‘Branding in the Age of Social Media’, an event jointly organized by INTI International College Subang’s School of Business and Communication (SBC) and Centre for Australian Degree Programs (CADP) addressed an essential element among organizations constantly striving to sustain their good reputation in the ever-competitive rat race.
Social media is a powerful tool to establish a personal identity, build an image, and help stakeholders stand out in their respective industries.
Charissa Chong (center), 1st runner up of Miss Universe Malaysia 2020 and alumna of the Diploma in Mass Communication programme at INTI International College Subang, and Fiezreen Ahmad (first from right), Managing Director of Remaja, Hijabista and Media Hiburan, with the faculty members of INTI International College Subang’s School of Business and Communication (SBC) and Centre for Australian Degree Programs (CADP).
Social media for personal branding
All things personal branding was shared by the 1st runner up of Miss Universe Malaysia 2020, Charissa Chong, who is also an alumna of INTI International College Subang’s Diploma in Mass Communication programme.
“Like a corporate brand that represents a particular business entity, a personal brand is a manifestation of ‘you’ on an individual level. But not everyone can successfully pull this off. If you’ve been struggling with how to brand yourself, social media is where you should begin,” she started off.
She continued, “It is particularly important to define what you want to achieve with your personal brand. You must set a goal for your branding. Do you want to start a new business? Or differentiate your brand, products, and services from the existing competition? Or earn more profit through increased sales?”
Hailing from Selangor, Charissa explained to the students that once a person identifies what he or she wants to accomplish, they can plan on how they want to brand themselves on the social media platforms available.
“Let’s say you want people to recognize your professional skills and improve your chances of discovering new job opportunities in your field of work, you can focus on building your LinkedIn profile. If you want to be known by a wider audience, you should build your Twitter profile through influential tweets that can draw followers. If you are specialized in photography, then Instagram is the place for you. In case you’re an expert in arts and crafts, Pinterest should be your ideal destination,” shared Charissa about the different platforms that students can tap on to build their profiles on the professional and personal front.
The next big step in personal branding on social media is defining specialties. She said, “This will help you define your brand. Whether it is your personal or business brand, you need to highlight what you stand for and how people should recognize you.”
Sharing some techniques, Charissa students to include their interests and skills in their social media profile descriptions. These will serve as keywords that will help their brand appear in relevant search results when people look for such information.
“For instance, look at how influential makeup artist, Huda Kattan, describes herself on Instagram. It describes who she is, and it better connects her with her followers,” she added.
Before concluding her session, Charissa advised the students to be consistent with their voice and brand messaging across all social media channels to build a strong and impactful personal brand.
“When deciding how to brand yourself on social media, you want to market yourself in a way that people can easily recall your brand. An example of this would be a consistent logo with consistent design elements. If your personal blog is designed with a red theme, follow the same look on your Facebook and Instagram pages. People will recognize you through your consistent profile images and the logo that your personal brand uses,” she said.
Charissa Chong, 1st runner up of Miss Universe Malaysia 2020 and alumna of the Diploma in Mass Communication programme at INTI International College Subang, and Fiezreen Ahmad, Managing Director of Remaja, Hijabista and Media Hiburan pose for a group photograph with participants at the end of the event.
The power of social media
Branding in the age of social media is as critical as it is difficult. Currently, there are about 3.2 billion active users worldwide, according to the ‘Digital in 2018’ report by Hootsuite and We Are Social[1].
“Earlier, companies were heavily investing in branding via large campaigns. The focus was on weaving an elaborate story that the target audience could connect with at an emotional and psychological level. As the mediums of communication were far fewer than today, brands had the liberty to create campaigns that could hold the consumer’s attention for more than just a few seconds. In today’s age of social media, branding has become a vexing challenge,” shared Fiezreen Ahmad, Managing Director of Remaja, Hijabista and Media Hiburan, during the second half of the event.
Complementing the session with his years of experience in the industry, Fiezreen tipped the audience on the importance of social media from the perspective of a magazine editor.
Stating the reality of growing a brand nowadays, Fiezreen shared, “We need to be more strategic in building a brand. Brands need to realize that today’s consumers are very different, they are extremely interconnected due to Internet and social media. Information has never been this accessible. However, often, the target audience already knows the details as well as pros and cons of a brand. With a well-connected and well-informed customer, companies need to relook at their marketing tools and build a compelling narrative to stand out from the clutter.”
The foundation of branding strategies remains unchanged – understanding, designing, communicating, and delivering values – only the tools have changed. Irrespective of the channel, the brand voice should be the same.
“It should imply the same ideology, philosophy, and customer value wherever there is presence. If a particular platform is unable to add value or growth, it either is not resonating with the larger brand’s storytelling or creating confusion with content. Dove succeeded not only with a YouTube strategy but also with communication that celebrates diversity in women and women in their own skin – old young, short, tall, curvy, skinny, with curly or straight hair and above all, with no filter,” Fiezreen narrated to the students.
Organizations eyeing success on social media should not lose focus on branding. Viral content only comes when there is a hard balance between branding and its relevance to the consumer.
He reminded the audience consisting of academics, students, and alumni from both faculties, “People still connect to brands with great stories, just the mode of delivering them to the consumers has evolved. Branding is the mothership, all channels including social media sit right under it. One can go on to speak about what is ‘trending’ but not forget what connects them to the mothership. Marketers need to adopt an integrated approach, where they combine sound storytelling with the power of social media, to cement a place in the customer’s consciousness.”
[1] https://wearesocial.com/uk/blog/2018/01/global-digital-report-2018/