Consistent brand messaging will make you more recognizable across multiple platforms. Major brands succeed because they consistently meet a customer expectation. As a small business, you need to do the same. Your brand should evoke an experience, a feeling rather than a business. Once you provoke an emotional reaction in your clients, you have arrived at a successful place in your marketing to them.
Consistency
Your website, social media profiles and everything you do online should present a cohesive brand identity. Many businesses invest time and money in their website – a great place to start – but they fail to carry over the strong branding on their website to their social media. What a missed opportunity!
Set up official, branded social spaces on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks that make sense for your business. Your customers will look for you there, and you don’t want their search to come up empty. If you engage customers through video promotion, consider a branded Youtube channel.
Your customers should be able to recognize your brand immediately when they see you online. Keep your logo, design, colour schemes and themes consistent and prominent. Customize your profile settings as much as possible to your brand and include a well written bio along with your essential information. Social media platforms frequently update their tools and settings, so keep up to date on new trends.
Cross Platform Promotion
Cross platform promotion (CPP) makes it easy for small business to stay active on multiple social media platforms and more effectively manage their brand online. CPP applications – like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck – help you manage all of your social profiles so that you can post a single post on multiple platforms with the click of a button.
The temptation with CPP is to fire out message after message and rest assured that your brand is reaching the right people. If you rely too heavily on these tools, they can backfire. These can be fantastic efficiency tools for a small business, but they should not replace engagement.
Remember the social in social media. One of the greatest things about social media is your ability to monitor and manage how your brand message is received. By all means post the same content on multiple profiles, but be sure to engage with the unique audience available to you on each channel.
Connectivity
The easiest step you can take to enhance your web presence is to connect your online profiles. Your website should be your headquarters, the first place customers visit for information about your business. Have clear links on your website to your social media spaces, ideally in the prominent top-left position. Link back to your website on your social profiles.
Be search friendly. Your customers will search for you on their social media networks, so make sure your business is easy to find using predictable search terms. Whenever possible, use the same user name, logo and brand identity so that, when they do find you, they recognize you without a doubt.
While user-friendly software and social media certainly make it easier to take control of your brand online, it can still be overwhelming. At Blue Cow Creative, we know you’re busy working to make your business the best it can be. We’re here to help you to optimize your online profiles to power up your brand.
