Entrepreneurs and small businesses often have no time to brand their business, products or services. Sales is most important, they say. The money must come in first, then we can think about spending on branding the product. Social media is free, I can just use social media to promote my business and my products, they triumphantly claim.
This misconception is rather common. Social media is an avenue for you to reach out and connect to your consumers, making the purchase decision journey a two-way street. But without a solid brand strategy and brand promise in place, you are exposing your inconsistent brand to infinitely more people than you can imagine.
Your brand is your foundation. Plan your strategy before putting your brand and your product in front of televisions, computers, mobile phones and iPads. If you don’t know how you are going to play the game, how can you expect to win?
This Harvard Business Review article says that brand building in today’s social media world, your brand promise is ever most important. When the brand promise is right, leveraging social media can catapult your brand to the world stage. Conversely, if you over promise and under deliver, it will be all over social media sites in no time, dealing a crippling blow to your brand.
