Building your brand on social media as part of your marketing strategy can lead to a steady increase in sales, recommendations, or endorsements of your services. Whether your company is a merry band of one or if you have a substantial team at your disposal, we can help you. And we promise, it’s certainly not as daunting as you might think.
What’s your brand personality on social media channels?
by Amy RountreeBranding
You may reflect that true and consistent branding is largely the preserve of the great and good, the rich and powerful; those with a wealth of expertise at their fingertips and plenty of staff on hand to bring that brand to life. It is certainly true that large organisations have the means and ability to replicate a consistent tone of voice across their digital channels as well as offline. But they’re not the only ones who can make branding a success on social media; you can do it too.
Helpful article: Your four step social media audit
What’s working for you?
Firstly, make sure your profiles are complete. Take a good look at what is currently working for your business, and what could do with sprucing up. Build on your successes, and learn from posts styles that appear to have flopped to make the improvements where needed going forward. Check whether your social media biographies are up to date, and whether they are consistent across your channels. Identify a few key pieces of information that you want your customers to know about you, then write a snappy bio summarising your salient points
Helpful articles:
Choosing your profile picture
The same goes for your profile pictures. Do you currently use your company’s logo, or a more personalised image? Consider using your logo as a guide when making colour decisions across your social channels. This will ensure unification across each feed. Use your company’s colours, alongside a bank of complementary shades to help structure your feeds - ideally, you want a layperson or a potential customer to be able to recognise your brand at a glance. Make good use of the more visual social channels (such as Instagram and Pinterest) and include relevant imagery in your Twitter and Facebook feeds, too.
Helpful Article: Your 4-step social media audit. Step 2: Do you look the part?
Set the right tone
Perhaps the most important element to pin down on social media is your tone of voice. The way you communicate with your customers is vital. Have a think about your ideal customer, and the way they will communicate. Consider the things they will want to hear from you, and how best you can convey your message to them, while adding value to their social feeds. We have found some examples from Innocent Drinks and Boohoo, take a look at the Twitter posts below.
What we can learn from the examples here is how a strongly defined tone of voice is an extension of a company brand - it both sets out and meets expectations.
Innocent is a cheerful, lighthearted brand who dabble in current affairs but largely aim to entertain their audience and use this community feel to encourage customers to buy their products.
Boohoo is a youthful, lively brand, and this is clearly demonstrated in their social feeds and their understanding of their customers’ interests.
Making yourself relevant and relatable on social media to your ideal customer is vital. Your audience should want to engage with you; all you need to do is provide the ideal platform for them to do so.
THINGS YOU COULD TRY GIVING UP FOR LENT:
• Chocolate
• Sweets
• Cigarettes
• AlcoholTHINGS YOU SHOULD NOT GIVE UP FOR LENT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES:
• Tasty drinks made from crushed fruitThis tweet is brought to you by the innocent department of totally impartial advice.
— innocent drinks (@innocent) February 26, 2020
"I'm only going to have one drink tonight"
Me and my bestie in the club 2 hours later: pic.twitter.com/L8q4mT240T
— boohoo (@boohoo) March 5, 2020
Check out the competition
Review your competitors’ feeds as a means of assessing what works for them, and what you feel may work for you, too. However - and this is important - imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but copying is never a good idea. Your customers want to know about YOUR company, and what sets you apart from the rest.
Helpful article: How engaging is your competitors content?
The in-person experience
Is your business online only, or do you have a premises that you operate from? If you are reliant on footfall, it is important to ensure that the hard work you’ve done ensuring consistency across your social channels is replicated for your customers in person, too. Then carry the in-person experience back to your social feeds to demonstrate that you care about your customers both on and offline.
Give branding a go; test it out. Reflect on the changes you’ve made, and adapt where necessary, if necessary. It may take some time to fully correlate your branding, but that’s all part of the fun. Once you’ve got it right, your business should reap the rewards.
Key takeaways
- Be consistent - this will help manage your customers’ expectations
- Review regularly to ensure you are achieving maximum results for your efforts
- Clarify your tone of voice to make sure you are attracting the right customer for your business
- Make your customers feel cared for on social media - and in person
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