Your Brand on Social Media
When most people think of “branding,” they think of a distinctive design -- Starbucks’ green mermaid, Twitter’s iconic light blue or Coca-Cola’s signature script font.
Today, social media allows businesses to build their brands not only by having a unique logo and font but also by sharing content directly with the audience and fostering a relationship with them. Although building a brand takes time, the brand you establish with your online presence makes you a go-to source of information for your industry.
Credible content and interactions are critical to your social media brand. While sharing your expertise online, remember to be a real person and engage conversationally to create connections with users on the platform. Any social media presence you have is traceable to you, so treat it like a “digital business card,” using the media tools to draw the attention of potential clients.
The online spaces you should be in
Website and Blog Your personal website is the best place to authentically show who you are and what you stand for. Your website’s content is totally owned and operated by you, so be sure that the voice of your brand is heard in your copy.
When you have a blog about industry topics live on your site, it shows enthusiasm for your work and enhances your credibility to your audience. Some best practices for blogging include keeping a consistent schedule, short paragraphs, thoughtful analysis of the topic and including visuals and links to spark interaction.
Twitter Twitter’s distinguishing feature is its 280 character limit, so your posts need to be succinct. Since users on the app won’t want to spend long reading, Twitter is great for sharing links to longer content on your website.
If you would like to have more information on one topic on your profile, consider creating a thread (series of connected Tweets) or using a specific hashtag to group tweets of similar content together. Twitter also has retweets and replies, allowing you to join conversations with others who are interested in your content.
Facebook Utilizing a Facebook business page is key for knowing your audience, boosting your web traffic and engaging with customers.
It’s best to post on Facebook once a day, or at least three times a week, and remain consistent with your posting schedule. On professional Facebook pages, you are able to schedule posts in advance with applications like Buffer, Later or Hootsuite.
Successful Facebook posts typically include an image and text with a call to action.
Hashtags aren’t as ingrained in Facebook culture, so be sure to include a call to action in some of your posts to invite people to comment and interact.
Instagram Instagram is all about letting the visuals tell the story. It’s best to make your text portions concise and use hashtags to get your content noticed by users who are not following you.
On Instagram, less is more. If this platform is one you want to prioritize for your business, post a few times per week, but avoid sharing consecutively in a short time span.
Pro Tip: You can connect your Instagram to other social media accounts! There's an option when you share a photo or video to also publish it on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr.
LinkedIn LinkedIn is a professional social networking site. It’s definitely a research treasure trove for company pages that are related to yours and can be used to help discover what's trending in your industry.
For more on how to use LinkedIn for business, click here.
When cultivating your brand on social media, remember to spread more than just your own content. In order to make more connections and grow your audience, share some interesting work from others in your industry.
By creating these accounts, you are becoming a part of the social media community. Make sure you monitor trending topics to find conversations related to topics where you can engage with your audience.
As with everything else, remember to routinely look at how you’re doing on social media. Regularly visit your analytics pages for each platform to refine your strategy and assess how your content and brand voice are performing on the web. To wrap up our branding series on the blog, check back next week for how to be consistent with your brand across multiple social platforms.