Most business owners either company or startup entrepreneurs know the fact that social media presence is essential to business. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest attracts millions of users every day. That is why marketing your business on social media will help your brand to reach more potential clients and be recognized. However, the problem is that even though you are using social media platforms to market your business, you are still struggling to succeed. Why? Because it is not enough to simply be present on a platform, you need to make your presence known. Many factors contribute to a brand's success, but one of the most valuable is consistency.
You might have heard the saying: If you are persistent, you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it. This is true in every aspect of our life even on social media. Being consistent allows you to grow your engagement and reach, builds reputation and standouts among others. Here are some tips on how to be consistent in marketing your business on social media.
Consistent Brand Voice and Tone
Brand voice refers to unique and distinctive values and personality in your communication with your target audience. Understanding what your brand does, why does it matters, and knowing which age group your audience belongs allows you to make an approach that your audience will recognize. You need to keep your brand mission, vision and values when selecting your brand voice. Whether you want your voice to be personal, fun, inspiring, informational, straightforward, etc. your voice should remain consistent and unchanging throughout all the content you deliver- website content, social media posts, images, videos and any other formats. The brand tone is the way you use your voice to express your brand’s personality and values. Unlike brand voice, tones vary according to the context of messaging. Like in real life, your voice remains the same but your tone varies according to who you are talking and how you feel about what you are talking. You wouldn’t want to sound sad when announcing a sale promotion and sound funny or cheerful when delivering bad news.
Of course, finding the right voice and tone for your brand is no small task, but once you made it and you’re consistent with it, you can make your brand voice recognizable and memorable. I found this site helpful in creating a consistent brand voice and tone. I hope this will help you too.
Consistent Aesthetics
Determining your social media aesthetics -the visual look of your social media profile and content- is going to be a crucial factor in your social media presence. It provides your brand with a visual personality. Our eyes are directly connected to our minds. Whatever we see goes directly to our minds that is why we process visual information faster than textual information. Here’s what you can do:
Create and always use your logo, have it on your profile picture or you can include it in your cover photos, banner, images, and videos you create.
Create a color scheme that represents the voice and tone of your brand. Creating a color palette is easy. You can use a tool like Canva. It provides thousands of color palette template that you can use or use the generator tool to find the scheme that compliments your brand. Once you have picked a color scheme always use it for every post you publish either picture or videos.
Pick and always use your brand font style.
Create a toolkit for your aesthetics. You can also use Canva as lets you create a design and save different templates. Once saved you can replicate them for your future posts.
Consistent Content
Creating content doesn’t have to be difficult and complicated, it does need to be consistent, related to your business identity and theme, and most important, relevant to your audience. Know what your brand stands for and include that in every post. Whatever it may be, provide audiences with lots of valuable content that keeps them up-to-date on everything they need to know. Do not post/share the same content on both your social media channel. Both users expect a different type of content. You can create a Content Plan, either weekly, 15-day content, or for the whole month to prevent posting the same content again and again. Here is an example of weekly social media content plan. You can use tools such as Trello and Canva Content Planner. When you are thinking of sharing other content, consider the source before retweeting or hitting the share button. Make sure that the content you want to share is accurate by cross-checking om other trustworthy sources. As long as you make trustworthy content that you’re audiences are interested in they will not unfollow you and it will help build credibility, reputation and brand trust with your audience.
Consistent Posting
Imagine you are dating someone. He/she sends you five messages in one day then nothing for four days then three messages whenever he/she wants. Do you feel valued? Will you continue your relationship? It’s the same reason why you need to be consistent in posting. Do not post when you only have extra time. What to do? First, decide what kind of content you’re posting. Then decide when is the best time to post and schedule your post ahead of time. There are plenty of free posting tools to use. You can use Facebook Business Suite or Facebook Creator Studio to schedule Facebook and Instagram posts. Hootsuite supports scheduling posts to Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, WordPress, etc. Remember it is better to post four times in a week consistently than seven days in a row then nothing for a week. As you post consistently your audience will expect and look forward to your post. Your audiences/followers will be more likely t to comment, share and engage in your post.
Responding to Comments and Messages Consistently
Responding to comments and messages is a cardinal rule in social media marketing. You create and post valuable content to attract your target audience and when you comment and send you a message, you manage to get their attention so don’t leave them hanging. Always respond and try to do it within an hour. If you are using Facebook Page you need to pay attention to its Response Rate and Time feature. Are you aware of this? When someone sends you a private message the clock starts ticking until you respond. Instant Replies are not considered an initial response from your page. So reply quickly and consistently. In this way, you can have a “Very Responsive to Messages” badge that your clients and future clients will notice. It is not only important on Facebook. Other social media platforms do not have the Response Rate and Time feature but your client will notice if you are responsive to comments and messages. Even a simple ‘Thank you” response to a comment is important. You can also include a personal signature(name) on each reply to give a personal approach. Responding to comment, messages, and reviews both positive and negative shows that you value and care about your client’s interest.
As your audience see the consistency in your social media channels, they will recognize your brand’s presence. Being consistent is indeed a time-intensive endeavor, a great challenge for your business but it is a challenge worth taking. You don’t need to do it alone. Premier Social Media Management will always be glad to help and make things easier for you. Connect with us!