What Innovative Uses of Social Media Can Increase Brand Awareness?
Marketer Magazine
What Innovative Uses of Social Media Can Increase Brand Awareness?
In the digital age, innovative social media strategies can significantly enhance brand visibility. We've gathered insights from Senior Brand Managers to CEOs, revealing thirteen creative tactics that have successfully amplified their companies' presence online. From implementing a 'Turkey Slicing' content strategy to using geo-targeted Facebook ads for local reach, these professionals share their top methods for boosting brand awareness through social media.
- Implement 'Turkey Slicing' Content Strategy
- Go Viral with Reddit Video Sharing
- Post Consistent LinkedIn Thought-Leadership Content
- Share Social Media Marketing Tips
- Build Industry Peer Community Engagement
- Leverage Reels and Shorts for Reach
- Host Live-Stream Events with Influencers
- Maximize Reach with Giveaway Collaborations
- Utilize Diverse Social Media Tools
- Feature Customer Testimonials Authentically
- Add Value in Forums for Exposure
- Create Engaging Social Media Challenges
- Use Geo-Targeted Facebook Ads for Local Reach
Implement 'Turkey Slicing' Content Strategy
We learned about 'Turkey Slicing' content from Jason Miller and swear by this strategy. Your team produces one to four (or more, depending on your team's capabilities) big pieces of content per quarter, and then you 'slice' them into monthly, weekly, and daily posts. Think of a podcast or leadership event turned into multiple infographics, a white paper, video snippets, photo posts, polls, and more. Put your team's effort into creating stellar, well-researched, highly polished 'Big Rocks' and then maximize the content and reach of those pieces in smaller bites. Using paid media to boost select pieces that do well organically can also help bring in new audiences and improve reach. Consumers need a steady stream of content to take notice, and social media requires this as well. Keep up with the big content demands by turkey slicing and get your brand noticed.
Go Viral with Reddit Video Sharing
Our business has been creating videos for over five years. One of the best strategies we've used to increase our views and subscribers to over 85,000 was through social media, specifically Reddit. Many of our more in-depth videos were shared in topic-specific subreddits. They were almost always shared, commented on, and watched. One of our videos, originally posted on YouTube, went viral on Reddit several times over the past couple of years, resulting in over 6,000,000 views to date. This has led to a huge influx of traffic and sales for our brand. This is part of the reason why, whenever we make a video, we always add it to Reddit now as part of our strategy.
Post Consistent LinkedIn Thought-Leadership Content
One use of social media that helped me increase brand awareness was leveraging LinkedIn for posting. I'd post thought-leadership content and helpful content that built a community for myself and my company. With social media, there's no shortcut or fast-pass to get results; you just need to be consistent. Seventy-five percent of the battle is just staying consistent and keeping your content relevant to your audience.
Share Social Media Marketing Tips
As the owner of a marketing agency, one of the best ways to use social media to increase my brand awareness is by sharing social-media marketing tips on social media. The people who benefit from those tips aren't your customers; they're likely solopreneurs and others who can't afford to outsource this work. If your advice is good, they'll likely share it, and some of them might recommend you to their colleagues.
Build Industry Peer Community Engagement
As a former marketing agency owner and current business coach, I've really found that building a community on social media and interacting with fellow peers in the industry goes a long way. Business is a long game, and relationships are key. Even when people are in the same industry, those relationships can reap many benefits, including brand awareness.
Leverage Reels and Shorts for Reach
Joining the bandwagon of Reels and Shorts marketing is a great way to garner brand awareness. This short video format has an incredible algorithm that can get you explosive reach. Its algorithm doesn't rely on who follows whom, so you are not limited to your followers alone.
There are a lot of ways to get explosive reach with Reels or Shorts. You can hop on the latest trends, use filters, include popular music clips, and the like. Now, this doesn't always guarantee conversion, but if brand awareness is the goal, then these are great tools to achieve that goal.
Host Live-Stream Events with Influencers
One innovative use of social media that significantly increased brand awareness for our client, Madda Fella, was the execution of a highly-effective strategy during the Key West Power Boat World Championships. Our agency orchestrated a live-stream event featuring renowned artist Amanda Johnson, who painted a custom oil-on-canvas masterpiece outside Madda Fella's flagship store. This strategic move aligned the brand with the championships' excitement, providing a unique opportunity for a global audience to engage in real-time.
The live stream seamlessly integrated with the championships, allowing for effective use of social media to captivate diverse audiences and elevate Madda Fella's brand awareness on a global scale. The initiative not only showcased the artistic process but also enhanced visibility and created a buzz around the brand. This approach exemplifies how leveraging events and influencers on social media can be a powerful tool for increasing brand awareness and engaging with a broader audience.
Maximize Reach with Giveaway Collaborations
Our company's use of social media has become an ever-increasing asset, focus, and, at times, challenge. Recently, we have participated in a bunch of giveaways for moms. These programs have helped us build a following within the mom-brand community. By giving away our product to the winner, along with a big batch of other giveaways, we realized that we were leveraging all of the followings of our brand partners, maximizing our combined total awareness, all while promoting the event. It was successful for us and hopefully for them, too!
Utilize Diverse Social Media Tools
All the tools that you need to boost brand awareness on social media are provided by the social media companies. All you have to do is know how to use them for different purposes. At Oxygen Plus, we use a range of different social media tools such as specific hashtags, frequent limited-time content (i.e., stories), and both image and video content. Using a variety of methods is the way to go because it gives your audience the opportunity to see your brand and your content in different ways. This prevents content from coming across as repetitive because it will be displayed and used differently. In addition, it will show the different social media algorithms that you are active on their platforms, which will also have a positive effect on your account and ability to be seen.
So, don't just head into social media thinking that one trick is going to work for you. This will only limit your chances at building brand awareness.
Feature Customer Testimonials Authentically
Sharing a powerful social media strategy that boosted our brand awareness in the competitive window-and-door industry, we harnessed the art of storytelling through customer testimonials on our social platforms.
Instead of traditional product showcases, we featured real stories from customers, highlighting how our windows and doors transformed their homes for the better—from aesthetics to comfort and energy efficiency.
What made this unique was the authenticity; we encouraged customers to share in their own words and settings. These stories were presented in short video formats, resonating authentically with our audience and fostering trust.
This approach not only increased engagement but also elevated our brand's visibility and reputation on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. It underscores the potency of authentic storytelling in forging meaningful connections with your audience.
Add Value in Forums for Exposure
Engaging heavily in forum and social media channels by adding value may result in only 1 in 10 posts being successful, but consistently using these channels to add value and answer difficult questions can gain substantial exposure. Not only can you gain exposure, but you also end up learning a significant amount about your target audience, how they speak, the problems they encounter, and what resonates well with them.
Create Engaging Social Media Challenges
One innovative way I’ve used social media to increase brand awareness is by creating trends and challenges. Online challenges are exciting marketing opportunities. For example, I encourage users to share clips showcasing creative uses and features of my products. This way, other consumers see the joy my products bring to their peers. More and more consumers are relying on their peers instead of ads for product recommendations, and a significant amount of these conversations happen on social media.
Use Geo-Targeted Facebook Ads for Local Reach
Geo-targeted Facebook ads have been game-changing. I can promote content and special deals to hyperlocal groups of likely buyers and sellers for a fraction of traditional advertising costs. Last month, I spent $300 on an ad that resulted in a $60,000 house-flipping deal. The highly specific targeting allows me to maximize the return on ad spend and drive business in cost-efficient ways. This has improved profit margins on many projects.