Social media has explosive powers.
It can enlarge your online footprint and increase conversation around your business or brand.
But knowing how to tame the wild animal that is social media can be tough.
That’s why I’m excited to welcome Peg Fitzpatrick, head of social media for Canva to the blog.
While Peg happens to be one of my favorite people, she’s also a super-smart social media and marketing strategist.
And the social media “enhancer” to Guy Kawasaki’s amazing online brand.
Combining her talent for writing (and sharing) intelligent, relevant content, Peg always brings her ‘a-game” and today is no different.
I know you’ll gain an enormous amount of insight from her post, so lets dive in!
Boost Brand Visibility with Social Media
Brands are still trying to figure out how to use social media and what it can do for their brand.
One of the greatest benefits of social media is the online boost from social chatter about the brand and the added visibility leading to more clients or customers.
Using creativity to showcase your brand ideals is brilliant and should be on every brand’s social media plan.
There are items that will be added to your editorial calendar like promotions or specials for your products or services, but the good stuff that hits the sweet spot of brand identity and public interest is based on listening on social media and taking the temperature of the social media climate.
Social media is an excellent listening tool.
From Rebekah Radice,
“Pay attention to your clients online and offer solutions to their problems. You can listen through Google Alerts, keyword research and other online tools such as Social Mention.”
Spontaneous interactions on Twitter between a brand and a fan are really entertaining and fun. It gives the public a chance to get to know the brand beyond the logo and corporate spiel.
It also is the mark of an innovative social media brand that isn’t planning all their tweets in a war room waiting to create the next Oreo tweet. That was one person who used the timing of the Super Bowl and creativity to steal the show.
Trying too hard to be spontaneous and cool really ruins the message. It ends up being like your Mom trying to use the latest slang and totally mangling it.
The X factor that boosts social media from good to fantastic is the spontaneous, human element.
Using witty text, an entertaining photo or possibly something special about your brand that you can tweet or post is fun and interesting.
Listening on social media and sharing what your fans share is very smart. This is the best kind of social media, it reinforces that you are a caring brand and show interest in what your client’s like and share.
It also features one of your clients which is generous. Highlighting the nice things your client’s say about you by reposting, retweeting, or favoriting the tweet all boost your brand’s online mojo.
A few examples from social media out in the wild:
From Twitter
Kimpton is a pet friendly hotel chain. Guests bring pets and they love to photograph their fur babies.
Kimpton has a great brand extension that occurs naturally as people tweet or post photos on Instagram from their stay.
Minnie and Max after a long drive that included 3 hours in LA traffic! @Kimpton #pug #MMRoadTrip @pugsandiego pic.twitter.com/tywJhyHtz8
— Minnie & Max Pugs (@MinnieMaxPugs) February 7, 2014
From Instagram
Pantone does an amazing job on their Instagram with a solid following of over 114,000, they get great interaction on every post.
Starbucks shared a hand-designed latte cup which their followers loved!
From Facebook
Don’t be afraid to ask your social media followers what they want more of!
Being smart with your content means figuring out what people like and giving them more of the same but in a fresh or unique way.
Repetition could be used with a fun hashtag to tie all the posts together across social media.
Ways that you can use social media creatively to boost brand visibility:
- Find social media from your fans out in the wild and share in on your brand channel. Don’t just push your corporate posts.
- Ask questions to find out what people want to hear and see from you.
- Use fun hashtags to ask people to participate in your activities or join in existing hashtags if it fits your brand. I frequently use #ScienceSunday for Kreussler Inc.
- Embed social media posts from customers on your company’s blog.
- Be a good listener and respond to positive as well as negative comments.
- Cross-pollinate your social media platforms. Tweet your Instagram photos, share Instagram snaps on Facebook and help people find you on other platforms. This will help build your followers across different social channels.
- Had a great post earlier in the week? Don’t be afraid to repost it with a cute title like “hot post of the week” or replay from our greatest hits.”
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Nowadays Social media Plays Main role on all type of Online Business same as for Bloggers also
Social Signal Help Us to boost the Traffic and Ranks.
Thank you for another essential article.
Hello there…First of all I just want to say that I am a big fan of your blog and yeah of course of your post too. Well coming to this post, I am totally agree what you have mention in your post. Thank you so much for this post.
Great article with really interesting tips! I think listening you what your audience is talking about is a great way to raise brand awareness. I agree that engaging with both negative and positive feedback is a great way to build trust with your ideal customer and show them that your not being biased.
HI Rebekah,
Thanks for introducing me to GoogleAlerts and reminding me the importance of listening.
I really need to consider Instagram!
Naomi
You will love them Naomi! They make “listening” so much easier!
Increasing brand awareness is the key success of any business and hence it should be done through proper ways. And yes, social media can be effectively used to do the same and it is possible to boost our brand with it.
Thanks for your awesome social media tips to advance brand visibility Rebeka, will follow your words.
Hi Nirmala! It’s always so great to see you! You’re absolutely right – to get noticed, we have to stay consistent. Glad to see you’re doing exactly that!
Good to be on your blog Rebekah and thanks for bringing on board Peg to share with us these wonderful tips.
I think using fun hashtags is slick but a lot of people don’t still get it. Hashtags in general are great in boosting exposure, from all areas of thoughts. If brands carefully apply this in their social media strategies, they certainly will see positive results
Thanks for the wonderful tips Peg and hope to read more on your blog
Hey Rebekah,
Well first I want to say thank you for introducing the lovely Peg to your blog to share these awesome tips with us. I was shaking my head through the entire blog post so I’m definitely agreeing with what she had to share.
I was talking with a client last night and she’s finding it difficult to know what to do on social media. You know me, I’m ALL about the relationships so I told her to start some conversations and just pay attention to what people are saying.
I like the suggestion to embed social posts from other people on our blog. I’ve seen that being done but I just need to pay much more attention to that. I always am on the limb about sharing my posts too many times because I have enough people sharing it for me but doing the “hot post of the week” is a cool idea.
Thank you ladies for your fabulous information and as always, keep rockin on. Have a fabulous rest of your week.
~Adrienne
Great tips as always Rebekah. I’m glad to see you say not to force trying to be clever though because that can turn into an embarrassing disaster. I like your list as well, and I love using hashtags. I’ve created a custom hashtag for each of my books and one more my publishing company. They’re great for promos! Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
I had been wondering how to share my popular blog posts on certain social media sites where more than once seemed like spamming. I’ve had my aha moment, Rebekah, thanks. Must try out the fan posting on my brand channel. It will be a wonderful way to acknowledge them,
I think its very savvy to embed social media posts from your readers and I can’t wait to give this “out of the box” technique a try!
Most of the brands I follow online are ones that I represent or have been given samples of. However, I follow several on Facebook and love when they interact with me. If they don’t make it personable, then I usually like their company but don’t follow them. 🙂
Hi Rebekah. I enjoyed these examples – I guess pictures are more than 1,000 words. The pugs and the lavender fingernails make me want to click. Thanks, as always, for sharing so much valuable information on your blog.
All the best,
Leslie
I love what these guys are doing on Facebook and thought you would enjoy checking them out https://www.facebook.com/Backshore
It’s a great Post Rebekah. I find that the keys to social media are getting more fine tuned all the time and it’s easier to navigate the social media waters. I would like to toss out another thought which may or may not have merit depending on personal needs and perspective. That being: Not everyone is online or part of the online world. Though digital media may be our focus if we think in terms of a wider audience we may become more focused in the service to those who will see our message. I realize it’s an intangible perspective but it could affect the outcome of how we write or position our message.
Hi Rebekah,
Great article as always.
Loved the tips at the end and the creative ways brands use images to communicate with their audience. The Starbucks cups is beautiful and I,m sure fans loved it.
In my company we are always asking people what they want, what can be improved, etc. Feedback is the breakfast for champions 🙂
Have a brilliant week!
Marcelo
Hi Rebekah,
There is always a question arises when it comes to social media as how to improve our brand name using it? We all notice many companies, websites influencing social media and termed as brands.
For businesspersons, marketers, bloggers the main point to focus is social media if they want to build their brand name.
The key advices you have given to boost brand visibility using social media are great and worthy to follow.
Thanks for sharing this information.
Have a nice day.:)
~Ravi