, but what about financial ROI?
    By Scott Chacon

  4. James David Beck says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Business Analyst Professional
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    You always need to make sure that you define your own personal brand before others create it for you.
    By James David Beck

  5. Jack Salva says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: Small Business & Independent Consultant Network
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    The concept of social brand is relatively new as I understand it. The amount of importance being placed on it is somewhat shocking considering the effort that needs to go into it and the lack of objective quantifiable measurements.
    By Jack Salva

  6. JD GERSHBEIN says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    If the manner in which you represent on social compels and impels others to take some kind of action with you, something is working. Social brand strength is impossible to quantify, but remarkably easy to qualify – that is, through real-world feedback.

    Ideally, positive real-world feedback.
    By JD GERSHBEIN

  7. Linh Johansson says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    Agree with you that positive real-world feedback is preferred! There has been a lot of talk about likes and whether they are a useful metric or not, what’s your thoughts on that @JD?
    By Linh Johansson

  8. JD GERSHBEIN says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    We all want to be liked, don’t we? Likability is one of the more desirable qualities in life and business. On social, the “like” is a metric that can at times be called into question. Mostly, it is an arbitrary, superficial acknowledgment, a roll call of sorts. Many likes come from people who just happened to catch your post during its shelf life on a home page or group discussion and wanted to let you know that they saw it.

    Frequently, there is no motive behind a like. You might not know the reason behind the click. It could be, “Hey, as long as I’m here, I’ll give you a like. This might give me some added visibility within your network, too.”

    That said, we do like our likes. We want to know that our content registered with someone. It is a fight to just get noticed, let alone make an impact.

    On a related note, a like with a comment and/or a share is true community engagement. This is the dynamic that can build a thought leadership platform. Posting high-value content that is liked, commented on, and shared on a consistent basis is what will truly bolster brand.
    By JD GERSHBEIN

  9. Linh Johansson says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    Thanks for your insight JD, good points – that is a question without a doubt; if it’s a like because they liked the content or if it was just for sake of it..
    I agree with you that high value content that is engaged will bolster brands, but ‘shared’ I believe depends on the platform.. For example here on LI the option to share a discussion is not as easy as e.g. FB, you can share a link to a specific post or page but sharing the actual conversation is harder.
    By Linh Johansson

  10. Emilian-Walter Lorenz says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    What I find important is to define “success” BEFORE devising a social strategy. Is it likes, is it engagement, is it reach, sales or something else? It will differ from one company and industry to the next. Luckily with digital, a lot of metrics are trackable and the strategy can be adjusted if the formula for success is determined to be off.
    By Emilian-Walter Lorenz

  11. JD GERSHBEIN says:

    Via LinkedIn Groups
    Group: The Social Effect – the conversational marketing community
    Discussion: How Do You Know if Your Social Brand is Successful?

    To your point, Linh, one can assert what I call “local influence” and elevate within a closed community (such as a LinkedIn group). Contributions to LinkedIn group threads do make it to the home pages of our first-degree connections, and can net you notice from key people in your tribe.

    Social brand builds incrementally and organically.
    By JD GERSHBEIN