Amplifying your brand identity on social media

Though they were launched with the intent of connecting individuals, social media sites today have evolved into something much bigger. They're not just places for networking anymore; they act as news outlets, dating apps, job portals, galleries, and naturally, marketplaces.

You're certainly going to use social media to market your offerings directly, share reviews and testimonials, and post important updates, but here's one more thing that you should absolutely do: amplify your brand identity.

What is brand identity?

An individual's identity comprises their traits, talents, expertise, affinity, or ideology. At least on social media, individuals gain a following by cementing and reiterating their efforts and stances on one or more of those aspects.

Similarly, when it comes to brands, identity refers to the unique selling proposition (USP) of their offerings, vision, and core values of the business.

Why does it matter?

First and foremost, amplifying your brand identity makes your brand more relatable and memorable. How does this happen?

Presenting the facets of your brand identity repeatedly instead of sharing just promotional content or marketing material leaves an impression on people's minds. Your customers, both current and prospective, will be able to look at your brand's personality and think of you more than just as a commercial establishment focused on selling its goods.

Secondly, unlike paid marketing or advertising, which is most of the time targeted, this effort is an organic brand awareness initiative that reaches a wide audience. Therefore, even if someone isn't your customer yet, if you appear on their feed through shares and reposts, there's a chance they'd remember you or recommend you when a need arises.

Thirdly, studies reveal that currently over five billion people use social media worldwide, and this number is expected to touch six billion in 2028. The increase in the range of affordable smartphones and improvement in connectivity technology contributes to this growth across regions. These developments present a great opportunity to talk to your customers directly, regardless of the region.

Finally, being a relatable brand improves customer engagement. The more your customers engage with you in the form of comments, reposts, or quotes, the more chances of the platform's algorithm favoring you and showing your content to more people.

Having said that, keep in mind that this social media strategy is more conducive for B2C and D2C brands and might not provide the same kind of outcomes for B2B ones. That's not necessarily a bad thing because the process and stakeholders involved in B2B sales are drastically different from those in B2C. So if you're a B2C or D2C brand, you stand to grab a lot more views and gain more mind share by amplifying your brand identity.

How to do it

To amplify your brand identity effectively, identify these three key areas:

• Values/USP - The core business values or vision that your brand is known for or you want to be known and remembered for. This forms the core of your identity. The content you create must revolve around themes related to your values or USP.
• Platform - The social media sites and apps you can leverage. You can very well have a presence on multiple platforms, but choose a limited few, based on your industry vertical and target audience.
• Voice and tone - The way your content expresses your brand personality. This closely aligns with your brand values and vision. Maintain the same voice and tone consistently—at least within a social media platform—so your personality stays steady and recognizable.

Now let's look at a few brands and how they amplify their brand identity on social media in a brilliant manner.

Duolingo

With over 800 million downloads over all, Duolingo is a language learning app that ranks first in the education category in Google's Play Store and second under the same category on Apple's App Store. Duolingo's success stems from its effective learning approach that leverages gamification.

When it comes to social media, the fact that Duolingo has a mascot makes things easier for them. They use the mascot, Duo, as the brand's identity on social media and tailor their content to match its voice. To elaborate, Duo is a genius know-it-all owl who haunts learners through funny, passive-aggressive notifications asking them to do a lesson on the app. This passive aggression is not universally liked or appreciated by all learners; that's an entirely different story. However, it has helped cement Duolingo's identity as a humorous and sarcastic cheerleader on social media.

Duolingo's social media content reflects these traits, and the followers enjoy it and happily engage with it. The team creates content involving other characters inside the app, and also makes good use of user-generated content by resharing posts along with punch-lines or jokes. Is it any surprise that the app's profile currently has 4.4 million followers on Instagram, over 1 million on X (formerly Twitter), 2.3 million on Facebook, and over 16 million on TikTok?

Lumon Industries

This is a fictional biotechnology company featured in the Apple Original Series, Severance. There are no official social media profiles for the show itself, but the production house runs a LinkedIn page for this fictional company. Smart move, right?

The top officials at this fictional organization—as portrayed in the show—use complex words and sentence structures instead of simple straightforward language. The posts on the LinkedIn profile carry the same tone and attitude along with images from the show. For instance, their holiday special post towards the end of last year said, "Benevolent tidings," instead of just "Happy holidays" or "Season's greetings." That's how into character the content on the page goes, with a healthy dose of earnestness and wry humor. Needless to say, the posts receive consistent user engagement in the form of reactions, comments, and reposts.

The actors might be flaunting their personalities on their respective social media pages, but the show's personality shines through this LinkedIn profile, amassing close to 77,000 followers as of now. Not bad for an organization that doesn't even exist in the real world, isn't it?

Iceland Cricket

If one were to list the 108 officially recognized cricket-playing countries, Iceland would probably be number 110. Isn't it then surprising to know that the official X page of the Icelandic Cricket Association has over 132,000 followers?

In social media lingo, the profile is a macro influencer (a profile with 100,000–1 million followers). The story gets even better. The Icelandic Cricket Association isn't yet a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body of the sport. In comparison, the Netherlands men's cricket team, which is an associate member of the ICC, has a little bit over 150,000 followers on X.

How exactly did the Icelandic Cricket Association, which is yet to start playing international cricket officially, gain such a following? By humorously amplifying a core element of Iceland's identity—its landscape.

The account consistently makes funny posts on the challenges involved in playing cricket in Iceland's tricky geography, and this seems to have resonated well with cricket fans from other parts of the world. The result? Good engagement in the form of likes and comments.

Maybe one day Iceland will officially become a cricket-playing nation, but until then, we'll gladly cheer them on social media!

With increasing adoption of social media worldwide, brands stand to gain substantial visibility and mind share if they do the right things. Of course, paid marketing on social media will have its effects, but the organic activity of amplifying your brand identity is beneficial in the long run and helps you establish your presence firmly.