Thinking Outside the Box: Branding Ventures on Alternative Social Channels

Authored by  Vinay Babani, VP Operations, SRV Media

The social media landscape is evolving, transcending the bounds of major giants like Facebook and Instagram. Brands are eager to expand their reach, foster connections with target audiences, beyond borders, and explore new territories. As a result of their search, Telegram, Twitch, Clubhouse, LinkedIn, and more alternatives to Instagram have emerged as another source of brand development, audience segmentation, targeting and development.

Exploring the Alternative Landscape

For brands, it is essential to comprehend the elements of every stage for making compelling brand campaigns: 

• Telegram: Telegram has been effectively assisting brands in promoting themselves, enhancing the authenticity of their offerings, overcoming challenges, and encouraging user-generated content.
• Twitch: Twitch, a live gaming streaming platform, has gained popularity for promoting brands. KFC has built a strong relationship with Twitch‘s Ben Lupo to promote its chicken wings on live streams.
• Clubhouse: Clubhouse, a social audio app, offers a great experience to its users in a private and exclusive space. Using this platform, brands can conduct discussions or Q&A-style sessions to foster connections with their target audience.
• LinkedIn: Companies are leveraging LinkedIn to interact with a wider audience with greater professionalism than ever before. Microsoft, IBM and Deloitte have all made use of LinkedIn to share their industry knowledge and promote their services effectively.

For effective brand development on these alternative platforms, brands must build a deeper understanding that includes distinct user demographics and behaviours. Brands must design content and campaigns depending on these platforms’ audiences and their unique preferences and interests.

Successful Campaigns and Collaboration

Here are some real-world examples of how these alternative platforms have helped brands:

• Microsoft, in collaboration with LinkedIn, shared data on how a hybrid work environment promoted flexibility, different work styles, and a culture of innovation
• Gillette, through a collaboration with Twitch streamers, successfully promoted its products.

 Understand the Challenges and Opportunities

Brands must know that exploring something new always comes with challenges. In exploring new platforms, they must understand the algorithms of the platforms, create unique content that fits the platform, and adapt to the community’s customs and behaviour patterns.

Yet, brands can establish a strong market presence by focusing on new content formats, enabling businesses to build relationships via unique marketing strategies tailored to the community’s dynamics.

Expert Insights and Best Practices

Branding through alternative social media platforms requires expert guidance, patience, and best practices.

• Each platform operates differently with different languages and cultures.. Companies should understand this and collaborate with them accordingly.
• It is a pivotal step for brands to monitor the platform’s trends and content strategy.
• Sticking to best practices is vital. Companies should try new content and interaction formats and study data.

Social media is constantly changing and evolving, and brands must dive into alternative channels to stay strong and optimised for relevance to the new social media landscape and meet the requirements of their target audience. Brands can leverage these platforms and other similar alternatives for their growth, engage with their audience, and innovate opportunities.