The Importance of Maintaining a Brand’s Equity on Social Media

A brand’s dominance on social media is vital for maintaining a brand’s equity. Social media allows companies to effectively engage with their customer base in such a way that drives brand loyalty, allowing the business to grow further. A marketer must have a robust social media strategy that allows for the right marketing presence. If that presence resonates well with a company’s valued consumer, a marketer will be able to drive brand equity in an actionable form. A brand must maintain its competitive edge in the marketplace and one of those key ways is to be quick and responsive to customer communication. Customers are able to have personal interactions with their favorite brands through digital platforms. The interactions and engagements allow brands to maintain their image and equity in their industry. 

“In the last couple of years, social media platforms have become indispensable mediums for a brand's awareness and image,” Francys Vallecillo, Chief of Staff for a Miami-Dade County School Board Member. “Similar to companies with products and services, local governments and elected officials have also increased their use of social media. Whereas elected officials used to rely on traditional media to increase their awareness and tell their stories in order to foster a positive image, now they can have more control. With social media communications created by the elected official, constituents witness their work, have the ability to share it, and can even have a forum for discussion. If managed properly, the social media platforms lead to an increase in the elected official's brand equity, which translates to more trust from all stakeholders.”

It is apparent that social media creates targeted connections, meaningful content, and authentic helpfulness to the consumer. The key to success in the digital world is to demonstrate knowledge and share insightful opinions to distinguish yourself as a trustworthy source. A positive social media image equates to driving buying behavior.                                           

The Founder and CEO of a Pennsylvania based marketing firm agrees, “The biggest and most overlooked opportunity to use social media to maintain your brand equity is sales,” said Ed Burns of Melior Marketing. “Tools like LinkedIn provide a scalable opportunity to target prospects. When sales teams use social media strategically, they can connect with people on a personal basis, which makes the brand more memorable and "sticky." Social gives us an opportunity to foster relationships.”

The main way to engage your social audience is to have engaging and visual content. It is the must show, don’t tell approach. Overall, content and images on social media are valuable information that attracts people to the brand, which creates credibility. Brand loyalty and profitability are all driven by how well a marketer appeals to its valued consumer on social media.

"In many ways, social media has become the dominant platform to express your company's brand, and therefore, is vital to your brand's equity,” said Andrew L. Goldberg, Vice President of Marketing at Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. “It's important to invest time and resources into first class content, into reaching the right people, and being able and ready to respond in a timely and appropriate way to all engagement communications. The digital space have become the new "media" channels for brands to grow and be expressed. The absence of your brand on social media, and the absence of a strong representation of your brand, can lead to declining sales and loyalty."

Social data can help a marketer build a winning content marketing strategy. Producing effective content for each type of audience segment is a business essential. Currently, the most successful brands think about content as a key part of every customer experience—from news stories to customer service and even how customers tell their friends about the brand. The brand can maintain its image through social platforms by posting relevant content geared to the consumer. The content must have consistency, personality (brand voice), responsiveness, volume, and variety. A current grad student at Florida International University and CEO and Marketing Strategist of Savon Luxe, Samantha Woodside describes social media as today’s best tool for increasing a brand’s equity. “It has the largest reach and organic connection with users. Prior to social media, brand equity and notoriety was built off press through public relations to get the "as seen on/associated with" affect. Social media has provided brands the opportunity to remove the middle man and connect with direct sources with trackable results such as word of mouth through tags/mentions.”

“Companies & brands today have to ensure they are actively maintaining and monitoring their social media profiles if they are serious about their brand equity,” said Manny Alcantara, Chief Executive Officer at OnTheWayHome Music, LLC, an Independent Music Label. “How people perceive your brand today is becoming more and more critical and can be a crucial differentiator in the consumer buying decision process. In a social world, bad press and negative media can spread quickly and can potentially harm your company and brand. Conversely, good news and positive media can help catapult your company and gain an edge on your competitors. Companies that are not on social media run the risk of letting consumers control the narrative about their company which can be extremely harmful. Therefore, brands should make sure they are using social media to be at the forefront of conversations about their brand as much as possible as well as monitor what consumers are saying about their product to respond quickly to emerging threats and negative press.” 

There is challenges marketers face when maintaining this digital image. Joshua Pruna, an alumni from FIU Masters of Science in Marketing program and Admissions Recruiter for the Masters of Science in Health Informatics & Analytics, describes that a brand must market themselves on social media correctly to gain success. “Technology brands like the OnePlus line of phones or upstart fashion brands like Wicked Clothes have all benefited from word of mouth campaigns on Instagram and Facebook that have allowed them to forgo more traditional methods of advertisement, all with a high degree of engagement,” said Pruna. “In fact, Wicked Clothes actually advertises using their photos of their customers wearing their clothing - a chance to not only build loyalty by offering a sense of identity to the customer and using their profile to further expand the reach of the clothing brand. Advertising exclusively through social media platforms has some potential pitfalls and drawbacks, but without an online presence companies run the risk of looking out of touch and is almost essential in today's media market.”

According to Professor Wendy Guess, PhD, Faculty at the School of Business Department of Marketing and Logistics at Florida International University, “Building brand equity is an essential part of doing business,” said Guess. “It goes hand-in-hand with building great customer service. Using social media gives customers and followers the opportunity to see the business in action - more importantly, how they treat their customers. This is especially critical when an issue arises and customers get to see how the company responds.”

Overall, marketers need to adapt to the fast-paced world, where competition is inevitable, and brands are fighting for the attention of consumers online and through social media channels. With the use of social media, brands can push content, engage with customers, increase brand awareness, and measure brand equity. Brand equity is basically the foundation of how a business builds its brand reputation. It reinforces a brand and its value through the products and services it provides. Social media is a great asset when measuring brand equity because it helps a business better understand how well they are performing with real-time social media metrics.