The crucial role of social media as a branding tool

In recent years, more and more companies — particularly those run by younger entrepreneurs — have recognized the potential of social media as a branding tool. Despite this, social media is still widely underutilized by many businesses.

This article will encourage you to look at the power social media has when it comes to branding your products or services successfully.

Why social media works for branding: It's all about trust

Let's run a little thought experiment: Let's say that you go to a restaurant and you want to order an iced tea. The restaurant has three different flavors of iced tea: raspberry iced tea, sweet tea and normal iced tea.

You ask a friend — whose taste in food and drinks you almost always agree with — which iced tea is the best, and your friend tells you it's the raspberry iced tea. Then, a stranger taps you on the shoulder and says "don't listen to them, you have to try the sweet tea! It's killer! Trust me." Who do you trust? Which iced tea do you get?

If it were us, we'd go for the raspberry iced tea every time for one simple reason: trust. You know your friend, and you know that you almost always agree with their tastes in food and drink. The stranger? Not so much.

Once upon a time, people would only look to their immediate friends and family when it came to purchasing advice. Today people look towards their friends and family, yes, but they also look towards another source: social media influencers.

According to research, over one-third of consumers will believe what an influencer they follow says about a brand over what the brand says about itself. Couple this information with research from 2015, which revealed that brands made $6.50 for every dollar they spent on influencer marketing - sponsoring social media influencer to endorse their brand - and you can get an idea of just how powerful social media can be as a branding tool.

The harsh truth is that people will trust individuals they know or know of - friends, family and influencers - long before they trust your company, no matter how good your branding is. And it's this trust in influencers that makes social media such an incredible branding tool.

Social media marketing - be like Nike and ‘just do it'

Nike has been on the cutting-edge of branding for a while now. Although the brand may have garnered more media attention for its powerful ad campaigns featuring figures such as Colin Kaepernick and Serena Williams, the company has also been pouring time - and money - into social media marketing.

In fact, Nike even has an influencer program that it uses to sponsor creators with as few as 5,000 followers on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Pinterest and Twitter. Due to this influencer program, Nike has created a pervasive social media presence for the brand that is put in front of millions and millions of eyes each and every day.

What were the results of all this influencer marketing? Well, Nike saw a revenue of $38.935 billion in 2018, a 9.86 percent year-over-year increase.

In conclusion, by using social media as a branding tool, your organization can dramatically increase its brand image and revenue. If you're searching for a branding agency capable of helping your organization reach its fullest potential, look no further!

Here at flourish, we specialize in innovative, cutting edge branding that will help your organization unlock the influence and potential it needs to propel your business forward. To learn more about what flourish can do for you, click here.

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