UPDATED. Do you use social media? Kind of a silly question, right? If it seems like everyone is on some form of social media these days it’s because, well, they probably are. According to Datareportal.com, as of January 2022, more than 80% of the US population and 58.4% of the total world’s population is active on social media – about 4.62 billion people worldwide. And, with the average person spending around two and a half hours a day on their devices, it’s no wonder social media has become such a valuable marketing tool. After all, it’s a “free” way to relate to your audience and let them know who you are and what you stand for. That is, if you do it right.
While having an active online presence is always a good idea for a brand, posting without a social media strategy in place can end up doing more harm than good. If you’re not mindful of what you’re posting, where you’re posting, how it looks, and what message you’re conveying, you run the risk of misrepresenting your brand. And nobody wants that.
Our clients often ask us what the best social marketing strategy is. And, while our social media marketing recommendations are unique to each individual client, there are a set of guidelines from which we never waiver.
Know yourself. Know your audience. Know your platform.
Marketing can be thought of as a series of touchpoints — methods or modes of contact between you and your potential customer. Social media can provide some wonderful opportunities to create those touchpoints. It’s helpful to set some priorities (i.e. increase brand awareness) and decide how you will measure success (i.e 20% more engagement on a specific platform, 200 more newsletter signups, etc.) to guide your action plan.
Choose your platforms carefully. Various platform popularity may wax and wane, but don’t be swayed. Instead, figure out where your audience is and whether that platform makes sense for your brand. LinkedIn is a pretty safe bet for B2B organic social marketing. Facebook can be more casual and conversational and still provide an opportunity to share your company culture and activities and help you make connections and build relationships. Instagram is great for making new connections in almost any industry, and showcasing products, services and your team in action. Regardless of what you choose, be sure that you commit to post and engage consistently. And make sure your own profile is complete and up to date.
Focus on sharing relevant content. Educate. Inspire. Share. Celebrate. Curate. Promote your team. Share your culture. Don’t sell. Celebrate a successful project? Yes. Lift up great employees, partners and vendors? Yes. Share, engage, comment on and celebrate your partners’, vendors’, and other industry folk’s content? Yes.
Remember that best practices are simply guidelines to follow. Each business is different — from the causes it supports to the culture it fosters to the work it does in the world. Embrace your uniqueness and share what feels right to you.
And don’t forget to leave room for some personality, too. Fun office events like take your kids to work day, the office holiday party, or promoting a non-business related cause you support can speak volumes about the kind of organization you are. After all, the fun of social media is letting your audience “behind the curtain” so to speak. Just be mindful of the frequency with which you run more personal and less “branded” posts, and be sure the language you use in your fun posts is still consistent with your brand.
Keep a consistent brand voice.
Your brand voice is an important part of your brand personality. What you say (the messaging you promote) and how you say it (tone and vernacular) help portray your brand personality to your audience. Much like a popular TV or movie character – or dear old mom – successful brands have distinct brand voices unique to them. Through language, word choice, sentence structure, and tone, brands can convey their mission and culture in an authentic and engaging way. However, a strong brand voice is only successful if it truly represents you, matches your brand personality, AND is consistently used across all platforms. From print ads and branded graphics to website ‘About Us’ pages and social media posts, a brand’s voice needs to remain consistent. In other words, if your social media posts are “playful” and “conversational” but your brochures and website copy are “no-nonsense professional” you’re missing the mark on your organization’s “voice.”
By the same token, we’d caution against using AI writing software like ChatGPT to “write” social media and blog posts for your brand. While AI can be a great tool for truncating certain steps of the writing process like generating headlines, narrowing down ideas, or creating an outline, it can’t (and shouldn’t) replace the human voice. Regardless of how impressive a program may seem, computer generated copy has a similar cadence and often shares phrasing. And, it lacks heart – that’s where you come in. If your audience notices that you have a computer writing your content, you risk looking inauthentic and, in turn, losing their trust.
Make sure your visual content aligns with your brand.
When your logo was created, you most likely received a brand guidelines document that, at a minimum, provided you with the colors and fonts used within your logo. Stick with a defined color palette and consistent font families when creating your visual content. Consistent use of your brand style provides continuity to your posts and helps make your brand more identifiable to your audience when they’re scrolling, which contributes to brand awareness. Ideally, a brand style guide can assist you in creating an entire look and feel for social posts (and beyond). Be consistent with backgrounds and patterns — you may use circles, smooth gradations, repeated geometrics or crisp color blocks — all opportunities to enhance your graphics. In the same vein, the images, whether photos or illustrations, should emulate a similar style. Don’t forget to mix it up a bit — include quotes, photographs, and illustrations. Photos of real people who work in your organization do really well on social media and get great traction (meaning comments and shares) from your contacts.
While your own photos are great to use when you can, it’s okay to use stock photos periodically to help “break up the grid of your feed” and catch the eye of your followers. When it comes to choosing photos for your brand, be very selective. There are always going to be great photos out there that catch your eye but that doesn’t mean they are a good fit for your company. Ask yourself if those images truly represent your brand, culture, and the message you want to convey to your audience. And finding photos that utilize your color palette is even better.
One warning about sourcing images for your brand – be careful with AI-generated imaging. It may be tempting to ask a computer program to do the searching for you – and fun to see what it creates with a little direction – however, some AI-generated art has been raising copyright infringement concerns. At the end of the day, it’s better to source your images from a reputable stock photo site such as Adobe or Shutterstock or create custom imaging for your brand.
Be mindful of social commentary.
Another important consideration is the range of topics you cover on social media.
What do you know about your customers and their interests? What is your community talking about? If those topics fit with your business and your brand, chime in. If you’re a nonprofit, celebrate other people and businesses who are serving your community. If you’re a business coach, go ahead and share tips on leadership best practices, trends, or productivity tools. If you’re a service provider, share case studies including problems solved and impact stories. Your community will be interested in the content when they can “see themselves” and the posts can help to strengthen relationships with your fans.
It’s also important to know when NOT to speak up. Has anyone ever said to you, “Mind your own business!” when you chimed in on a private matter that didn’t concern you? While the command is rude, the practice of staying in your lane is a good one. If your business isn’t associated with a political party or cause, skip the political posts. Resist the urge to “get on the bandwagon” of posting about a headline social issue just because it’s trendy. When your posts are not authentic to your brand, you risk alienating the very people with whom you want to connect. However, if you are aligned with a specific cause, absolutely share your voice, and be prepared to back it up.
Whatever topics you choose, be sure your posts authentically represent who you are and what you stand for.
Be sure to listen. And engage.
As a brand growing a social presence, your job is not done once that post has been published. Customers often use social media as a platform for communication and thus expect you to do the same. If your posts are getting a lot of comments and reactions, be responsive. And yes, that includes posts with negative comments as well. Oftentimes, followers want to know that a business owner is aware of any complaints or concerns and is addressing them. But social media comments are also how customers will often compliment a product or service, thus promoting your business for you in a thread. Quickly responding to comments of any kind is the best way to keep your audience engaged and your reputation as a brand intact.
If you need help enhancing your brand’s social media presence reach out to insight180. We’d love to help.
One final note.
Remember, social media, while a great tool, is content that is owned and managed by someone else. Do we need to remind you about all of the changing algorithms? Be sure that your social media mix sometimes takes people back to your website for some content. And do your very best to get newsletter signups, so that you “own” the contact in preparation for the next algorithm change.
