How to Measure and Improve Brand Equity Through Social Media
As a small business, it is crucial for your online presence to be aligned with your company’s brand. A company’s brand is not only a representation of the company itself, but it serves to distinguish the company’s products and services from the competition.
In addition to establishing and maintaining your brand, it is important to be aware of your brand equity. Brand equity measures the value of a brand’s perception among consumers.
Just like a brand, brand equity serves to differentiate one company’s products and services from competitors, but in terms of customer appeal. For example, Apple’s brand equity stems from their consumer’s willingness to pay double the price of competitors for the sake of fashion and luxury.
This willingness to pay comes from marketing efforts and innovation, but more importantly, social media conversations.
Prior to the advent of social media, it was difficult for companies to gauge a true measurement of brand equity. But now, social media platforms have provided customers a direct line of communication to voice their opinions and concerns with other customers.
By staying active on social media and playing close attention to what consumers are saying about your products and services, companies have the opportunity to fully understand what their brand means to customers.
When determining your brand equity, there are four major components to take into account: awareness, desirability, proximity, and relevance.
To determine brand awareness, companies should track how many online exchanges reference your brand and where these exchanges are taking place in the world.
Desirability focuses on the positive aspects of your brand equity, meaning the proportion of positive mentions compared to overall mentions, as well as frequently used positive terms relating to your brand.
Brand proximity serves to determine the impact of your brand by tracking how many users are reacting to or sharing news about your brand.
Brand relevance allows companies to measure what degree their desired brand matches the brand captured through social media
These social media metrics provide a consistent and comparable framework for brand equity. Traditional brand equity tracking relied on outdated methods, including questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews.
While these methods provided valuable static information, social media platforms account the ever-changing views of consumers in real-time.
Rather than improving your brand equity every month or quarter, companies can consistently track and improve their consumer’s perception of their brand.
In addition to appraising value, social media platforms also operate as a means of improving your brand. By monitoring social media conversations, companies can target and interact with customers posting positive remarks in order to build brand loyalty and consumer relationships.
On the other hand, negative mentions can be proactively managed by clarifying commons misconceptions about your brand or responding to customer complaints. Whether negative or positive, social media interactions give companies valuable information regarding the effectiveness of their brand.
If you would like more information about measuring or monitoring brand equity, or other digital marketing services please contact Pink Dog Digital at (410) 696-3305, email us at info@pinkdogdigital.com, or visit us on the web at www.pinkdogdigital.com.