Several years ago Facebook pages were called “Fan” pages. Each person that liked your page, was a fan. Though confusing for some, for marketing it was a great way to look at people that love your brand. Additionally, its a great way to see the brand influencing people. You see, fandom is a real thing, and that interest once attained can be lost, squandered or misused. Meaning it’s used for manipulation not genuine likability, or appreciation.
Why Does Branding Influence?
Simply put, branding Is Eyes On You. Unfortunately, often times branding is about as neglected as SEO or the quality of a well designed and structured website. That’s why today we have new job positions of Digital Strategists, Brand Managers, and Web Architects. Sometimes these folks may be referred to as Full Stack Designers or even Marketers. Then again, maybe I’m using fancy words, again. It’s weird times we live in. Truth is, for your brand, you have to have a strategy to capture attention.
Protip: The more amount of people looking equals the more they click thru. Thus, traffic to your site can equal potentially good SEO. Remember, SEO as it stands today is much bigger than just keywords on a page.
With emphasis being getting people to “look over there”, it’s crucial to have something for them to look over there and see. Not just fancy or fun content, but quality and memorable content. Top of mind is a fancy term that tells those of us new to this that we need to make sure we are thought of first for that service or purchase. Not the other guys.
With a strategy in place and monthly services keeping it fresh and with new content, you’ll not waiver too much in your attempts to get the looks you want.
Below is our brands review from Facebook. Most people wouldn’t share such things, but I’m more inclined to in order to prove a point.
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Webcast, September 7th: Growth Hacking: Everything that is Working Right Now (Brand New Hacks)
The “reach” is the eyes on the brand. Now the drop is due to internal focus. We’re busy on a few outside projects and didn’t mind the house. Think of the old adage of the cobbler’s son has no shoes. Thus, the drop from 2,249 eyes, to 1,675 in the last week.
Engagement could always be better, but staff focus is not there right now. Having dedicated people on your brand is required, and in house.
Then why hire an agency?
Professionals that work on Social Media Marketing are skilled at how to use the networks. Its bigger than having an online profile and a phone. The exception is those few that have posted something and went viral. But not all brands are going to happen like that.
Agencies can “wire” it all up, and find the best times and audience to post to. For more on that we have other posts covering it, and our podcast Nerd Brand talks about Social Media a bit too on this. [link to article or embed podcast episode]
Increasing Engagement
Content is the hardest thing to craft. But any strategy will fall apart if certain things do not happen. Constant involvement from everyone on your team is a good place to begin. If they have a phone they can take a pic, video, and post.
People use their phones for almost everything. So when you are working hard on a blog post for your company, or that picture you want shared to promote you and what’s happening. You need people. Social media is for people, not brands. Therefore, brands need to create “fans” not opportunities. The opportunities come later as a result. People don’t want to be sold. As a brand on social media, you have to earn the right to place in front of them your sell. If they don’t know you, or like you, they don’t trust you. Thus, you won’t sell. In fact you’ll run the risk of being blackballed. No one will approach you if you try a bait and switch because you are not patient with this. I’ve seen it happen, it’s UGLY.
Blood, Sweat and Tears and Friends
I’m being overly dramatic. I joke there’s no blood required. It’ll just feel like it. Building your brands influence online requires a ton of work up front. Something that no one can do alone and accomplish from scratch. You need friends (not just the Facebook kind, real life ones), co-workers and other online brands. If you have partnerships to help you, use them. This is something I don’t see a lot of given that Facebook allows cross posting for business pages. So ask and use those relationships to create new ones, and the new opportunities will happen.
Last Things
Have fun with your posts. If you take yourself too seriously no one will be attracted to you. It’s like dating. No one dates the person that smells and chews with their mouth open. Be considerate online. Don’t troll, spam or be a jerk. Personally, I’m sarcastic, but not everyone gets me. So remember online things translate differently. As you are seen online more, and people get to know your brand’s language, they’ll understand and be graceful about it. But until then, don’t share or post everything at once there tiger.
