If you use social media as part of your brand-building efforts, marketing campaign, SEO tactics, or really any aspect of your professional development, you’ve gotta understand how social media and branding are tied together. Like, before you do one more thing on social media. Like, now!

Social Brand Awareness

Every brand promotes a certain type of awareness. When you think Lululemon, you think of ritzy fit yoga ladies. When you think Budweiser, you think of manly cowboys kicking back on their porch after a hard day’s work. When you think Apple, you think hip, young techies (or maybe just expensive computers 😉

Anyway, maybe you don’t think those exact things, but you think something by default. And that’s because EVERYTHING those brands do they do in a way that aligns with their market, marketing angle, target demographics, products, services, etc. For a social media example, look no further than Tumblr’s funny Terms of Service and read my thoughts about that.

Everything you do on social media should drive in your unique branding angle to your following because your social presence is your one way to prove your company’s “personality.”

Image Branding

All too often I see clients using generic third-party images on their social outlets, or using low-quality logos.

Even if you have to hire a pro, make sure your logos and images are not only original and unique, but high quality. And remember, different profiles use different dimensions, so format each image to match to make sure they’re not blurry.

You’ll notice that on the PuTTin’ OuT Blog all our images are original and unique – you won’t find ones just like them anywhere. They also include the website in the corner so there’s no question where they come from.

All this also goes for simple things like color schemes. My website, social outlets, and profiles all use the same few colors and patterns (black and white polka dots – even on my iPhone :). There should be continuity between everything you do.

Know Your Market

If you’re trying to be the one goofy lawyer in Jackson, Mississippi, then you should be posting funny stuff about law practice. If you’re an eco-friendly maternity apparel company, follow sustainable baby food suppliers on Twitter, or RT something from Jessica Alba’s company feed.

Even your verbiage needs to be branded. When you update your Facebook page, use a consistent voice/style every time. Not to keep tooting my own horn, but the PuTTin’ OuT Facebook Page shows what I mean. For instance, I’ve got to be in “the know” about SMM, so by posting all those hashtags, not only do I help my reach, but I drive in some cred.

The key takeaway here is that your social media presence is an extension of your brand, not just a place to plant links/pics/events. Everything you do online drives your brand’s idea into your follower’s minds, so tread lightly!

That should do it for the basics for now…

Got any more social media branding tips? Please share in the comments!