Elevate your brand: How to increase brand awareness on social media

Learning how to increase brand awareness on social media could be one of the best ways to accelerate your company’s growth. Around 62.3% of the world’s population is active on at least one social media channel, giving you a phenomenal opportunity to reach new and existing customers.

Establishing a presence on the right social media channels is one of the best ways to ensure you’re reaching new customers, and unlocking new opportunities. 

While boosting brand awareness won’t necessarily lead to immediate sales, it is crucial to ensuring you can capture traffic and potentially convert customers. Awareness is the first thing brands need to generate to begin making sales. 

Today, we’re going to share some of the best ways to increase brand awareness, using your social media presence, and marketing strategy. 

What is brand awareness and why is it important?

Brand awareness is essentially the extent to which your target audience is familiar with your brand’s identity, products, services, and benefits. It basically addresses whether your target market is aware that your company exists, and understands what it can offer. 

It’s a little different to “brand recognition” which looks at whether companies can recognize visual and audio cues used to identify your brand, like your logo, or jingle. 

A high level of brand awareness is critical for every organization. If your customers don’t know anything about your company, they can’t buy your products and services. Additionally, your brand awareness strategy will support other branding strategies.

Once your customers are aware of your brand, you can begin building brand equity, and positive associations with your customers, by demonstrating your values, delivering excellent experiences, and building relationships with your customers.

Brand awareness sets the tone for the entire experience your audience has with your brand. If you can start out on the right foot, you’ll be more likely to pave the way for rapid growth. 

Why use social media for brand awareness?

There are various ways to start building brand awareness, from in-person marketing techniques, like using billboards in local towns and cities, to content marketing strategies. However, social media has emerged as one of the most powerful tools for increasing brand awareness. 

Learning how to increase brand awareness on social media means taking advantage of online channels, teaming with potential consumers you can reach. Keep in mind, by 2027, experts predict more than 5.85 billion people will be using social channels. 

With a social media brand awareness strategy, you can not only reach a massive audience, but start building positive relationships with consumers too. Today’s consumers use social media to learn about companies, their products, and their values. 

Studies show around 90% of people who use social media are following at least 1 business. Moreover, 67% of consumers expect every brand to have a social media presence. 

As a bonus, using social media for brand awareness is a relatively cost-effective strategy. Compared to traditional methods like TV commercials, social media is extremely affordable. Any company can create a social channel for free, and start promoting content. 

How to build a social media brand awareness strategy

Before you start using social networks to boost brand awareness, you need a strategy. Basically, this is a step-by-step plan for how you’re going to use different social media sites to your advantage, and how you’re going to position your brand on these channels.

Here are some of the first steps you’ll need to take:

Step 1: Choosing the right social media channels

There are numerous social media platforms you can use to reach customers today, from well-known options like Facebook, to forum-based channels like Reddit. While you could potentially create social media accounts for every channel, managing them all would be expensive and time consuming.

Instead, it’s best to begin building your social media strategy for brand awareness, by focusing on the right platforms – the ones your customers already use. This means getting to know your target audience and the channels they visit on their buyer journey.

If you don’t already have a set of buyer personas, collect as much information as you can about your customers. Pinpoint their demographic, behavioral, and psychographic data using surveys, market research, and competitor analysis. 

The information you gather about your customers should provide you with insights into which channels you need to use. 

For instance:

• TikTok: TikTok is one of the best channels for reaching younger customers. Around 36% of people on TikTok are between the ages of 18 and 24. 
• Instagram: Instagram and similar visual platforms like Pinterest are excellent for companies in highly visual industries, like beauty and fashion.
• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the go-to social media platform for B2B brands, it’s excellent for connecting with industry thought leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Step 2: Defining personality and visual guidelines

Next, you need a set of clear guidelines to guide how you’re going to share content on social media. Consistency is crucial to building not just brand awareness, but strengthening your relationships with your customers. 

While different channels have different guidelines for the types of content you post, the tone of voice and visual identity you promote should be the same across all platforms. Start by identifying your brand personality, pinpointing the tone of voice you’re going to use, and your messaging strategy.

Create clear guidelines for the kinds of words you want to use and avoid in your social media marketing strategy, based on what you know about your target audience. 

Next, create a visual brand kit, looking at the colors you’ll use in visual content, how you’ll present your logo, and even what kind of fonts, images, and shapes you’ll use. This will help you to create a consistent theme with your social posts. 

For instance, you’ll notice all of Coca-Cola’s posts across social media channels include the company’s core color palette, as well as authentic photographs.  

Step 3: Fine-tune your social media profiles

Once you have your guidelines, and an idea of which social channels you’re going to use, the next step is to build comprehensive profiles. Don’t make the mistake of simply creating an account and publishing content straight away. Your profile needs to be comprehensive to drive results. 

Each social media channel takes its own approach to profiles. On LinkedIn, you can share insights into your company’s histories, accomplishments, and backgrounds. On Instagram, you’ll only have a short space you can use to draw attention to your brand’s values and vision. 

On all channels, make sure you have:

• An excellent bio image: Typically, your business logo. You can also use “cover images” on some accounts, to add extra visual appeal to your profile.
• A memorable name: Ensure your name and social media tags are consistent with your business name, so you’re easy to find.
• An insightful description: Clearly outline what your company does, and draw attention to your brand ethos as much as you can. 

How to use social media for brand awareness: 11 strategies

Now it’s time for the fun part, learning how to increase brand awareness on social media. Notably, while building brand awareness takes time, there are various ways you can quickly draw more attention to your company, and increase your visibility. 

Here are some of our favorite strategies…

1. Create incredible social media posts

This might sound obvious, but one of the best ways to elevate your social media brand awareness strategy is to spend more time making your posts “pop”. Boring chunks of text rarely stand out on cluttered social platforms, even on text-based channels like Twitter. 

With that in mind, look for ways to make your posts more compelling. 

A few options include:

• Focus on value: Strive to deliver value in every social media post. Research your audience, what they’re interested in, and what they’re talking about. Make sure your content is entertaining, informative, or educational. 
• Experiment with different post styles: Don’t just post the same old content consistently. Take advantage of all the different types of media you can share, from photos and images, to infographics, videos, and even carousel-style posts. 
• Create a visual theme: Boost brand awareness with a consistent visual theme that runs through your social posts. For instance, Bloom Nutrition adds elements of pink and green (their brand colors) to virtually every social post.

2. Optimize your captions

Captions are frequently overlooked on many social media channels because they’re not quite as “eye-catching” as videos or images. However, they’re still incredibly important for increasing brand awareness. 

Whether you’re creating social media ads or organic posts, combine eye-catching visuals with captions that include:

• Hashtags: Hashtags are phenomenal for increasing brand awareness. On Instagram alone, using 1 hashtag will get you up to 29% more interactions. Research the right hashtags for your needs by paying attention to influencers and competitors, or using hashtag tracking tools, like Mentionlytics. 
• Humor: Although humor might not work perfectly for every brand, it’s an excellent way to form deeper connections with your audience. People love playful and funny content on virtually every social platform. 
• Keywords: While social media and search engine optimization might not be directly linked, using keywords in your social media posts can make it easier for a wide audience to find your content. Use SEO tools like Ahrefs to find out which terms you should use. 

You can also boost your chances of engaging customers with your captions by asking questions, or you can draw attention to specific products, like ASOS does here:

3. Work with influencers

One of the reasons learning how to increase brand awareness on social media can be hard, is that there’s so much competition on every platform. Sometimes, even if you post amazing content, the algorithms on social media channels still won’t make it easy for customers to find your content.

That’s because posts from companies with more shares and followers generally get priority over posts from new brands. A good way to bypass this issue is to work with influencers. Influencers connected to your industry can help you connect with an existing audience of engaged consumers. 

The key to success is finding the right influencers to work with. The best partners for your company will be people who not only have a large and engaged following, but also share your brand values. 

Remember, you also don’t have to spend a fortune to leverage influencer marketing. Even micro influencers with less than 100,000 followers can drive incredible results. Some studies even show that micro-influencers have a higher engagement rate than their larger peers. 

You can engage these experts in a variety of ways, from sending them free products and asking them to use them in a video, to inviting them to company events. 

4. Listen and respond to your customers

Engagement is crucial to success on social media. However, it can be difficult to generate engagement when you’re just getting started. One way to boost your chances of interactions, and build stronger relationships with your customers, is to actually listen and respond to them.

Although it’s difficult to monitor everything customers might be saying about your brand or products across various social media platforms manually, there are tools that can help with this. 

Social listening tools can give you a real-time insight into everything from customers mentioning your brand, to people talking about competitors. This gives you an excellent opportunity to rapidly respond to product reviews, thank customers for mentions, and even address complaints. 

The great thing about social listening strategies is that it can help you to boost engagement with your audience, and also give you insights into the kinds of content you should be posting. This can make content creation a lot simpler, and more strategic. 

Plus, it’s a good way to ensure you’re not just building brand awareness, but developing a positive reputation in your industry. 

5. Run paid brand awareness ads

While there are many ways to increase brand awareness without spending anything, through organic content and audience engagement, paid ads can give your reach a significant boost. 

Adding paid ads to your social media brand awareness strategy also ensures you can place specific campaigns and content in front of the exact audience you want to reach. This means you can reach out to people in your chosen niche who are most likely to buy your products.

Many social media channels, like Facebook even allow you to choose “awareness” as the primary objective for your campaigns. 

To make the most of your campaigns:

• Choose your budget wisely: The budget you set for your awareness ads will determine how many people you can reasonably expect to reach in your target audience. 
• Create compelling content: Make sure your ad is engaging and exciting. Use visuals, and draw attention to specific offers or deals that will drive customers to your site.
• Use targeting carefully: The more targeted your ads are, the more likely you’ll be to reach the right audience, without spending a fortune on promotion.

Remember that platforms like Facebook also allow you to monitor the performance of your ads, so you can make granular changes based on data over time.

6. Collaborate with other brands to increase brand awareness

We’ve already mentioned working with influencers when using social media for brand awareness. However, influencers aren’t the only people who can give your business a boost. Working with other complementary brands can be another effective strategy. 

Joining forces with another company is a win-win situation for both organizations. You both get immediate access to the other’s audience, and you improve your credibility, by showing your connections with other well-known brands.

Some companies like Instagram and Facebook even allow business accounts to run partnership posts that appear in both pages’ timelines. Like when you’re working with influencers, finding the right people to partner with is crucial in a brand collaboration.

They companies you join forces with should have a similar target audience to yours, but they shouldn’t offer competing products. For instance, if you’re running a beauty company, you might join forces with a skincare or fashion brand who doesn’t sell the same products.

7. Host giveaways and competitions

Few things will generate more hype around your brand than a giveaway or competition. Customers love having an opportunity to get something for free. This means they’re more likely to interact with your brand when they see your social media post.

Plus, you can run your giveaway in a way specifically designed to increase brand awareness. For instance, you can ask your customers to @mention a friend who might also want to win a prize, use a branded hashtag, or like your post and channels to boost your social media presence. 

Another great thing about giveaways, is they can help you create plenty of content for your social media calendar. You can create posts to announce and promote the giveaway, then posts showcasing your prize draw. 

You can even ask customers to share user generated content (such as images of them using your products) for a chance to win your social media contest, giving you more visuals to share in future. 

8. Run UGC campaigns to boost brand awareness

User generated content (UGC) is one of the most powerful resources any company can access. In fact, 79% of customers say user generated content has a significant impact on their purchasing decisions. 

Running a UGC campaign is an excellent way for large and small businesses alike to improve their relationships with customers, increase their chances of conversions, and boost customer loyalty. Plus, they can help you to increase brand awareness too. 

If you ask your customers to tag you or use specific hashtags when they share a photo or post about your products and services, this highlights your company to a range of new customers. After all, each social media user has their own audience and follower base. 

Plus, you’ll have plenty of new content you can share on your own social page to increase your visibility. 

For instance, check out the “Photo of the Week” campaign from GoPro:

9. Take advantage of trends

Trends are massive on every social media channel. They include everything from hashtag challenges on twitter, to major news stories trending on Twitter. While not every “trend” will be relevant to your company and target audience, jumping on the right trends can give your brand awareness a boost.

Generative AI is one of the most exciting topics in the world right now. Simply posting something about generative AI on Facebook gives you a chance to use the #GenerativeAI hashtag, which already has a quarter of a million posts, and excellent levels of engagement.

You can find trends to post about by monitoring your competitors or influencers in your field. Or you can use tools like BuzzSumo and Google Trends to see what people are talking about in your industry. You can even just check out trending news topics on Google’s News section.

Another option is to simply experiment with trending types of content. For instance, every time Instagram or TikTok rolls out a new filter, or a feature like Duet, posts using those features get a lot more attention, and greater promotion on the platform.

10. Share educational content

While many consumers visit social media for entertainment, they’re also looking for valuable, informative content too. In fact, members of the Gen Z community are more likely to use TikTok to search for information than Google. 

A good way to boost your reach to potential customers and new social media users, is to use your content to answer common questions your customers have, and create educational posts. 

You can check out common questions customers are asking about your products and industry using the “People also ask” section on Google, or just by speaking to your sales and marketing teams. 

Then you can create valuable content based on these insights, such as how-to videos, or simple tutorials. 

You can even just comment on common customer problems, like HubSpot does here:

Sharing educational content is an effective way to improve your chances of customers finding your brand on social media. Plus, it’s great for brand building, as it helps to position you as an authoritative expert in your niche. 

You can even save time and money by reformatting existing content (such as your blogs, YouTube videos, and webinars) into educational content.

11. Share a distinct point of view

Often, if you want to build a strong brand awareness strategy, you need to be willing to take risks. Ultimately, you’ll gain a lot more attention from your social media efforts, if you’re willing to be controversial, make a statement, or share unique insights. 

One powerful way to increase brand mentions and brand visibility on social media, is to share exclusive insights, taken from reports or studies you’ve conducted yourself. 

Hootsuite shares snippets from their “Social Trends” reports every year on social channels:

Another option is to simply share your opinion on a trending topic or news story. If your business operates in the advertising landscape, you could share your own insights on the latest stats revealed by another company, or discuss your predictions for future trends. 

The more insightful and unique your content is, the more likely it is customers will share your content for you, improving your reach. 

Bonus tips for your brand awareness strategy

There are plenty of great ways to boost brand awareness through social media. However, if you want your marketing efforts to generate the right results, there are a few extra tips worth keeping in mind. 

When learning how to increase brand awareness on social media:

Always track your results

Pay attention to the results of your brand awareness campaigns. Most social channels will allow you to access valuable insights on your social media profile, into things like customer engagement levels, post impressions, and brand reach. 

Customize content for every channel

Although it’s important to maintain a consistent brand image across all social channels, you shouldn’t be posting the exact same content everywhere. Each social media channel is different, customize your posts to suit the platform.

Take advantage of each channel’s tools

Leverage the tools and features on each channel to boost your chances of success. For instance, using sounds on TikTok can make it easier for customers to find your content when they see posts using similar sounds.

Ask audiences to engage

Actively connect with active users on social media and ask them to engage with your posts. Tell them to like and share your content. Ask them questions, and encourage them to visit your website from various platforms. 

Publish consistently

Develop a social media calendar to ensure you’re publishing fresh new content regularly. Make sure you track metrics about when your customers are most likely to be online, so you can boost your chances of posting at the right time.

Promote your social channels

Include links and buttons to your social media channels on your email newsletter and website. Include links on your employees’ personal profiles too, so they can drive new customers back to your platforms. 

Finding the best ways to increase brand awareness on social media

Learning how to increase brand awareness on social media can be complex. It takes significant time and effort to build a strong brand presence across various platforms. However, using social media in your brand awareness strategies can drive amazing results. 

Not only can you reach a massive audience with the right content, but you can start to build a positive emotional connection with your potential audience too. 

Learn more about how you can elevate your brand awareness efforts by reading our guides on the Fabrik blog. Alternatively, reach out to us for tips and guidance on building a memorable brand and marketing strategy. 

Fabrik: A branding agency for our times.