Tag: Consistent Posts

Don't Know What to Post on Social Media?

Don’t Know What to Post on Social Media?

Have you ever found yourself in the mental space of, “Geex, it is 1:00 pm and it has been 3 weeks since I have posted anything on social media and I have no idea what to share?” Why is it so hard to come up with content for your social media channels?

A big part of the problem is that small business owners are trying to create content to sell their product, service, or event without considering their audience. Your social media marketing should be focused on building an audience of like-minded individuals and providing them value every week so they begin to know, like, and trust you enough to want to work with you. 

There’s a simplicity behind what to share on social media that many biz owners overlook. It’s as simple as creating content and social media posts where you spend time sharing your values, your ideas, and your best tips with people interested in the problem you solve.

The best advice we can give you right now is… create an editorial calendar. No more feeling uninspired or stuck when it comes to what to post next. Building an editorial calendar will help you get ahead of creating your content. 

Don’t be that brand that feels scattered and all over the place! Picking a theme for each day will help you keep your values and topics in clear focus. Selecting weekly and monthly themes will help you stay on track towards your goals and ensure you stay relevant throughout all the seasons of the year.

If building your editorial calendar sounds confusing, frustrating, overwhelming, or downright scary, no worries. That is what we help you do in our Strategy Roadmaps or when you sign up for Monthly Posting Support.

If you are using social media yourself, you may have noticed that you engage with pages that share content you can relate with. Simply posting is not enough. You need engaging content that is easy to find and interesting enough to like, comment, or share. Are you ready to define your story and build a long term relationship with a loyal audience? Let’s do a Discovery Session to see which of our programs best fit your social media marketing 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.

#AwesomeConsistency – How Consistency Makes Your Brand Stand Out

In our last post, we talked about why consistency is essential to your social media strategy. The focus was mostly on what your audience expects in terms of presence. However, there are many reasons why posting consistently is a game changer for your social and one of them is brand impact. Not only are you vying every day for your target audience’s attention, you are competing against other brands to earn influence and credibility as well.
With our shortened attention spans and the flood of content being directed at us daily, standing out as a brand on social media is no walk in the park. Without consistency, it is difficult to adequately get your vision across to your viewers.  If you haven’t managed to deliver this in social, you can bet someone offering something similar has cracked the code. 
The businesses that are doing this will be instantly recognized – at a glance. You don’t have to read an ad to know if it’s coming from Nike or Apple or Disney. Your peripheral vision, and this instant recognition of their brand, is enough for an audience to immediately pinpoint whose marketing it is. 
How can you switch up your social postings to make them more consistent – and instantly recognizable? 
Schedule
The first step is putting together a solid editorial calendar. Having a set schedule for your posts will help you when creating content but also helps your audience know what to expect from you. Brands can also post above and beyond what their calendar entails as long as they stick to the consistent schedule. 
Style Guide
Having an overall idea of what your brand will look like online is a good idea but having it all put together into a branding style guide is even better. If you are investing any amount of time into developing your brand, then a style guide is necessary for maintaining consistency. Here are some examples of what a style guide looks like to give you an idea of what you will need to pull together.
Tone/Voice
Writers (and copywriters) fully understand how essential developing the right tone for copy can be. Having a brand “voice” will remind you how to remain consistent. Are you sassy? Professional? Informative? If you could describe your brand in three words – what would they be? 
First you have to define your voice and then you have to ensure that you are using the same tone in all your branding. Here is an article to help you get started.
Graphics/Images
Last, but certainly not least, is developing visual content for your online presence, marketing, and social media. 
“Visual content has become so prevalent that it’s no longer just a piece of the marketing industry, but its core.”
Kimberlee Morrison
To get attention today, you have to invest in visual content. Videos, graphics, memes, infographics, slide shows – all of these are visuals. Our attention spans are ridiculously short and a brand needs high-quality, stunning, eye-catching graphics in order to grab attention and get noticed. Consistency comes into play when developing these because you want your audience to instantly recognize you, and your brand, when they glance at content you’ve created. 

If you follow these guidelines, you will find that you are already ahead of the curve when compared to much of your competition. Creating your social media strategy, so you can #BeAwesome at what you do, should involve a plan ensuring your branding is consistent across all channels. 

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 LinkedInFacebookTwitterBlogGoogle+YouTubePinterestInstagram and the tools to manage them.

Why should you develop consistency in Social Media?

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Social Media folk talk about consistency frequently.  But realistically, what does that mean?  We are tackling this question with 5 strategies to help you battle consistency in Social Media


Webster defines the term as: harmony of conduct or practice with profession

Consistency with your Brand

We talk often about your brand.  We frequently see Profiles and Pages built with generic images and inconsistent wording.  Usually Pages and Profiles are merely created with a non-specific purpose, without keyword or target focused branding.  Images should be aligned with the mission, services and products, stories should be in alignment as well.  Creating a Page without purpose or updates, leaves your visitors wanting and curious.  Define your brand by understanding your niche and target market.  You may quickly find that a general tagline or “name” of a service doesn’t clearly encompass the image of the brand as a whole.  Leaving blank spaces and images that don’t really say much about your target audience, will leave you undesirable, unclear and your viewer will lose attention with your brand as a whole.

Consistency with your Message

What does your message say about you and your brand?  Does it speak to your ideal audience?  Can you read over your mission or message and know exactly who, how and what you are offering is a good fit for your viewer?  In more cases than not, your BIG WHY probably doesn’t speak to the true gifts your company offers, the solutions you are offering or pains you are trying to solve.  These are the things that your ideal client is wanting to learn.  A properly crafted message to your niche will clearly tell an appropriate story to your target market and will draw the right audience to your brand.

Consistency with your Posts

We get the question, “How often should we post an update in Social Media?”  Followed up by, “I only want to post once each week or once a month to not bother my clients.”

Due to the nature of information in the world of “Internet of Things”, this suggestion is far too small to build a consistent visibility for your brand.  It will take planning, editorial calendars, offers and calendar alignment to maintain a successful consistent stream of activity for your audience.  Every single platform has a variety of “suggested” post intervals.  Example: You can post once or twice in Facebook each day vs seven to ten times each day in Twitter – both are appropriate, but you will also have to measure engagement, times of day and views to gauge the proper intervals based off your target market and type of content you are wanting to share.  

A discovery session to understand your goals, time and reach is necessary for anyone to consult you on the best options for your brand. PET PEEVE: a SMM (Social Media Manager) who will suggest 5 times each day on Facebook blindly without understanding your budget and target reach – is doing you a disservice.  It is better to post on a regular schedule than to not post at all.

Consistency with Communication and Responses

If you are posting in social media, you should expect responses and engagement.  How and what you share will determine the frequency of opportunity you will have to respond and monitor engagement.  Bottom line … if you share something in social media, expect to be prepare to respond in a timely manner.  Timely means same day, in most cases within an hour.  Outside of that time frame, apologize for the delay in response.  If you don’t have a response plan in place and reply within a week, you have lost the opportunity in that engagement.

Consistency with Routine

Developing an editorial calendar is relevant in this response to routine.
  
  1. A calendar will keep you in tune with themes, focus, events, relevance and will help you avoid randomly sharing or becoming too self promotional.
  2. A routine will help you focus on the best times of day to post, highest engagement and will help you to not flood your audience with too  much content at once.
  3. Use tools to keep you organized (HootSuite, Buffer, Commun.it, HubSpot, Tweetdeck, etc) are great resources you should consider adding to your tool belt to maintain the routine you are trying to develop.

Build a solid brand by using the living, breathing circle of consistency and your audience will keep you top of mind as an expert, trusted vendor and key connection in their list of resources.

Are you needing a brand analysis or strategy consulting to build your editorial calendar and consistency?  Give us a shout!

~ Social Media is changing the way people do business.  Don’t get left behind ~ 

Hollie Clere, of The Social Media Advisor is a “Be Awesome” 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 her Social Media Workshops, Classes and Seminars

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