There comes a time a business owner and its executives might wonder, should we make significant changes to our company?
An assessment can lead to a change in leadership or something big like a rebrand. Rebrands can be a hit or miss, especially for well-known brands. That’s why it’s essential to make an in-depth evaluation of a rebrand. If it does happen, there’s a change in designs not only in products or items too, but a website as well.
You shouldn’t neglect a social media rebrand, either. After all, you want the rebrand consistent everywhere else.
That’s why in this article, we unveil the nine steps to rebrand your business on social media and how a rebranding can be beneficial or hurt your company.
Devise a Solid Plan
Rebranding is serious business. You need to organize everything, from debuting your new logo, relaunching your website to having a social media rebrand by replacing your banner images or cover images. Changes like this don’t turn the tide overnight, and you don’t want to make your customers or clients wonder what went wrong.
Make sure that before you start rebranding on social media, you’ve got all assets and information prepared or at least in production. Ensure that you develop tone and messaging, too, since that’s integral to how you communicate with your customers.
Meet and Align with The Company
Once you’ve crafted a concrete plan, it’s time to communicate the rebranding to other teams, departments, or members of your company. This way, no one’s missing out on important news or updates. From here, your company can adjust to the rebranding by the time you announce it on social media or anywhere else.
If your primary channel to announce your rebrand is on social media, then your social media team should become aware of the changes. It’s best to discuss the procedure in executing a social media rebrand. Once you’ve formed a plan, what tasks do each member have to do? Make sure the team also has an understanding of the messaging and receives a copy of all the necessary details for posting during the rebranding announcement.
Indicate also what things you’re keeping before you rebrand on social media and the significant changes you’d integrate into it.
Let Audiences Sneak a Peek
As previously mentioned, your followers may not welcome the change. That’s why as part of your social media rebranding, get them talking by providing a preview of a new website design or packaging or any changes you made with the rebrand. Since they’re a huge part of your company, they should get the opportunity to be part of the loop.
Here are a couple of suggestions you can do days before you make the big social media rebranding announcement:
- Social Media Stories [e.g., add a countdown timer or teaser of the website]
- Teaser photos of the packaging and other branded items (t-shirts, mugs, brochures)
- Giveaway or contest (incorporate user-generated content)
It’s also a good way to get them excited over it and make a buzz over your rebrand. Listen to their responses to your preview. It’s the basis of how you can make an announcement. That way, you can ease in with the announcement with their perception, but keeping intact your messaging and branding.
If you’ve engaged with your audience before the rebrand, it’s best to continue it. All the more would your followers keep up with new updates.
Prepare your Designs and Aesthetic
Your social media team and graphic design team should coordinate on how your profiles on social media should look like. Say you have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, you should prioritize in changing the logo and the cover photos.
Tip: On Twitter, customize your color scheme befitting your brand’s colors. Don’t worry. It doesn’t affect text, only the general theme of your profile.
For your team to get accustomed to the changes, have them upload your new logo, banners, and other graphic design materials for your rebrand on social media.
Remember these dimensions on your social media profiles:
According to Facebook:
- For the profile picture, it displays 170×170 on the desktop. But, you can upload a profile photo of any size.
- For the cover photo, upload it with a width of 400 pixels and a height of 150 pixels. Those are the minimum required dimensions. And for an optimized display, upload a PNG file.
- For stories, the size is 1080 x 1920 (the same goes for Instagram)
- For posts, Buffer finds that you should optimize images to 1200 x 628 px
Twitter says:
- For the profile picture, they recommend you upload a file that’s at least 400 x 400 px
- For the header image, they suggest you post one that’s at least 1500 x 500 px
- According to Brandwatch, for posts, the optimized image size is at 1024 x 512 px
As for Instagram:
- For the profile picture, upload one that’s at least 110 x 110 px
- For posts, Later says that you can either upload a photo that’s 1080 x 608 px (landscape), 1080 x 1080 px (square), 1080 x 1350 px (portrait)
Meanwhile, for LinkedIn:
- For the profile photo: they recommend uploading a 300 x 300 px photo
- For the cover image: they recommend uploading a 1536 x 768 px photo
- Lastly, for posts, it’s best to stick to 1200 x 628 px as with Facebook
Stay consistent with all designs and aesthetics too. Plus, have your graphic designers remember the formatting guide on posting on social media. You wouldn’t want a pixelated logo or cover photo on any of your platforms.
You should make the changes to your social media profiles in one day, preferably a day or two before your big announcement. So when you make your announcement, your social media team isn’t scrambling and making any alterations to the sizes of the social media posts.
Make the Announcement
You might be itching to make the announcement the moment you’ve all finalized all your branding and other assets. Then, publish your announcement via a video or image post at the same time on all social media platforms. That way, you can reach different audiences on different platforms. You can use a social media tool to schedule your post, so you don’t have to worry about forgetting the announcement on the day. It also gives you a chance to edit your post before it goes live and even test it on a private account before you publish the post.
Perhaps, make an “in case you missed it” kind of post for those who have yet to be surprised over the changes.
Publish More Posts
To get people excited about the rebrand, give your followers or fans a taste of the s. Mix up your posting content. Don’t settle for status messages alone. Add social media graphics, infographics, gifs, or videos as part of your initial rebranding efforts.
Promote and Advertise
It’s not enough to let your followers know about your rebrand on social media and other channels. You can make a press release through your website or PR websites to get the word out. Then, you can even post that on social media too.
Run social media ads to reach more audiences (trust us, you’ll need it). It’s to introduce people to the new website and the revamped social media profiles too. It helps your target audience become more familiar with your rebrand.
Engage with Your Audience
Now that you’ve made your announcement, expect the following responses to your social media rebrand:
- Confusion (or surprise)
- Thumbs-up (or thumbs-down)
- Like
- Retweet
If you left some details in your initial announcement, it’s time to reveal more if you can.
As part of your social media rebrand plan, you need to draft messages on the frequently asked questions by your customers or followers. Expect that customers or followers who aren’t fans of the rebranding unfollow your brand. That’s why you should include advertising and publishing posts early on. It’s how you can attract more leads.
Listen and Monitor
The final step in the rebranding process is to listen and continue interacting with your fans on social media. Some might be reluctant to change, while some others might accept the new rebrand. It’s best to get feedback from your fans about it.
This way, you can assess if the rebranding was a good idea or not. Make sure to publish content that is relevant to your target audience as well. That’s how you can get more followers or fans to engage with you further.
When Do You Need a Rebrand?
You shouldn’t take rebranding lightly. It’s not just about changing your name or logo. It’s your business’ identity, a shift to a new customer base, or modernization. Whatever the reason, only make a rebrand when necessary.
Some may need a rebrand because you’ve branched out globally or made major changes internally. Perhaps, it’s an acquisition or you want to beautify your image. You have to ensure that you’ve made a thorough research on the matter and have the resources to back-up your rebrand. Maybe you’ve heard the horror stories about rebranding and that it could turn against you. So, think about it carefully.
Take Gap’s rebrand, for example. Mashable reported that Gap announced its rebrand on social media that it backfired after its customers weren’t too pleased with the new logo. As a solution, Gap even asked for customers to suggest a logo design for the brand. That didn’t even work out either resulting in a revert to their original and much familiar blue box logo.
Why It’s Not A Good Idea to Rebrand
You’ll need to understand that not every company should make a rebrand. After all, big names like Mastercard and Gap had had some unsuccessful rebranding in the past. It can backfire, which could cost you more money.
Other times, some companies would choose not to rebrand because they’ve established an identity not only within the company but with their customers too. If it doesn’t pose any problems, then what’s the point of rebranding?
Don’t join the bandwagon too. Besides, If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Stick to your brand if everything’s still in tip-top shape.
Key Takeaways
Rebranding can break the bank, especially if executed with a lack of research and if it doesn’t fit in with the times. Comprehensive research is key in deciding if a rebrand is the right choice for your business.
If you decide to rebrand, make sure to position the company not just through an announcement or a new website, but through social media too. After all, if you have a following on social media, it’s best that your customers know from the platform. That way, they’re not taken aback by the news.
Remember, not everyone will accept your new rebrand, and it might be too late to back out from it now. Just commit to your rebrand, while catering to the interests of your customer base. Plus, promote your rebrand through ads or posting more content. It’s how your leads and customers become more acquainted with the rebrand.
You need graphic designs for every part of your business. Even if you’re rebranding or not, you should get high-quality and compelling designs. Penji can provide you the designs you need to stand out from the crowd.
