31 Tips on How to Start Branding Your Business with Social Media on a Tiny Marketing Budget

Man on computer with a play button using net flag to attract and capture likes and hearts on social media

When it comes to branding your business, social media can be a powerful tool – but only if you use it correctly. Many businesses try to do too much on social media and end up spreading themselves too thin. Others don’t do enough and fail to reach their target audience. In this blog post, we will discuss how to create a social media strategy that will help you achieve your branding goals without breaking the bank!

First and foremost, it’s important to understand what social media can and cannot do for your business. Social media is a great way to connect with potential and current customers, but as you grow, social media should not be the only channel you use to reach your audience. In other words, don’t put all your eggs in one basket!

That being said, social media can be an extremely powerful branding tool if used correctly.

31 Tips on How to Start Branding Your Business with Social Media on a Tiny Marketing Budget
Summary of the growth of social media and its importance on branding
In this guide, you’ll learn the following
  1. What is a brand?
  2. What is branding?
  3. How to start branding your business with social media on a tiny marketing budget?
  4. Tip 1: Know your audience and look for them
  5. Tip 2: Find the right platform
  6. Tip 3: Use relevant hashtags
  7. Tip 4: Focus on one social media platform when starting out
  8. Tip 5: Create quality content
  9. Tip 6: Update your social media profile regularly
  10. Tip 7: Try different platforms
  11. Tip 8: Start a content strategy for branding with social media
  12. Tip 9: Plan your editorial calendar for branding with social media
  13. Tip 10: Create content that will interest them
  14. Tip 11: Repurpose content appropriate for the audience you target
  15. Tip 12: Maximize your content
  16. Tip 13: Encourage engagement
  17. Tip 14: Use hashtags correctly in every post
  18. Tip 15: Be creative
  19. Tip 16: Be genuine and transparent when posting on social media
  20. Tip 17: Write as you talk on social media posts and comments
  21. Tip 18: Post visual content on social media platforms
  22. Tip 19: Use tools to help with scheduling and managing your social media accounts
  23. Tip 20: Use appropriate image sizes for different social media platforms
  24. Tip 21: Take advantage of social media features
  25. Tip 22: Post relevant content useful to your target audience on social media
  26. Tip 23: Stop selling, start serving your audience
  27. Tip 24: Become micro famous in groups and communities relevant to your industry
  28. Tip 25: Create valuable content in the fastest time possible
  29. Tip 26: Use social media paid ads to promote helpful content
  30. Tip 27: Monitor your social media activity regularly
  31. Tip 28: Take advantage of social media analytics
  32. Tip 29: Use paid advertising wisely
  33. Tip 30: Find influencers who can help you reach your goals
  34. Tip 31: Be consistent on branding with social media
  35. How would you build your brand with social media?

Before we dive into the tips and strategies of branding your business with social media, let’s discuss a bit about brand and branding.

What is a brand?

Before you can start branding your business on social media, you need to understand what a brand is. A brand is more than just a logo or a name – it’s the perception people have of your company. It’s important to create a strong brand identity that reflects your company values and mission statement.

Your brand identity is what will make you stand out from your competitors. It’s important to have a clear understanding of your target audience and what they are looking for in a brand before you start creating content on social media.

This is a brand in a nutshell. If you want to go deeper, check out this article, What is a Brand.

31 Tips on How to Start Branding Your Business with Social Media on a Tiny Marketing Budget

What is branding?

Branding is the process of creating a unique identity for your company. It involves developing a consistent look and feel, your brand voice, as well as messaging, that reflects your company values and mission statement.

Your social media strategy should be tailored to your target audience. In other words, you need to know who you’re targeting before you start posting content. You can use demographic data (location, age, gender) and psychographic data (interests, behaviours) to help you determine who your target audience is.

How to start branding your business with social media on a tiny marketing budget?

If you’re a small business owner on a tight budget, you may be wondering how you can effectively brand your business using social media. Luckily, there are a number of ways to do this. Here are 31 tips on how to get started:

Tip 1: Know your audience and look for them

Who do you wish to work with and who has the problems that need your service or product to solve them? What type of audience would you like to serve or work with?

Knowing one’s audience is one of the biggest roadblocks to the growth of most new businesses. Here are 5 steps you need to take to understand your audience before going for the right social media platform.

31 Tips on How to Start Branding Your Business with Social Media on a Tiny Marketing Budget

It’s important to find out what type of audience you want to target in order for your business to be successful. Once you know what type of customer you want, the next step is finding ways to connect with them on social media.

For example, if you are looking to help Human Resource Directors with leads of quality candidates, you may want to do more branding activities on Linkedin.

Tip 2: Find the right platform

Not all social media platforms are created equal. It’s important to find the platform (or platforms) that are most popular with your target audience. There’s no point in being on a platform that not many people are using!

LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. These are only a few of the most popular social media platforms – there are many more out there. Here’s a cheatsheet on which is the best social media platform for your business:

31 Tips on How to Start Branding Your Business with Social Media on a Tiny Marketing Budget

Tip 3: Use relevant hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to connect with potential customers who might not be following you yet. When used correctly, hashtags can help you reach a wider audience and build brand awareness.

However, it’s important to use relevant hashtags that are related to your business. Using too many hashtags or irrelevant ones can actually do more harm than good!

Tip 4: Focus on one social media platform when starting out

When you’re first starting out, it can be helpful to focus on one social media platform and really master it. This will help you create better content and connect with your target audience more effectively.

Once you’ve mastered that platform, then move on to another one. Don’t try to do everything at once – it will only lead to frustration and a lack of results.

Tip 5: Create quality content

Quality content is key when it comes to branding your business on social media. If your content isn’t interesting or engaging, people will not want to read or share it.

In order to create quality content, you need to know your audience and what they are interested in. You also need to be creative and find new ways to market your business.

Tip 6: Update your social media profile regularly

Your social media profile is your opportunity to make a good first impression on potential customers. It’s important to keep your profile up-to-date with relevant information about your business. This includes adding new blog posts, articles, images, and videos.

Make sure that everything on your profile is consistent with the branding strategy you’ve put in place.

Tip 7: Try different platforms

Once you’ve established your brand awareness on one social media platform, the next thing is to look at another social media platform to do the same thing. Social media is not just made up of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. There’s also Reddit, Quora, Indiehackers and more.

There’s no need to recreate content or start fresh new content from scratch all the time. You can do this by repurposing your existing content and tweaking them for the appropriate platform.

For example, your long posts created to be posted on Facebook have to be shortened to 140 characters to be posted on Twitter or split up into multiple Tweet threads.

By trying different platforms, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience and build your brand even further.

Tip 8: Start a content strategy for branding with social media

Creating a content strategy is one of the best things you can do for your business. This will help you stay organized and on track with your branding goals. A content strategy will also help you produce quality content that is relevant to your target audience.

When creating a content strategy, make sure to include the following:

  • The type of content you will create
  • Who your target audience is
  • What platforms you will use
  • How often you will post/create content

Tip 9: Plan your editorial calendar for branding with social media

An editorial calendar is a great way to keep track of your content strategy. It will help you plan out your content in advance, which will make it easier to produce quality content on a regular basis.

When creating an editorial calendar, make sure to include the following:

  • The type of content you will create
  • Who your target audience is
  • What platforms you will use
  • How often you will post/create content

Tip 10: Create content that will interest them

Your audience can only stay interested in your business if they feel like they are getting quality content from you on a regular basis. That means creating more content than just one blog post or Instagram post a day! Make sure that the content is relevant to your target market so they will feel like they are getting something worth their time.

Tip 11: Repurpose content appropriate for the audience you target

You’ve got to spend a little money to make money with social media marketing, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend an unlimited amount of money. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to repurpose content for your business that will save you time and money. For example, if you have an article or blog post that is appropriate for the audience you want to target, consider sharing it on your social media channels. This way, people who may not know about your business yet will see it and potentially become customers.

Tip 12: Maximize your content

The more content you share on social media, the more likely people are going to be interested in your business because they feel like they know you better when they see your posts frequently. This means posting videos, articles, photos and more! Just make sure that when posting these types of content (especially photos), you include a link back to your website at the end of the caption so that those who don’t follow you can still find out more about your business.

Tip 13: Encourage engagement

As a small business owner, it can be hard to get engagement from customers without paying for followers or likes. But there are ways! One way is through contests or giveaways that require people to comment or answer in some way before entering the contest or giveaway. Encouraging engagement will not only help grow your following but also show others that they have something in common with you.

Tip 14: Use hashtags correctly in every post

What are hashtags?

Hashtags are a way to group together similar posts on different topics. People use them to find other content they might be interested in. For example, if you live in Wisconsin and post a picture of your cat with the hashtag #cats, then people searching for cats would find your picture and follow your account.

To maximize your marketing budget, use hashtags in every post. Hashtags can be used to find new people interested in your brand, as well as reach out to other brands for potential partnerships. For example, if you’re a fitness company, you could use the hashtag “#fitfam” and post pictures of all the people working out at your gym. You’ll be able to find new customers and potential partners through this hashtag.

Using hashtags correctly

Hashtags are a great way to get your content shared by others. They also allow you to find relevant conversations that you may not have found before. It’s important to use hashtags correctly, though, so you don’t just add any hashtag. They may end up being irrelevant information to those who are not interested, this can hurt your branding rather than help build it.

When deciding what hashtag to use, think about the topic of your post or video. You want to use a hashtag that is related to the subject of your post and isn’t already trending. If you think it will be relevant, then go ahead and use a trending hashtag as well.

Tip 15: Be creative

It goes without saying that being creative is important when it comes to social media marketing. But don’t just think about it from a creativity standpoint! Your creativity will come into play when coming up with different ways to promote your business on social media. One key way is by using emojis. Emojis are an excellent way to express how you feel or what mood you’re in or just something funny you want to say. You could also use emojis in place of words or phrases in a tweet or Instagram caption! That way, people who don’t speak English will still know what you mean and what you want them to do. It can come off as humorous and get more attention than using only text

Tip 16: Be genuine and transparent when posting on social media

The most important thing when it comes to social media is to be genuine and transparent. People can see through fake posts and they will appreciate your honesty. Be authentic in everything you do, from the photos you post to the captions you write. And if you make a mistake, own up to it! We all make them, so there’s no need to try and hide it. Just apologize and move on.

People want to follow businesses that they can trust and that feel like family. So show them who you are behind the scenes! Post pictures of yourself and your team working hard or just goofing around. Customers will appreciate the transparency and will be more likely to engage with your content.

Tip 17: Write as you talk on social media posts and comments

When writing posts and comments on social media, write as you would talk. This will make your posts more personable and relatable to followers. They will feel like they are talking to a friend, rather than a company. And people prefer to buy from friends, not faceless corporations.

Be sure to respond to comments and questions as soon as possible! You don’t want customers feeling ignored or that their opinion doesn’t matter. Show them that you appreciate their feedback and are willing to listen (and take action if needed).

Tip 18: Post visual content on social media platforms

Visual content is more engaging than just text, so be sure to post photos and videos on your social media platforms. This type of content is more likely to be shared by followers, which will help you reach a larger audience. And don’t forget about using GIFs! They are a great way to add some humor into your posts and get people talking.

Tip 19: Use tools to help with scheduling and managing your social media accounts

There are many tools out there that can help you schedule and manage your social media accounts. This will allow you to save time by not having to log in to each platform every day. There are also tools that can help you track how well your posts are doing.

One such tool is Hootsuite. It’s a great way to see all of your social media activity in one place. You can also use it to schedule posts and track your analytics. Another tool you could use is Buffer. It’s similar to Hootsuite but also has some great features, like the ability to share other people’s content.

Both of these tools offer free and paid plans, so you can choose what works best for you and your budget.

Tip 20: Use appropriate image sizes for different social media platforms

When posting visuals on social media, it’s important to use the appropriate size and format for each platform. For example, photos on Facebook should be a minimum of 1200 x 630 pixels. And photos on Twitter should be a minimum of 1024 x 512 pixels. If you’re not sure about the image sizes for each platform, there are many sites that can help, like this one.

Tip 21: Take advantage of social media features

Each social media platform has different features that you can take advantage of. For example, Instagram has Stories and Reels. These are both great ways to share behind-the-scenes content or short videos with your followers. Facebook also has Live Videos, which is a great way to connect with followers in real time.

Be sure to experiment with different features to see what works best for your business. You may find that one platform is better for promoting your products or services, while another is better for connecting with customers.

Tip 22: Post relevant content useful to your target audience on social media

It’s important to post relevant content on your social media accounts that is useful to your target audience. This could be anything from blog posts, infographics, or images. When followers see content that they find useful, they are more likely to share it with their friends and followers. And this will help you reach a larger audience.

Tip 23: Stop selling, start serving your audience

When promoting your products or services on social media, it’s important to stop selling and start serving your audience. This means providing them with valuable content that is relevant to their interests. If you focus on selling, people will tune you out and you will miss out on the opportunity to build a relationship with them.

People buy from businesses that they know, like, and trust. So if you can build a strong relationship with your target audience, they are more likely to buy from you when they are ready to make a purchase.

Tip 24: Become micro famous in groups and communities relevant to your industry

One way to reach a larger audience on social media is to become micro famous in groups and communities that are relevant to your industry. This means becoming an expert or thought leader in these groups and providing valuable content that people will want to share.

When you’re known as an expert in your field, it can help you attract more followers and potential customers. It also helps you build trust with potential customers, which can lead to more sales in the future.

Tip 25: Create valuable content in the fastest time possible

When it comes to creating content, it’s important to do it in the fastest time possible. This means taking advantage of tools and resources that can help you write or create visuals quickly.

For example, you could use a tool like Canva to create visuals quickly and easily. You could also use pre-written blog posts as a starting point for your social media posts.

If you have a limited budget, this is one way to get the most out of your money.

Tip 26: Use social media paid ads to promote helpful content

Social media paid ads are a great way to promote helpful content to a larger audience. When you use paid ads, you can target your ads to people who are most likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Paid ads can be very effective, but they can also be expensive. So it’s important to consider your budget before you decide to use them.

Tip 27: Monitor your social media activity regularly

It’s important to monitor your social media activity regularly so you can see what’s working and what’s not working. This means looking at things like the number of likes, comments, and shares your posts are getting.

You should also pay attention to the engagement rate, which is the number of people who are interacting with your posts divided by the number of followers you have.

Monitoring your social media activity will give you a good idea of what’s working and what’s not so you can make changes as needed.

Tip 28: Take advantage of social media analytics

Social media analytics is a great way to track your progress and see how well your content is performing. Most social media platforms have their own built-in analytics tool that you can use.

For example, Facebook has Insights, Twitter has Analytics, and Instagram has insights. These tools will show you things like how many people saw your post, how many people clicked on it, and how many people engaged with it.

This information can help you improve your social media strategy and see what’s working and what’s not.

Tip 29: Use paid advertising wisely

Paid advertising can be a great way to reach more people quickly, but it can also be expensive. It’s important to use paid advertising wisely and target the right audience.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with different types of paid advertising to see what works best for your business. Just be sure to track your results so you know what is working and what isn’t.

Tip 30: Find influencers who can help you reach your goals

There are many reasons you might consider using influencers to help promote your business. With the right influencer, you can reach a much larger audience than you would through traditional marketing channels.

The great thing about influencers is that they’re usually more engaged with their followers because they usually have a personal connection to them. For example, if you hired an influencer who has kids, her followers are likely also parents. This means that when she posts on social media about something related to parenting, she will likely have a better chance of reaching those people versus someone who doesn’t share that connection with her followers.

Influencers are also becoming more popular because they often have large followings across different social media channels. This means that if you work with an influencer and he or she shares one of your posts on Facebook, it will be shared across their other networks as well – which makes it easier for your content to go viral!

Tip 31: Be consistent on branding with social media

In order for people to remember who you are, it’s important to be consistent with your branding on social media. This means using the same logo, colours, and fonts across all of your platforms. It also means posting regularly and engaging with your audience.

If you can’t commit to being consistent, it might be best to not bother at all!

How would you build your brand with social media?

Now that you know how to use hashtags, what are some of the best ways to use them?

Hashtags make it easier to find content related to your business on social media. It can also help you reach influencers who can help you spread the word about your business. By using hashtags in every post, you are making it easier for people to find your content. The more people see your content, the more likely they are to follow you and interact with your posts. And the more interactions you have, the higher your post will rank in search engines.

Now that you know how to start branding your business with social media, it’s time to start getting creative!

Featured image from: Online illustrations by Storyset

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