Ever had someone complain that your product is too much of what is setup to do?
As in someone complaining
“there is too much chocolate in the chocolate cake”?
This just happened to us – someone saying our brand-building-focused social media management tool Ägile Ässets would be “too focused on brand building”?
So, yeah, I have seen the unbelievable happen – and I wear it as a badge of honour.
Here’s why.
There’s a dirty secret in social media that nobody wants to discuss: high engagement numbers often mask a deeper problem. They’re not just meaningless – they might actively be working against your goals.
Let me give you a LinkedIn example.
As a pretty woman, it’s relatively easy to get attention there with a nice photo.
You’ll get likes.
You’ll get impressions.
Your metrics will look great.
But what if your goal was positioning yourself as a savvy tech entrepreneur?
You’ve just worked against yourself.
Those engaging with your post aren’t seeing you for your expertise – they’re seeing you for something entirely different.
While the “data” looks good, your brand-building has taken a step backwards.
Brand Building IS Sales Building
Here’s a common misconception I keep hearing:
“Should I focus on brand building OR sales?”
This question itself reveals a fundamental misunderstanding.
Strong brand building IS sales building – just not in the desperate, short-term way many expect.
Think about it:
What makes sales hard?
Lack of trust.
Price sensitivity.
Being seen as interchangeable with competitors.
Now, what does good brand building solve?
It builds trust.
It justifies premium pricing.
It makes you distinctly memorable.
Every time someone says, “I keep seeing you everywhere” (while you’re actually posting less than they think), that’s brand building, creating sales opportunities.
Every time someone reaches out saying, “I’ve been following your content for a while,” that’s brand building doing the heavy lifting of sales qualification.
Contact point by contact point “on brand” – till they knock on your door – say hi!
From Marketing Expert to SAAS Specialist: A Personal Journey
I know this works from personal experience. When I decided to evolve my positioning from marketing expert to SAAS and AI specialist, I took a different approach.
Instead of chasing engagement, I focused on consistently sharing insights about SAAS, then AI, building on my existing expertise.
The metrics weren’t always spectacular, sometimes even triggering doubt.
Months later, I received an invitation ‘out of the blue’ (but triggered by the new positioning) to speak at an industry event in Munich that allowed me to highlight my expertise in front of 120 people from the exact right audience – which then led to more opportunities.
That’s what real brand building looks like – it compounds into actual business opportunities (whether it is B2B or B2C does not matter btw).
The Signs of Brand Building Success (That Matter More Than Likes)
Part of the problem why people think they need to decide between taking care of branding OR sales is a misunderstanding about the timeline. You might think brand building takes forever to show results. This is not true. Especially if you cleverly use Social Media, you can start seeing the first results within weeks with a bit of luck and definitely within 3-6 months tangible effects.
You’ll start seeing signs that matter far more than engagement metrics:
- People start using your exact product language without realising it. When potential customers describe their needs in your terms, that’s not a coincidence – that’s your brand messaging becoming their mental model (this is especially effective in B2C as it allows for mouth-to-mouth – my mome is a specialist in that one! 😉
- The “stumbled across you” myth. People will say they “just stumbled over” you / your product when, in reality, they’ve been seeing your consistent brand presence for weeks. That’s not luck – that’s your brand building working exactly as designed.
- Quality over quantity in engagement. Instead of drive-by likes, you get thoughtful comments and direct meeting requests from exactly the kind of customers you want to attract.
- And sometimes – maybe even my personal favourite today 😉 – you get criticism for what your brand IS. When someone complains that your product is exactly what you designed it to be? That’s clarity in action. Your brand is doing its job: attracting your ideal customers and repelling those who aren’t a good fit.
The Death Spiral of Social Spam (Or: Why Playing Hard to Get Still Works)
Here’s a truth about social media that might sound counterintuitive: being everywhere, all the time, is the fastest way to become invisible. Think of it like dating.
Nobody develops a crush on someone who’s desperately seeking attention 24/7.
Brand building with style is about striking a balance between being present where and by whom you should be noticed and making yourself “rare enough” to be interesting.
At Ägile Ässets we see this play out regularly through our platform’s resilience system, which alerts both us and users when scheduled posts fail to publish. When we see multiple failures with “account temporarily restricted” notices, it’s almost always a sign of someone trying too hard.
Users who truly understand brand value almost never encounter platform restrictions. They’re too busy crafting meaningful presences to fall into the spam trap.
The antidote to this death spiral is simple but profound: “Trying and doing too hard” is mostly driven by fear. Instead, invest in setting up a solid brand base and story to aim for, be consistent – and then KNOW you can trust the process.
Let yourself be inspired by your dream, not driven by your (sales) problem.
The Myth of Mechanical Consistency
So, what does healthy consistency actually look like? It’s time to bust one of social media’s most persistent myths.
There’s a widespread belief in social media marketing that consistency means posting every day at 9 AM sharp or, worse, “knock on their door” all the time,
or
your brand will die.
Let me be honest with you:
This is NOT how it works.
Real brand consistency is about:
- maintaining your voice,
- your quality standards,
- and your overall presence – not about hitting arbitrary scheduling targets.
It’s like running a welcoming shop:
First, you need to be in the right location where your ideal customers naturally pass by.
Then, your window display needs to catch their eye while they’re scrolling – sorry, walking – past. Maybe they’ll stop for a closer look, perhaps even step inside for a browse.
What matters isn’t that you obsessively open your doors at exactly the same minute every day or scream “Welcome, come inside” to every passerby but that when people do find you, they get a consistent experience that makes them want to return.
This philosophy shapes everything we do at Ägile Ässets.
Our brand overview isn’t just another content calendar – it’s your bird’s-eye view of how your brand story unfolds over time. That’s why you can add and move around (!) campaign and content pillar markers – so you have enough structure never to get stuck but feel that it is ok to move things around as you see fit. It helps you maintain that perfect balance:
being present enough to build relationships but not so omnipresent that you become wallpaper.
Brand Building is Trust Building
At its core, brand building is about earning trust. And trust? That’s inherently human. No automation can replace that.
Just this week, I took the time to give detailed, individual answers to a potential customer who had signed up for multiple trials (not exactly kosher, but stay with me). Instead of exchanging automated responses vs. ‘aha, ok’, we had a real conversation.
The result: A heartfelt “letter” of appreciation and a purchase.
Why?
I simply acted on the awareness that there’s a real human on the other side.
Try it – you’ll be surprised how often people – especially online – FEEL and appreciate that.
That’s the essence of brand building: creating genuine connections that compound over time.
Yes, it takes more effort than flooding social media with automated posts.
Yes, it requires actual human attention.
Honestly, it has amazing side effects: This kind of depth helps you and your marketing/sales team not to feel like robots.
It’s a game changer for keeping up motivation –
nothing like a happy response from a real human!
And yes, our tool is built specifically to support this approach – to be super professional and well-prepared in creating your social media posts and managing your assets efficiently and with ease. This frees up the mental and emotional energy you need for creative quality – both in the posts themselves and in the interactions that follow – because we’ve seen firsthand that it works.
Freebie: Our “Brand Builder’s Reality Check” Worksheet
Nothing like a touch of healthy reflection once in a while. Download, print and use the following to do this on your own – or in a team do it each, then discuss. Should you see the need for adaptation, simply pin it, take over the suggested action – then review 2-4 weeks later. And let me know how it went!
The Brand Builder’s Reality Check Goodie by Ägile Ässets
So when someone says our tool is “too focused” on brand building?
We answer: “Yay! Happy you noticed! That’s exactly the point. There is no such thing as too much brand focus.”
Very much the same as there is no “too many people are trusting us too much”. 😉
In a world obsessed with automation and efficiency, we’re proud to have created a tool for people who understand that real brand value comes from genuine, consistent human presence.
After all, if you’re not building a brand, what are you building?
The best time to build a brand was 10 years ago. The second best time is now. But rushing it won’t make up for lost time – it’ll just waste more of it.
This article was written for you by Kristin Reinbach, CEO and Product Lead at Ägile Ässets, drawing from 20 years of real experiences in brand building, social media management – and an entrepreneurial life. 😉
Pics used here (thanks so much – we love them!):
- the cool guy at the top is by Jon Tyson
- the super tasty-looking chocolate cake is by Kittiwat Pheramunchai
- the Western style detour – here due to branding gone wrong – by Alexey Taktarov
- the beautiful desert door – by Angela Pham
- the variety for the brand hat picture is by Joshua Coleman
- the nicely minimal nature scenery is by Belinda Fewings
