• Do: Understand your brand’s power: Branding is a way of defining your identity which expresses the values of your business. The first step that you need to take is defining your brand. There are benefits of a defined brand, it encourages customers to emotionally connect to the same values, leading to customer loyalty.

• Do: Establish brand guidelines: An essential value for a small business brand is that it is familiar. Without defined guidelines for different aspects of brand branding, your brand will lack consistency and direction. Guidelines that are carefully crafted can help to reinforce and maintain your branding characteristics as you roll them across your company marketing materials.

• Do: Design to impress and engage: When brands have a unique style and designs that could raise emotions, they are instantly recognizable. A graphic designer with good qualities is something that you should have in your marketing materials; the design should exude professionalism and trigger feelings of reassurance to reinforce the value of the brand.

• Do: Create a thorough and brand- friendly profile: Just like your own website, your social media pages should describe the services and products that you offer in detail. It is important that you fill in all the information fields on the pages of your profile, this so that visitors know what you do and what they can expect from your business. When you are creating a profile, you should add the link of your own website to the information, so it makes is easier for them to find your website.

• Do: Think outside the box: Nowadays it is not enough to have a cleverly crafted content that tells people about your products. Many companies have created a loyalty program, to keep the customer from going to the competitor. You can think of ways to use your social media pages as an extension of your loyalty program if you created one.

• Don’t: Create a vague brand or over- complicate it: The first impression sets the standard of every interaction with your brand. The efficiency of your brand communication can have an impact on your success and that of the product. It is important that you avoid vague statements, your brand should be an enthusiastic reflection of what it stands for.

• Don’t: Forget to monitor your brand’s usage: After you have defined your brand guidelines, you need to be proactive in monitoring how your branded elements are being used. Keep in mind that every time you drift away from your brand guidelines, you weaken the power and association with a more unified branding campaign. With consistency, you give your company the opportunity to become sustainable, build trust and grow profits.

• Don’t: Try to mimic the look of chains or big brands: As a small business, you should slice out your own identity and leverage. Your independent status could be something that attracts future customers that are looking for more original offerings, which are authentic and align with how they feel about themselves.

• Don’t: Sign up for every social media site: With so many social media platforms out there, it would be a waste of your time and resources if you are trying to learn and participate in all of them. You should choose the one that your target audience uses the most, this information is easily to find, if you do a market research.

• Don’t: Go overboard: Advertising your loyalty program on social media, can be resourceful but don’t clutter your customers’ feeds with an overwhelming amount of information. Be mindful of the content that you want to share and when you want to share it.