Before you start your social media rebranding campaign you must understand why you are doing it in the first place. The reasons behind your rebrand will affect decisions in the future, and if your reasoning is unclear then your rebrand will also be unclear. Below is a list of why a rebrand may be right for you.
Good Reasons to Rebrand Your Social Media Presence
- You need to differentiate yourself from competitors
- You have never had a clear brand identity
- Your current branding has had many negative reviews
- You have a new target audience that doesn’t match your current branding
- You’ve gone through a major crisis and need to reset the public’s view of your brand
- You’ve rebranded your physical business and need your social media to match
- You’re launching a new item and want your social media to reflect that
Once you are able to complete a decisive social media rebrand you and your audience should feel both confident and comfortable. You are able to do this by following these six easy steps.
Step 1: Audit
This audit will ensure that you have a clear understanding of the needs for each social media account and how to incorporate them into launch day. This also allows you to decide if you want to breach any new social networks and how you would like to approach them.
Run your current analytics as a benchmark for your future self. Your engagement rates and followers will look different for a while after the launch of your rebrand, this is the adjustment period. Once your audience has adjusted and accepted your new branding you will be able to compare your new analytic results to your past and gauge how successful the transition has been.
Step 2: Create
A complete rebrand includes changing your visual style as well as your tone of voice. During this time you should also review/change any usernames and profile pictures associated with your accounts that don’t fit the new brand image. Create new ready-made graphics that can be easily posted on the day of the rebrand launch and for weeks after. You should also at this time create any new bios and images/shop listings.
Test all new social media assets before your launch date. This will allow you to make sure the images are easily read and recognizable to your brand. You will then pass along all relevant rebranding materials to any freelancers/agencies your company works with to ensure a cohesiveness across all accounts.
Step 3: Clean Up
In this step you will go through social media accounts and either delete everything or remove previous posts that will challenge your new brand image and lightly edit other posts as you see fit. By completely deleting everything pre-rebrand you can create a clean slate as well as new interest in your brand. While going the more conservative approach, with an edit of post history, can allow your customers to still trust/connect with your overall brand identity.
No matter which path you choose you must commit to your rebrand completely. Once the date and style is chosen you cannot back out or try to mesh your new brand with your existing one.
Step 4: Prepare
You do not want your rebrand to be a complete shock to your audience so begin to drop hints of your changing look. This can help to create more engagement with your audience as well as giving an exclusive look into what you’re planning for the future.
Even with teasing out your rebrand you will need an actual launch date where you will make a post announcing your new brand identity. On the launch day you can offer specials to celebrate the new branding, as well as offer a Q&A to answer any questions or concerns of your followers. It is also helpful to post stories of a “behind the scenes” look at the rebrand to answer any questions followers may have.
Step 5: Launch
On launch day you should be so prepared that the actual announcement should go off without a hitch. Your main concern for launch day should be answering any questions, comments, or concerns that your followers may have. Focus on not losing your followers’ trust as well as completely reassuring your audience that you are the same company, just with a new look.
Step 6: Review
After your launch date you will want to take note of what went well and what didn’t. The following are questions that should be asked after completing the rebrand: How long did the rebrand take and was it manageable? Has the rebrand communicated the brand image you wanted? Has there been an increase in engagement or sales since the rebrand? How have your followers responded to the rebrand, and have you gained any new followers?
These questions will allow you to see the success and challenges of your rebrand and where improvements need to be made.
Conclusion
By following these six steps you can plan, prepare, and execute a successful social media rebrand.