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.
- A calendar will keep you in tune with themes, focus, events, relevance and will help you avoid randomly sharing or becoming too self promotional.
- 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.
- 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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