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Companies can now make use of a number of platforms to market their brands

Chipo Mapondera Business Correspondent
Social media platforms offer diverse platforms of engagement for your brand. They also allow the opportunity to build a strong, personalised brand identity.
In fact, these platforms have become an important business tool for marketing and brand building for those who know how each platform functions, and what it can offer.

Facebook
The platform was created in 2004 and to date it has over a billion subscribers, across all demographics. It allows brands or companies to create pages in order to communicate a unique brand identity to their fans. This identity is crafted through Facebook’s interactive interface, which allows for pictures, videos, audio and other information.
Although pages are highly personalised Facebook is also about sharing and encouraging reactions from Followers who “Like” and “Comment” on your posts.

Twitter
Created in 2006 Twitter is catering for a segment of the market that requires information that is disseminated in a short, quick and immediately informative format. It is undoubtedly one of the drivers of this trend.

Twitter is a communication platform that allows you to speak your mind, but only in 140 characters. It is the most effective running commentary that firms can use to express their point-of-view on their brand. It also has a number of interactive features that allow your followers to include your brand in their conversations, such as “mentions” (when someone talks to your brand or about it) and hash tags (a function of highlighting a discussion topic).

Google+
Digital giant Google continues to redefine what communication entails. The go-to search engine company that gave us Gmail and G-chat, now allows brands to not only share content but also build the communities they are sharing with through their 2011 product, Google+. The platform offers brand-scan which allows companies and brands to organise followers into groups or “circles” for more targeted sharing methods, and “hangouts” or group video chats that can be posted on later on blogs or websites for their followers to watch.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn was established in 2003 and traded its first shares on the New York Stock Exhange in May 2011. It is one of the most profitable social networking sites. Referred to as a freemium site, it offers options that are free, but also some that require payment.
For companies and brands it offers a more “serious” space where they can give an overview of what they have to offer, introduce company personnel, as well as highlight products and services in the most professional way.

Pinterest
Pinterest is a personal favourite of mine, which is appropriate for anyone in fashion, food, art, design, publishing and other creative industries. The site, which made its debut in 2010, allows you to create digital scrapbooks of images, according to your own themes. Its 70 million users, are mostly female, and highly engaged with the site, spending on average 45 minutes on it, per visit, which is a lot of time in the digital age. This site is particularly strong for driving online sales, as your brand’s “pins” can be linked to your website, or online store.

Instagram
Bought by Facebook for US$1 billion in 2012, Instagram has a set of influential users across the lifestyle and entertainment industries, including Oprah Winfrey. On this platform images and more recently videos drive the conversation, as brands paint a picture of themselves, sharing through hashtags and mentions of other users. This platform is particularly good for brands that have visual appeal, for example designers, restaurateurs, resorts and decorators.

YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing platform where companies can upload (user-generated) video connect. Google acquired the site in 2006 just a year after its launch, which is why when you search on Google, you receive suggested YouTube links. Brands can create their own YouTube channels, featuring adverts, event footage, interviews, and other content. With a potential four billion average daily viewers, communicating your brand through videos is a compelling marketing proposition.

Sound Cloud
Sound Branding uses sound to reinforce a brand’s identity. The Coca-Cola sonic logo or, put simply, its jingle, which conveys a memorable experience, is a good example of Sound Cloud. Sound Cloud is a platform where you can share your sounds with followers, and because “sounds” can be embedded or mentioned on other platforms like Blogger, or Twitter, they are easily shared.
It is used widely in the music industry for the promotion of labels and recording artistes, and by radio stations to share their audio point of view.

Blogs
Blogs were created around 1997 by Jorn Borger (the first person to use the term “web log”). Popular blog sites Blogger and WordPress are powerful tools of promotion for brands wanting to create a kind of digital magazine. A blog allows a brand to demonstrate that their expertise on a certain topic by posting rich and inspiring content.

Key things to remember are not to always talk about yourself, to post regularly and always respond to readers’ comments.
Apart from those mentioned here, there are a variety of other social networking platforms such as Flickr, Vine, Keek and Mavensay.
However, those mentioned above are the most popular and easiest to grasp because there is a lot of information about them.

They are also interlinked so when you post something new on Facebook or Instagram, it comes up in your Twitter feed, and Facebook allows you to post YouTube videos and can show your “fans” what you have recently “repinned” on Pinterest. These dynamic, ever-changing platforms provide you with innumerable possibilities to innovatively enhance your brand communication, with a modern approach.

The writer can be contacted via e-mail [email protected]