Building an Identity with Social Media

With any brand that chooses to seriously engage with social media as a communications tool, the challenge that is given is to recognise each site as a separate platform upon which an overall brand story and image can be constructed. The issue is that each platform has an identity and a pre-existing style of communication that now influences people’s perception of any brand that exists within that environment. So, to use social media a brand needs to examine what possibilities their brand has in the context of individual platforms. The vastness of Facebook, the shrunk down nature of Twitter, the ephemeral nature of Snapchat, and the photo album-ness of Instagram, these all offer different methods of communication that can be used to their fullest potential by any brand that takes the time to understand them. Often, brands will simply repeat their communications across their respective platforms, and while indeed the identity or aesthetic that comes across should not be altered, there should be a sense that the brand is engaging with each platform individually and not simply copy and pasting. The slightest in approaches for each social media tool can make a difference in appearing like a brand who takes the power of these platforms seriously. So, to use social media for your brand, understand it by using it yourself, but, don’t be one of ‘those’ people on social media. You know who I mean.