Social media to establish your brand

Whether you’re a suit-wearing city clad type, a designer fashion label lover, or a dressed-down, cool, arty type you can establish your brand as an authority in your niche and community very easily using social media. And, as there are only a few key elements to creating an authoritative online presence, as oppose to an active brand I've listed them here:

1. Know who your customers are
Starbucks has a killer reputation within the coffee retail industry because they know exactly who their consumer is. They know their customers’ culture, workout routines, concerns, interests, passions and goals. Reaching that ground where you know who your customer is on an emotional level will give you a huge upper hand in establishing your authority. Social media gives you the power to get familiar with your fans.

2. Build a quality network
Surround yourself with the best, including your influential customers, prospects who fit your demographic and even your competition. You can locate brands, users and relevant conversations happening within your niche by searching via traditional methods or by using networking tools. You can also crowdsource, which is an excellent way to see how people feel about a product, to measure overall sentiment about an industry or brand, and to jump into the conversation – further establishing yourself as the authority and expert.

3. Ensure quality control
Just as you wouldn't compromise the quality of your product, you can’t present a half baked social media effort. So, create an editorial calendar to ensure that you’re focusing on all aspects of your brand and maintaining consistency. Have a process for peer reviews and checking of content. Being a professional brand means going the extra mile. It means looks the part. It means delivering upon expectations, and more. In terms of consistency, you need to be posting between 3 to 5 times per day.

4. Unique social media campaigns
To be an authority in your niche you have to distinguish yourself from your competition and stand out to your customers.  Once upon a time just having a social media presence was enough. Now though, as more brands are catching on, the pressure to present dynamic and creative social media campaigns is evident.

Check out lifestyle brand, POE, and the campaign, #NameHer. This was developed to incentivize users to share the name of the woman who had most shaped their life for a chance to have a signature shoe named after her. This touched consumers on an emotional level, established a unique voice, and made it a place of community. It established POE’s authority among users.

Leveraging social media to become an authority in your industry makes a full circle back to your fans. If you’ve taken these steps above, you’ve created credibility, trust, and value for your consumers. That is the name of the game when striving to be the authority.