Nothing makes a more dramatic impact on consumers than branding, and no online space is more important for branding than social media. To understand how to successfully rebrand and launch your company on social media, we must first understand what branding actually means.
Branding is a marketing process that involves creating a consistent framework for the look, feel and integral message of your company. Branding builds consumer trust and loyalty with your company, especially when your branding is consistent across all physical and online platforms.
1. Begin with a Branding Brainstorm!
The first step to rebrand and launch your company on social media is a brainstorming session. Take some quality time as a team to discuss the exact reasons why you want to rebrand and the benefits it will bring. Your branding will be more meaningful if you have clear plans and expectations for your rebrand.
Start by writing down your current goals and projected plans for the year, or up to three to five years in the future. How can a rebrand translate to success in company audit results? What would the benchmarks for these goals be?
For example, if you’re planning to kick-off your strategy with a brand new campaign, analyze your previous campaigns to find out which had the best results on your social media channels.
2. Audition Your Content with an Audit
Considering rebranding for your company? We recommend auditing your current branding assets and content channels. Dig deeper by focusing on what content resulted in the most likes, comments, shares, reach and user-generated content. What has worked well in the past for your brand? Could you pay this forward on a whole new level within your rebranding?
Next, we recommend a round of digital asset management. Review your catalog of past content, photography, videos and more, to see what you have and what you need. Can any of your photographs or assets be reused in a brand new way?
3. Create a Content Checklist
Before you get started on more detailed research, like a competitive analysis, create a checklist of what you want to update, change and adjust for your branding. Once you have a checklist, you can see all your rebranding tasks at a glance, and mark them off as you complete them. Make sure that your proposed changes align with your branding goals, and that your assets create a complimentary style.
Looking for some inspiration? Check out our Visual Content Strategy checklist!
4. Get Competitive with Content – Researching for Competitive Analysis
Once you know where your company stands in terms of branding plans, check out the competition through a competitive analysis. If you understand how your competitors manage their branding, along with the strengths and weaknesses of their campaigns, you can find inspiration for your own rebranding, avoid pitfalls, and position yourself within a unique niche.
There are many different ways to perform a competitive analysis. Start by making a list of your competitors. Next, research into their social media accounts. What platforms are the most successful for them? How do they present their brand through visuals and copy? What types of content receive the most engagement? Who does their content appeal to? What keywords are the most successful? Are there popular trends and demographics that your competitors are missing out on?
Once you have this data from a competitive analysis, you have a clear picture of the current market in your niche, and you can make informed decisions about where to take your branding next.
5. Set Your Theme for Dream Content
Now it’s time to get creative! Setting the theme of your brand involves developing the design aspects for your rebranding, perfecting your visual identity, along the written style for copy and communications.
Develop a core color scheme to utilize consistently across your social media accounts. Think back to popular trends from your competitive analysis research. Create a mood board with color schemes, patterns, and logo redesign prototypes.
Next, consider your tone of voice and writing style for social media copy. Are you going for a fun, vibrant style, filled with emojis? Or an understated, professional voice? Whatever you’re going for, make sure your copy aligns with your visuals.
6. Time for Content Production
Once you have your desired design plans – it’s time to put them into action. Incorporate your color palettes and logos into completed designs for your rebranding launch. This could include new typography for your blog posts, graphic designs for your Instagram account, or written copy for your Twitter account. Bring different assets together to create a consistent style as you rebrand and launch your company on social media. Ensure you have enough content to schedule over the first few weeks of your rebrand launch.
7. To Soft Launch or to Hard Launch? That is the Question.
So, your content is ready to launch onto socials – but how should you release it into the world? There are two key ways to launch a rebrand – a soft launch or a hard launch. A hard launch involves releasing your rebrand all in one go with a huge marketing campaign. In a soft launch, on the other hand, content is released slowly and the company analyses the rebranding performance before continuing the campaign.
The answer to the soft launch vs hard launch question varies depending on your company, product/service, and audience. If your product or service is really in-demand, you have the resources for a huge campaign, and you want to make a big impact, then a hard launch sounds right for your brand.
Meanwhile, if you’re a smaller, niche brand, and you want to obtain follower feedback before progressing with a rebrand, then a soft launch makes more sense. There’s no rule that says you can’t combine aspects of a soft launch with a hard launch. However, understanding whether a soft launch or a hard launch will be the most effective for your brand can maximize your chances of success and make the best use of your resources.
It’s a challenge to rebrand and launch your company on social media. Not only do you need to consider your own ideas for transforming your brand, but you also have to consider the views of consumers. If they’ve been following your brand from the beginning, they’ll want to see a rebrand that feels meaningful to them. Follow the seven steps above to successfully rebrand and launch your company on social media, through inspiration, research, analysis, design, and production, right up to the launch.
