Ask any marketing professional for their No. 1 social media tip, and their answer will likely tie back to consistency. A successful social media presence in the modern age means having not only a consistent posting schedule, but consistent post quality and branding across all channels you use. We polled Young Entrepreneur Council to gather their best advice for keeping all your social media accounts on-brand.
“Branding across channels can be difficult. How do you keep your social media on brand? “
Social Media Branding Tips
Here’s what YEC community members had to say:
1. Establish and Share Brand Guidelines
“To keep the brand identity consistent across channels, it’s important to have clear brand guidelines that get shared with every vendor, content creator and team. These brand guidelines should contain very specific instructions, including what fonts to be used, the specific colors used by the brand, etc. Upload the fonts, logo and any other brand assets to a folder that others can access.” ~ Marcela De Vivo, Mulligan Funding
2. Create a Strategy and System for It
“Create a strategy for the majority of your posts and schedule them out. This allows you to think about the content you’ll deliver, and makes it easier to make sure that all content, across all platforms, shows consistency and can be recognized on any channel. A strong brand can be identified on any form of marketing because of the strategy behind the brand.” ~ Daniel Griggs, ATX Web Designs, LLC
3. Stick with Platforms That Are Right for Your Brand.
“One way that businesses lose sight of their branding strategy is when they spread themselves too thin and try to have a presence everywhere. It’s hard to have a consistent branding approach if you’re publishing on 20 different sites every day. Focus on the sites that are a good match for your customers. Then develop a look and style that you can implement across channels.” ~ Kalin Kassabov, ProTexting
4. Make Your Visual Campaigns Consistent with Each Other
“Every brand should not only have a consistent look and feel but have a consistent level of quality. Without well-made, custom visual assets, your brand runs the risk of sending the message that quality isn’t important to you. Marketers need to reimagine every campaign as a visual campaign, then plan all assets around a common goal, repurposing assets as needed to optimize them for each channel.” ~ Amy Balliett, Killer Infographics
5. Make Your Content Appropriate for Everyone
“Consider a straightforward “E for Everyone” guideline approach. Having your brand and team abide by this means the content — including what is shared on social media — should be acceptable (grandma wouldn’t blush at the tone or use of language), accessible (anyone should be able to understand what we’re saying) and inclusive (consider all points of view and avoid offending a customer group).” ~ David Ciccarelli, Voices.com
6. Avoid Marketing Gimmicks
“Many marketers are quick to publish witty social media posts they believe may go viral. Of course, the attention they gain is almost always short-lived yet the potential damage they cause their brand may be permanent. Entrepreneurs can keep their social media efforts on-brand by restricting staff from posting gimmicky content. Encourage your team to take a long-view with their marketing efforts.” ~ Firas Kittaneh, Amerisleep
7. Create Video Content
“Approximately 80% of people are more likely to watch a video than reading content and more than 60% will probably buy a product or service based on what they saw. Using video content just makes senses. It allows my company to establish a visual brand among viewers keeping us relevant on all social media platforms.” ~ Patrick Barnhill, Specialist ID, Inc.
8. Understand the Psychology of Each Channel and Adjust as Needed
“Most companies using social media assume that each channel is just another place to post the same message. Each channel has a different psychology and is used differently by its users and your strategy needs to fit what works on that channel. To keep your branding consistent and effective, study what works for other successful companies on each channel and adjust your content as needed to fit in.” ~ Justin Faerman, Conscious Lifestyle Magazine
9. Tell Real Stories
“I’ve never been a big believer in corporate branding. The most effective type of branding is doing it through people. Every social media platform I create and publish content for has my voice in it. As long as we’re human and we’re telling real stories, that’s on brand enough.” ~ Alex Berman, Experiment 27
10. Stay Authentic
“Develop brand guidelines so that you only endorse and publish material that aligns with your brand’s mission. Going beyond this though, it’s key to stay authentic to your brand and its message. If your brand is lighthearted and humorous, like a healthy snacks company, don’t be political. If you’re a research firm, don’t go for humor, go for authority. Stay true to your values and yourselves.” ~ Kristopher Jones, LSEO.com
Photo via Shutterstock