I see so many brands missing the “social” aspect of social branding and burying their chances of success. Here are some ideas for stayin’ alive.
Know your audience. Did you know that Facebook has a different audience than LinkedIn? You need to know who you’re reaching through each social media outlet so that you can tailor your messages accordingly. Set yourself up for success with some word association reminders: Facebook – Friends, LinkedIn – Look Professional, Twitter – Interact.
Be consistent. Focus on a few specific identifying characteristics or core values of your brand. Make sure your profiles all promote your brand in a similar visual way- Target (NYSE: TGT) hits the mark by not overwhelming us with logo repetition but instead, using creative design in the same color scheme and fonts.
Check your sales pitch at the door. Take the time to interact with other brands, products and trends so your audience can see you being social with them, not at them. Add value by sharing links or relevant things of interest and thank your new followers.
Get regular. I get it- there are a lot A LOT of options out there. Pick and choose the social media outlets that you like and can use easily or consider using a dashboard like Hootsuite to transform time spent into time managed. The only way to build a strong social brand is to consistently work on it.
What do you think? What else has helped you in your quest to brand? If you found this post helpful, leave a comment, send me an @ModernMarketeur or share with your network.
Modern Marketeur 
[…] Stop Killing Your Social Brand […]
[…] Stop Killing Your Social Brand […]
[…] First off, Twitter will give you back what you put into it. You can’t just chirp all day and expect people to want to listen to you. First off, (1) You must improve your profile. Upload a real headshot and design a consistent background (Twitbacks is a great free background creation tool) to match. Does your @username represent your business correctly? Might be a good idea to ditch @internetuser and pick something that clearly identifies you or your business, like your name for instance. Also, make sure you’ve got a feed of tweets that visually reinforces your brand’s message. Eliminate tweets with too many hashtags and double check your links for accurate content and spelling. Retweet with discretion – this is your/your business’) stamp of approval, after all. (2) You must interact. This means: attending tweet-ups, asking for re-tweets and joining tweet chats via the designated hashtags. If you spend all your time promoting yourself people will get bored and stop following you. If you are actually getting people tweeting in response to your feed, respond to them! Thank them for following you and follow them back. Walk the line between being enthusiastic and annoying (remember that kid in high school who tried too hard?). To this point, the next thing is (3) You must create interest. Sending out teasers that link back to you blog or tweeting in the form of question + link will encourage people to interact with you. Creating copy that creates conversation is ideal and it leads me to (4) You must optimize your tweets. Use the 140 characters you’ve got for all they’re worth by considering your target audience and including words, hashtags and phrases that hone in to their twitterspheres like perfectly targeted SEO missiles. Lastly, (5) You must stay at it. If you’ve followed someone who didn’t follow you back, unfollow them. Using platforms like Hootsuite, keep your chirping continuous. Unless you suddenly become a celebrity the likes of @aplusk then the most you can hope for is that have an active and interested network of followers who will keep your finger on the pulse of your target audience and who you can consider part of a solid social marketing and branding strategy. […]