It doesn’t matter if you’re on Facebook , Twitter , YouTube, Flickr ; your online personality is not only part of your overall brand, it becomes an interactive experience for you and your business. So, who is the face or voice of your brand and what do they share? It’s a very important decision in and of itself.

Just as you create branding guidelines and key messaging guides, so too should you dedicate time to creating your social media personality. There are multiple combinations that you can use to increase your brand visibility and converse with your customers.

Facebook

Businesses have many options when it comes to creating a Facebook personality. There are options for “group” or “fan” pages versus a personal account.

YouTube

The company offers a full library of “Will It Blend?” videos on its YouTube account with a profile perfectly suited to match. An inviting avatar may include one of the following attributes (along with great content): a smiling face, a full color photo (as opposed to black and white), or a familiar logo.

Like brand personality, brand image is not something you have or you don't! A brand is unlikely to have one brand image, but several, though one or two may predominate. The key in brand image research is to identify or develop the most powerful images and reinforce them through subsequent brand communications. The term "brand image" gained popularity as evidence began to grow that the feelings and images associated with a brand were powerful purchase influencers, though brand recognition, recall and brand identity. It is based on the proposition that consumers buy not only a product (commodity), but also the image associations of the product, such as power, wealth, sophistication, and most importantly identification and association with other users of the brand. In a consumer led world, people tend to define themselves and their Jungian "persona" by their possessions. According to Sigmund Freud, the ego and superego control to a large extent the image and personality that people would like others to have of them.

Good brand images are instantly evoked, are positive, and are almost always unique among competitive brands.

Brand image can be reinforced by brand communications such as packaging, advertising, promotion, customer service, word-of-mouth and other aspects of the brand experience.

Brand images are usually evoked by asking consumers the first words/images that come to their mind when a certain brand is mentioned (sometimes called "top of mind"). When responses are highly variable, non-forthcoming, or refer to non-image attributes such as cost, it is an indicator of a weak brand image.

There are a host of important considerations, challenges and opportunities in building either your own or your company’s online presence and brand identity via social media. In this post we’ve gathered wide range of resources, advice and tools to help you build and manage your social media brand identity more effectively.

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