Your Social Media Positioning: Your Best Move In today's digital age, social media is an essential tool for all businesses. Using it can help you build relationships, increase sales, and connect with your customers. However, you must...

In today's digital age, social media is an essential tool for all businesses. Using it can help you build relationships, increase sales, and connect with your customers. However, you must understand your social media positioning to succeed on social media.

Brand Positioning Explained

In 1969, advertising executive Jack Trout coined the phrase "positioning." He defined it as how advertising influences a product's perception in the consumer's mind. Essentially, brand positioning is about how customers perceive your brand.

But what about social media positioning? Ideally, this is how you want your target audience to perceive your brand. In social media, it will determine how you create and share content, how you engage your audience, and how you measure success.

Without a precise social media positioning, you're simply winging it. By doing so, you will waste time and resources on unproductive activities. However, when executed correctly, social media positioning can help your brand gain new customers, build relationships with existing ones, and increase visibility.

The following are five types of social media positioning to consider:

• Market positioning. It emphasizes how your brand can meet a specific market segment's needs. A luxury car brand can market itself as the "car for the discerning driver," for instance.
• Product positioning. Positioning based on unique features and benefits makes your product or service stand out. For example, a new laundry detergent might claim to get clothes clean and soft even when washed in cold water.
• Brand positioning. An overall image, or personality, is the focus of this type of positioning. For example, an apparel brand might position itself as a brand for stylish and confident women.
• Price positioning. Your brand's pricing strategy is the focus of this type of positioning. Budget airlines, for instance, may position themselves as the cheapest airline.
• Competitor-based positioning. Positioning like this is all about how your brand compares with your competitors. A coffee shop might advertise that it has the "best coffee in town," for example.

The key to social media positioning is to remain consistent across all channels, no matter what type you choose. By doing so, you can create a brand identity that resonates with your target audience.

The Importance of Social Media Positioning for Your Brand

Big brands invest a lot of time and money to build their brand identity. Think about Apple. Even without its name, its iconic logo is instantly recognizable. As such, it embodies all of the company's values.

In addition, it has become synonymous with outstanding design and innovation. Everything about its brand is consistent, from how its products are designed to the language it uses to the packaging of its retail outlets.

Of course, this didn't happen by accident. To build such connections with the brand, the marketing team worked hard.

In some cases, however, this kind of connection could not be built for years. After all, there is no such thing as a one-time effort regarding brand positioning. As a process, it is ongoing. But, statistics indicate that brands that invest after positioning increase sales by ten to twenty percent.

To put it another way, in order for your business to succeed, you must have a social media strategy for managing your brand positioning to reap the following benefits.

Differentiate yourself from the competition.

Today, businesses need to stand out in a crowded marketplace more than ever before. Companies can do this with the help of social media positioning.

How? The key is to define their unique value proposition and to communicate it effectively to their target audience.

Generate leads and sales.

It is possible to generate leads and sales through social media. For example, you can run contests and giveaways on social media to drive traffic to your website.

Provide customer service and support.

As an alternative to traditional customer service methods, social media can also be used to provide customer support. Customer relationships can be strengthened if businesses respond to customer inquiries and concerns in a timely and helpful manner.

Build credibility and authority.

Your target audience will see you as credible and authoritative when you regularly share high-quality content on social media. By doing so, you increase their trust and likelihood of doing business with you.

The following are some additional benefits of social media positioning:

• Increased brand awareness. In order to increase brand awareness among your target audience, you need to position your brand correctly on social media. As a result, more people will know about your brand.
• Improved customer engagement. Engaging your customers through social media can also help you improve your business. Creating relevant content makes you more likely to engage your target audience on social media. Increased sales and customer loyalty can result from this.
• Improved SEO. You can also improve your SEO by positioning yourself on social media. By sharing high-quality content on social media, you can improve your website's SEO rankings. When people search for keywords related to your business, they will find your website more easily.

The importance of social media positioning cannot be overstated if you are serious about growing your business. When you craft your social media presence carefully, your brand can establish itself as the go-to provider for your target audience. In addition to raising brand awareness, it can also lead to increased customer engagement, lead generation, and SEO optimization.

How to Develop Your Social Media Positioning

The following tips will help you position yourself on social media.

Define your brand.

What do you consider to be your core values? How do you distinguish yourself from others? Are there any qualities you would like to be known for?

In order to develop your social media positioning, you must first understand your brand.

Identify your target audience.

On social media, who are you trying to reach? What are their interests and needs? Identifying your target audience allows you to tailor your content and messaging to their needs.

Don't forget to take into account the platforms your audience uses. If your target audience doesn't use a specific platform, investing a lot of time and energy in it doesn't make sense. Finally, monitor your progress and make adjustments as needed to your strategy.

Determine your unique selling proposition (USP).

How does your brand differ from the competition? In what ways do you adhere to your core values? Are you able to provide a value that no one else can?

Your social media content will be able to communicate your unique value proposition once you know what it is. Your USP should also serve as the foundation of your social media strategy.

Set clear goals for your social media presence.

Take time to think about what you want to accomplish with social media. Is your goal to generate leads, drive sales, or promote brand awareness?

Setting a goal allows you to track your brand's growth more efficiently. Companies sometimes hire social media managers to handle these accounts, as these goals are vital.

Choose the right social media platforms.

Each social media platform has its advantages and disadvantages. As such, various platforms are better suited for different types of businesses.

Here are some examples:

• To provide customer service, schedule tweets on Twitter.
• Target business leaders and entrepreneurs with LinkedIn posts.
• Showcase lifestyle products using Instagram.
• You can schedule posts on your Google Business Profile to reach a local audience.

Create consistent content.

In order to be effective on social media, your content must reflect the brand's overall identity and messaging. To do this, you should use the same tone of voice, visual style, and overall branding on your social media platforms.

By developing a social media calendar, you ensure that your content is scheduled consistently as well.

Provide value to your posts.

Be careful not to become a company that focuses only on its own interests. Consider launching a campaign that highlights your consumers instead.

You can, for example, post stories about your employees that inspire you. You might also want to keep track of global events and find a way to incorporate them into your brand.

For different purposes, create multiple profiles.

A company or organization can have multiple profiles on a social media site. In addition to targeting specific markets, these profiles allow brands to deliver relevant content to the right audience.

For example, sports teams can have multiple Twitter accounts: an official profile, a mascot account, and a merchandise account.

Be active and engaged.

It is important to remember that social media is a two-way street. In other words, it's not enough to just post content and expect people to engage. Your audience needs to be engaged and active as well.

Consider asking your existing customers questions, responding to their queries, soliciting feedback about your product or service, or hosting a contest based on their requests or interests.

Also, use voice, language, hashtags, memes, and emojis that reflect the brand's voice, align with the company's strategy, and help shape the brand's position on social media.

Use social media analytics.

Tracking your progress and seeing what's working can be done with social media analytics. As a result, you will be able to adjust your social media strategy accordingly.

Conclusion

Social media positioning is an important aspect of social media marketing, but it is often overlooked. It is important to establish your social media positioning early in your social media strategy to ensure the success of your social media strategy.

FAQs

What is social media positioning?

The process of social media positioning involves creating a unique social media identity for your brand. By defining your brand's values, personality, and target audience, and then communicating these things through social media, you can effectively connect with your customers.

Why is social media positioning important?

In order to build brand awareness and engagement, social media is an essential tool. To succeed on social media, though, you must first understand your brand's positioning. Your target audience will be more likely to take action if your content resonates with them.

How do I position my brand on social media?

For social media brand positioning, here are some tips:

• Define your brand's values. In what ways does your brand stand for these values? How do you want your customers to know about your brand?
• Develop a brand personality. How do you want your customers to perceive your brand? Are you friendly and approachable? Professional and trustworthy?
• Identify your target audience. What kind of customers do you want to attract? Do they have any interests or needs?
• Create content that aligns with your brand positioning. You should ensure your content reflects your brand's values, personality, and target audience.
• Use social media to engage with your audience. Interact with comments, answer questions, and participate in discussions.
• Measure your results. To see if your positioning is working, track your social media analytics.

What are some examples of good social media positioning?

Good social media positioning can be seen in the following examples:

• Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's prides itself on offering high-quality, affordable food in a friendly, approachable atmosphere. People feel part of Trader Joe's community when they see funny memes and relatable content on social media.
• Dollar Shave Club. As a disruptor of the shaving industry, Dollar Shave Club aims to revolutionize the market. The company frequently uses humor and irreverence to convey its value to its followers.
• Nike. As a brand, Nike encourages its consumers to live a healthy lifestyle through its products and services. Inspirational stories and imagery are often featured on the company's social media channels.

How can I improve my social media positioning?

To improve your social media positioning, follow these tips:

• Review your brand's values, personality, and target audience. Is this information still accurate? Make sure they are up-to-date if not.
• Analyze your social media analytics. What content resonates with your audience? Which content isn't?
• Experiment with different types of content. Be open to trying new things.
• Be consistent with your messaging. The content you share on social media should reflect your brand's positioning.
• Listen to your audience. Keep an eye on what your social media audience says about your brand.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Samson Katt; Pexels; Thank you!

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