Social Media Branding Guidelines: Everything You Need to Know
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Loading... - louis hannah
- 18 Oct 2022
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Top-performing brands on social media all have one thing in common: They created a strong and consistent brand. And that didn’t happen by accident. The most popular, fun-loving brands have a social media strategy they’re following and superior social media management. That social media strategy includes having strong and consistent social media branding guidelines.
In this article, I’m walking you through social media brand guidelines with a quickfire guide to everything you need to know.
Plus, we’ll look at some brands rocking their branding guidelines.
What Are Social Media Brand Guidelines?
Every company should have social media brand guidelines—a document stating the brand voice, tone, form of communication, style, look, and feel that the brand will use on its social media channels. Put simply, it’s a social media style guide.
When social media followers see the brand on the different social platforms, they’ll instantly recognize the brand if it adheres to those social media brand guidelines.
Why Do You Need Social Media Branding Guidelines?
If you don’t have a social media style guide, creating a social media branding guidelines might just seem like more work to do.
Sure, they do involve a little extra effort, but it’s worth it in the long run.
Here’s why.
· 88% of consumers say authenticity is a key factor when deciding what brands they support. Brands can hone their authenticity by being consistent in their messaging and branding.
· Using a signature color can increase brand recognition by 80%. (That’s great for product sales!) Most people can easily recognize the McDonald’s logo. And for drivers on a highway, those yellow arches mean it’s time to pull off the road for something to eat!
Even without the logo, we still recognize the ingredients and colors! McDonald’s clearly uses a brand template for its social media.
· Brand consistency is making sure that your brand values, image, and messaging are consistent across all channels. Consistency increases revenue by a minimum of 33%. Being inconsistent includes posting too much one week and too little the next. Or being inconsistent about what content goes on each channel.
· Social media branding guidelines keep your team on the same page, even if they don’t work in the same office. One in four Americans now works from home, and that figure is set to increase. That means you need solid “dos and don’ts” in place for everyone to follow in a social media style guide.
· Having social media guidelines also enables you to quickly onboard new employees. This is true for the agency model, too. If I assign a new social media writer to a client account, it’s much better to give them a helpful written social media style guide. The alternative is loads of backwards and forward emails, confusion, and meeting times.
