Social media has become an integral part of modern marketing strategies, allowing businesses to reach their target audience more efficiently than ever before.
With the proliferation of different social media platforms, it’s critical for businesses to maintain a consistent brand voice across all channels. This not only helps establish a strong brand identity, but also allows companies to effectively engage and inform their audiences.
To share their ideas on how to do this, a panel of experts from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) responded to the following question:
“Social media is an invaluable marketing resource, but it is essential for businesses to maintain a consistent voice across all platforms to effectively engage and inform their audiences. What is some advice for businesses looking to keep all of their social media content on-brand?
This is what the members of the YEC community had to say.
1. Hire a team to do it all
“Businesses looking to maintain consistency in their social media content should consider hiring a core team to handle multiple accounts and engagement opportunities. We have a social media team that meets weekly to coordinate your content and marketing plan. Since we created an independent social media team, we have found it much easier to keep our content on brand.” ~ Damanjeet Singh, Funnel Kit
2. Match new content creators with mentors
“You can write style guides and provide examples, but in my opinion, there is no substitute for hands-on tutoring. Anyone creating content in the voice of the company should have a trusted company mentor review their content before it goes live and actively provide candid feedback until the new content creator shows a consistent track record and understanding.” . ~Jake Goldman, 10up Inc.
3. Create a social media strategy
“When it comes to social media content, consistency is key. Businesses should have a strategy outlining the messages, images, and tone of voice to be used across all social media platforms. This will ensure that all content is branded and authentic to any audience, regardless of which team member is in charge of their social media.” ~Adam Preiser, WP Crafter
4. Keep and stick to a content calendar
“If you want to keep your social media content on-brand, you need to maintain a content calendar. When running a social media campaign for your brand, it’s important that you stick to your schedule and post on time. This can only happen when you have an organized content calendar. But simply having one is not enough, you need to follow it diligently for the best results.” ~ Josh Kohlbach, Suite Wholesale
5. Tell your team about the brand
“One tip for companies to keep their social media content on-brand is to make sure their teams are familiar with the persona and everything the brand stands for. They will not be able to keep their messaging in line with brand guidelines if they are not familiar with the brand themselves. So educating your team will make things work for you.” ~ Jared Atchison, WP Forms
6. Choose a consistent color palette
“If your goal is to keep your social media content on-brand, consider using a similar color palette and logo across all platforms. You don’t want to use different images or colors for each account because your followers may not recognize your brand if it appears on another social site.” ~John Turner, SeedProd LLC
7. Craft a content mission statement
“A great tool for your arsenal is a content mission statement. It is usually a sentence that describes your target audience, what you want them to get from your content, and why they should come to you for this information instead of someone else. Measuring your social media content against this mission statement will help ensure a consistent point of view across all platforms.” ~ Daria Gonzalez, Wunderdogs
8. Use consistent keywords
“Create a message with consistent keywords. Consider what your product or service offers customers: speed, relaxation, etc. Brainstorm the 10 descriptive words that best illustrate the main qualities of your product or service. Then use them as a guide to craft messaging that emphasizes these aspects in everything you create, from social media posts and visuals to press releases.” ~Tonika Bruce, Very Fine Leader, Inc.
9. Create a comprehensive brand style guide
“A tip for businesses looking to keep all of their social media content on-brand is to develop a clear and concise brand style guide. This should include information about the company’s tone of voice, messaging, visual style, and overall content strategy. This guide can be used as a reference for all team members who are creating content across social media platforms to ensure everything is consistent.” ~ Fritz Colcol, Simply Thalía
10. Use a social media scheduling tool
“The only advice I have is to get a social media tool that manages all your posts from one dashboard. That way you can schedule it all at once for consistency and see it all at once to make sure you’re delivering the message you want. It also helps when you want to rotate posts to different social media pages to ensure you don’t repeat posts on the same platform.” ~ Baruch Labunski, Rango Seguro
11. Post ‘Hero Content’
“A good strategy to start with would be to create ‘hero content.’ This means that you can take this piece of content, split it up, and carry it out across different social media channels. This method will help you create consistency across your channels, link them together, create more engagement, and more.” ~ Samuel Timothy, OneIMS
Image: Envato Elements