Godzilla vs. Mothra - who wins? Do you have a favorite? Or do you think that if these two worked together, they could achieve world domination and have us all running for our lives? I think that they should definitely team up. But what do Godzilla and Mothra have to do with this blog? Let me explain.
You have your brand (Godzilla) and it is super awesome. It is kicking butt and making your look like the strongest company ever. However, social media (Mothra) comes on the scene and it is all out war between the two. How can you get them to work together in perfect harmony? How can you get a perfect personalized social media campaign that matches your brand?
9 Ways to Team 'Em Up & Watch 'Em Go...Your Brand and Social Media, That Is
Let's take a look at getting Godzilla (your brand) and Mothra (social media) to team up and create an amazingly powerful duo that is sure to take over the world.
1. Choose the Right Roar (or Voice) for Your Brand. When you are writing social media content, you need to make sure you choose the best voice for your brand. If you've written up your website content already, you know which voice you want to use and which one is best for your business. This means you should use a similar voice on social media.
Let's look at an example! If you own a pet store, your social media and website voice is going to be more fun, laid back, and silly because that is what pet owners love to see from stores. However, if you are a tax accountant, cutesy, fun talk might not work the best for your client base. The best way to know which voice to use is to research your client base first. In addition, don't fret about using humor in your content if you're a serious company - humor might just be the best thing for you!
2. Choose a Maximum of 3 Areas of Expertise. According to Buffer, a great way to help personalized your brand and social media is to choose up to 3 areas of expertise. This will help you focus on a select few areas, keeping you from spreading yourself too thin trying to cover multiple bases. That is practically impossible and you might end up with a "Who is on first" experience.
Look for the things that set you apart from your competitors and focus on those to help convince people to use your company over your competitor. This isn't something you have to come up with overnight. Take some time to think through your company and consider having a few brainstorming meetings to discuss this with others in your business. This will be a great way to find out some perfect areas to focus on!
3. Keep Things Consistent Across Social Media and Your Website. According to the Buffer article in point 2, another perfect way to help match your brand to your social media and personalize it is to keep it consistent across all channels. This is often a major mistake many businesses make when crafting social channels. You'll find various businesses that have social sites that don't match each other, and none will match their website. This is a major no-no and if you're guilty of this, now is the time to make things consistent.
While it might seem like consistency doesn't add a personal touch, it does in the fact that it makes people feel like your business is trustworthy. People are unlikely to follow a social channel if it looks different from a different channel or your website. Keep the same header image, use your logo as your profile picture, and use the same voice on each channel.
4. Which Social Channel is the Most Valuable to Your Business? If you want to have a successful experience with your brand and social media, you need to learn which channel is the most valuable to you. A great example is the marketing minds behind GoPro, who all know which channel is perfect for their brand. The company sells an awesome camera for people to shoot incredible videos, which means that YouTube is the best social media channel for their brand. They use other channels, but primarily focus on YouTube because that is where their clients are and will visit to see videos. They are more likely to make camera sales by people watching YouTube videos than just publishing written content on Twitter and Facebook.
Learn which channel will be the best for you. Will Twitter work the best? Or is Facebook your best bet for social media content? What about LinkedIn or Pinterest? Do some research and look at analytics to see which gives you the most engagement and which fits your brand and products the best!
5. Get to Know Mothra and Personalize Social Channels for Your Followers. The best way to match your brand to your social media is to know the specific channel and what the followers there like. If you are using Pinterest, you need to share images or infographics because that is the content people like to consume there. If you are using Facebook, post a link to your blog but include an image to boost engagement. Simply take some time to research each social channel you use and tweak your social media campaign to meet each.
6. Respond to Your Client Base to Add that Personalized Touch. One major way a lot of companies fail when making social media personalized is by never responding to their client base. If you want to add that personal touch and adequately match your brand and social media, you should always comment or mention someone in response.
It can be a simple thank you to a tweet that says how awesome your service is, or offering more information to people who want more help of various products. Just play it by ear to see the type of comments you get and how you will respond. This will help add that personal touch to social media that people simply love from businesses.
7. Godzilla and Mothra Can be Best Friends if they Share Content from Other Monsters. Sure, you want people to use your products or services, but if you always push your company, you can quickly go from being a trusted source to a company only focused on sales. When you are using social media, you should share information from others in your industry. This will help you become a trusted resource because it shows that you can find great resources to back up what products and services you provide.
This can even help you create great connections within your industry and might get your blogs and social content shared on another business's social media sites. Make sure that the content you share is useful to your followers and matches what you provide. However, you can post a few silly things that people will enjoy and break up the monotony of business-related posts.
8. Engage in Fun, Trendy Things Like "Follow Friday." Another amazing way to add that personal touch is to follow trends like "Follow Friday" on Twitter or do a "Throwback Thursday" post. This adds such a fun element to social media and helps you engage with your followers. You can do a follow Friday for industry leaders or the sites you use for resources. You can highlight various things with fun, little trends and end up getting a huge response. Never underestimate the power of a trend! In addition, you should always be prepared to learn new trends in social media so that you can stay on top of things and not be stuck doing "old," outdated things.
9. Give Your Clients Something in Return for Following or Mentioning You. You can also add a personal touch by giving more than you receive, or at least seeming like you're giving a lot! Let's look at an example to properly explain this. Adagio Teas is a great place to get loose-leaf tea and blends based off of popular fandoms like Doctor Who or Sherlock. In order to keep a strong, dedicated fan base, Adagio regularly gives out discounts and points. When you make an order, you can get 5% off of the order by simply sharing a gift card on Facebook or Twitter. You can get points for sharing gift cards and having people use them, and can even get points by simply mentioning the company on Twitter. Want more points? Write a review and post it to their Facebook!
Anything you do gets you points, which can then be used to create a gift card to give you the chance to purchase your favorite teas with a decent discount. More people are willing to spend $50 at Adagio when they get that $10 or $20 gift card and Adagio doesn't end up losing that much money, in the end. Think of something similar that can help you out while also helping your customers out! Notice, Adagio Teas utilizes social media majorly in their points program.
Let's Work Together!
Matching your brand to social media can help create a very powerful combination that can skyrocket your business into success. Take a few of these personalization techniques to get Godzilla and Mothra to join forces and watch how quickly you start to see change (for the better!). Which of these techniques do you think will work the best for you? Let me know in the comments!