The Proactive and Reactive Steps to Define Your Brand Through Social Media

One way to think about social media marketing is to divide your actions into two categories: proactive and reactive. Knowing how to prompt certain interactions and how to respond to followers will help you define your brand on social media.

Proactive steps

The most important aspect of social media marketing is sharing content with followers. In this regard, you choose the topic and control the conversation. It's the perfect opportunity to define your brand based on the blogs, articles, and videos you share.

Another crucial proactive tactic is purchasing social ads. Most businesses don't have the organic reaches they thought they had on social media, and need to buy ads to build a following.

Reactive steps

How you respond to followers is just as important as what you say in your posts. A common mistake businesses make in this regard is not taking advantage of the personal element that's present on social media. A recent Business 2 Community article suggests mentioning your followers' names in your responses to build relationships:

"It’s about building relationships that promote engagement and a community mindset around your brand. Relationship building involves following others back, sharing posts you find interesting, and responding to messages and tweets directed at your brand. For example, if a user on Twitter comments on how much they love a product, your brand’s response would be to respond to them by name (mentioning them in the Tweet) and thank them for their mention."

Reputation management is another focus of social media marketing. You should be ready to respond to both positive and negative reviews posted to your accounts. These posts are for everyone to see, so it's imperative that you treat them carefully and show the integrity of your brand.

Many businesses do either the proactive or reactive steps well, but only few do them both correctly. To talk more about defining your brand through social media, or anything else, contact us today.