Brand Storytelling Archives - The Social Media Advisor

February 15, 2023
Blog, Brand Storytelling, Content Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Engagement, Social Media Strategy, Video in Social Media

Influencing the Culture of Your Social Media Followers

Social media is an excellent tool for demonstrating a positive company culture, grabbing the attention of your ideal clients, and attracting and retaining talent. The following tips will help you use social media to demonstrate your company culture and co-create your social media experience with your audience!

Be Transparent

It’s a well known fact that most social media accounts aren’t being managed by the business owner. Or that the posts are being scheduled in advance. And while both of these means of outsourcing can be a great thing for small business owners, it’s important to do this the right way. Your audience needs to know you are there for them. That who you say you are and who you actually are align. That you’ll be there for them if/when they comment and engage. If you want to build trust with your followers, it starts with your authentic presence. You don’t need to show you audience everything about your life, but letting them in here and there will showcase that you are a real person, with real feelings, looking to make a big impact on the world – and they’ll love you for it!

Create Culture-Lead Content

People will be drawn to your online persona based on your content. The type of content you create will have a direct correlation on who follows you and how they engage with your posts. Each post should be designed and each caption written in a strategic manner. Begin by asking these questions about your content:

How do you want the viewer to feel?
What transformational impact are you delivering with this post?
What action do you want the viewer to take after seeing your content?

If you want a highly engaged audience culture, you’ll have to focus on encouraging your audience to respond, reply, and share your post. This isn’t easy. Often simply asking can work but not all the time. You’ll want to create excitement and interest to stop the mindless scrolling and get people to interact with your work.

Connect

One of the best ways to lead the social media culture of your online presence is to be present. If you can schedule time to have live conversations, Q&A events, educational videos where people can comment, ask questions, and engage in conversation with you in real time – they will start to feel truly invested in what you are building. They’ll feel connected with you and your brand. Schedule times to show up and just talk to your people. Yes, there will be trolls but those are easy to block, delete, or ignore. Your target audience will be there too and that is an opportunity worth showing up for!

Anyone can build a Social Media Page, but do they know how to build it correctly with the right social media marketing story and strategy for business, the right keywords and really target your ideal client? We build brands, write searchable copy for your profiles and develop strategies to expand your reach and build relationships using solid Social Media Marketing techniques. Since 2008, our team has provided support to clients Nationwide in online marketing. Find out more at our website.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

January 19, 2023
Blog, Relationship Marketing, Social Engagement, Social Media Strategy

People Are Drawn to a Great Business Story

Since the dawn of humanity, people have been drawn to a good story. In a world of ads and sales, the one thing that makes a great online business stand out from all the noise is their ability to tell a great business story. Brand storytelling flips traditional marketing on its head. More than just advertising, a brand story grabs your audience’s attention and makes them feel something.

If you want to really make an impact with your social media marketing, you must be able to tell a great business story!

Social media marketing was never about only posting promotional content and waiting for someone to open their wallet and buy your products or services. It was always about connecting with people online, in real time, and building relationships with your customers.

This endeavor is not for the company that wants to post about their work and then head out. That’s not how building relationships works.

However, if you know your own messaging and can tell a great story about your mission, vision, and values – then you have the foundation of a great social media marketing strategy!

Storytelling does not come naturally to everyone. Some people are great storytellers and, for others, it’s a skill that needs to be developed. However, you don’t need to be born a storyteller to craft a brand story and create content for social media that shares that information with the world. It’s really about getting personal, bringing your personality to the content, connecting with people, and showcasing that what you do makes an impact for others.

Ideas for your brand story:

Talk about your origins and why you chose to start your business in the first place.
Connect with people who have transformed in some way by working with you and share their story with your audience.
Do some behind-the-scenes content to show your followers insider knowledge on your process or operations.
Show how your small business is making an impact in your community.
Team up with your power partners and have conversations about the work that you do.
Share information about your mission, vision or values.
Break down the process for working with you and what that looks like for your customers.

This is just the beginning. There are so many ways to share your brand story on social media. If you get stuck, book a Discovery Session with us and we can talk about options for collaborating on your strategy and content.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook , Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

August 22, 2021
Social Media Marketing

Top 3 Reasons Professional Headshots Are Needed for Social Media Marketing

You know that businesses that only seem to share quotes and the occasional promotional post on social media? Do you get excited about following them or engaging with their content online?

Yeah, me either.

Social media was always meant to be a social experience. If you want to be successful on social, you need to get comfortable in front of the camera. The most engaging content on social media are photos and videos where a small business owner shows up for their people and shares information, ideas, and opportunities that actually interest, engage, and excite their audience.

You can’t do that hiding behind a graphic you stole off of Google.

Here are our top three reasons to invest in branded headshots for your social media channels:

Content

One of the struggles for any business on social media is the creative aspect of creating content that an audience will engage with. Getting 1-3 branded photo shoots done a year keeps your content fresh, interesting, and attractive. It helps you create content for your audience that will actually get attention and social engagement.

Engagement

Your followers will be less likely to scroll past your content if they see your smiling face! If your followers are into you and what you do, seeing your photos will inspire them to like, comment, and share your posts! This engagement will showcase your content in more feeds, inspiring others to engage and will organically create the sort of attention you want for your social media posts.

Professionalism

While the occasional selfie isn’t going to hurt you, it doesn’t make the same impact as professional, branded photography. It doesn’t matter how good your selfie game is, there are ways to demonstrate your company culture and brand personality that simply can’t be accomplished with a selfie. Branded photography tells the story of you and your company. It removes the veil that small business owners tend to hide behind and is the bridge between you and an engaged audience.

Images of YOU are going to bring higher engagement than any stock image out there. Plan to get a series of great photos done professionally that show your brand voice. What sort of brand images work well? Indoor, Outdoor, doing a fun activity you love, different times of year, they all work! Incorporate blank space in areas for adding quotes and tips to your images later. The key is to show your personality! These images are what people will resonate with and use to connect with you, follow you, and choose to do business with you.

Are you struggling with not knowing how to use social media for your business? Not sure when to post, how to post, or what #Hashtags even are? Over three months, we will develop a roadmap of exactly how to use social media for your business in our Quarterly Roadmap Sessions. We will work on ads, reporting, creating posts for higher engagement, and break through the fears and frustrations small businesses experience with social media marketing. Let’s chat.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

November 29, 2020
Brand Storytelling

Are You Telling Your Brand Story Using Social Media?

Are you currently using social media as part of your business marketing strategy? If yes, have you been successful this year in growing your audience and connecting with them on social? If not, are you ready to give social media marketing a try to grow your business in the new year?

Our team has over a decade of experience supporting service-based businesses with building their social media presence and engaging with their audience online. We’ve found that the most effective tool for social media marketing is incorporating brand storytelling into your content.

Let’s break this down for you:

Know, Like, & Trust

Yes, social media marketers are still talking about know, like, and trust. Why? Because it’s the proven method for capturing attention and converting people into followers and paying clients.

It’s rare for someone to see your content once and then pull out their wallet. Trust is what convinces buyers to make a purchase. To earn trust, you must first grab your target audience’s attention (so they know who you are), then provide content that allows that audience to get to know you better (so they begin to like you). Once they like you, they will start paying attention to what you put out in the world. This process builds the trust needed to convert someone into a paying customer or client.

Building Your Influence

Our team works with a lot of new and small businesses. We regularly consult with business owners that have little to no online presence on how to build their social proof and influence online. In a world that is so saturated with competition, with businesses working daily to earn the attention of their audience, not having a presence at all is a liability. If a lead can find nothing about your or business during a five minute Google search, it’s almost a guarantee that they’ll move onto a competitor with a better online presence.

Social media is a great marketing tool when it comes to building your online presence and presenting yourself as a legitimate business. Trust us, you want to be a business that takes advantage of these platforms with millions of people using them daily to reach a larger audience. However, it only works with business owners who are committed to consistency.

Brand Storytelling

To engage with a social media audience, you need to share content that is inspiring, motivating, educational, or entertaining. Did you notice that I didn’t say your content should be promotional?

To sell in the 21st century, your sale needs to be subtly packaged around content that your audience actually wants to consume and engage with. Storytelling is a proven method for capturing attention and building an audience. We all have stories to tell and your business has a meaningful story behind it. The key is to take that story and package it into content your ideal client wants to see. The use of brand storytelling can really showcase your products, services, and your culture – when done with your audience in mind.

Simply posting content isn’t enough to get the traction you need to be successful with social media marketing and success doesn’t happen for anyone overnight. If you are ready to make a commitment to marketing your business on social, and earning social proof and building trust with your audience, we highly recommend a brand storytelling strategy. Your audience is incapable of connecting with you if all you post is sales and promotional material.

If you are using social media, you are probably only engaging with pages that share relatable content. Are you wanting to define your story and build a long term relationship with a loyal audience that finds YOUR content enjoyable and relatable? Let’s do a Discovery Session to see which Social Media Advisor programs best fit your needs.

Be sure to Follow us and Let’s Engage!

Hollie Clere of The Social Media Advisor is a “#BeAwesome” Developer, Social Media, Brand Builder, Content Manager, Trainer and Author in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and the tools to manage them.

Click here for Social Media Training, Speaking and Strategy Consultations.

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Are you telling your brand story in social media?

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