Are you using more than one social media account to market your business online? It might take a little more attention and work, but using a variety of social media channels may produce a strong tactic that can strengthen your brand and enable you to connect with clients and prospects through a variety of entry points online.
However, if you represent your business even just a little differently in each of your social media accounts, your online marketing presence can look sloppy and unprofessional. This can weaken your brand and undermine all of your hard work.
Each site that you maintain is a doorway through which a prospect may find you, so it is essential that they find the same “you” regardless of which door they use.
Look at these five brand identifiers across every social media account that you use to make sure your branding is consistent:
- Customize your URL: Make sure that the URL for each social media page reflects your brand. Try to use the same branding across all of your social media so that your readers can find you using the same moniker no matter where they are.
How to do this:LinkedIn profile:In the LinkedIn menu at the top of the page, select Profile > Edit Profile. Below your picture you will see your URL. Click on the “edit” hyperlink to the right of that address. On the next page, right column, find the box entitled “Your public profile URL” and click on “customize your public profile URL” and follow the instructions. (example: http://linkedin.com/in/mycommcoach)
Twitter:At the top of the page, click on the gear graphic and select “settings.” On the next page, change your username to reflect your brand. Changing your Twitter user name will change your URL and also the username you sign in with, but it will not affect your existing followers or any messages that have been exchanged. (example: http://twitter.com/mycommcoach)
Facebook business page: From your business page, under your profile photo click on “about”. Next to “Basic Info”, click “edit”. On the next page, near the top, edit your username to match your brand. (example: http://facebook.com/mycommcoach)
HINT: You can also do this for your Facebook personal page. - Use consistent visuals: Across every social media account, make sure every profile picture uses the exact same image. Whether it is a photo or your logo, this gives your clients visual consistency, reassuring them at a glance that they have landed on the correct page.
- Describe your business the same way every time: Make sure that your business description is the same across all of your accounts. Some social media platforms, like Twitter, provide limited space and so your description may be significantly shorter, but it should still convey the exact same message as each of your other social media profiles.
- Include your website link: Because this is a simple step, it can be an easy one to miss! If one of your social media goals is to direct readers to your website, make sure you include your website address in every social media profile. Also occasionally include your website address in a status update, since readers don’t always check out your profile. HINT: Most sites will make your URL an active link if you include http:// at the beginning of it. (example: http://mycommcoach.com)
- Link your employer listing to your business page: In Facebook and Linkedin specifically, make sure that when you click on your employer, the hotlink takes you directly to your business page. If you own your own business, this facilitates an easy interconnection between your personal profile and your business profile. If you work as an employee for a larger company, this will associate you with other profiles connected to that same company.
Together, these five identifiers generate a consistent branding message across all of your social media accounts, strengthening your brand and creating a professional online marketing presence.
This article was first published on January 22, 2013 by SMPSBoston as a guest blog post. Author & Owner of material: Suzan Czajkowski, MyCommCoach
Posted in Branding Business Communication Facebook How to LinkedIn Social media Twitter by .
Business with pages on Facebook are – and should be – concerned about whether their business pages are being seen by their followers (fans). Facebook recently installed limitations regarding how broadly a business page’s updates are distributed to its fans.
There are a few things you can do, short of purchasing advertising space, to increase how many people your updates reach. They do all require you to ask your followers to take action… but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it encourages engagement on their part and asks them to make a conscious choice.
The recommendation I see most often is to ask your fans to add you to an “interest list.” While this would certainly be helpful, it may cause some confusion and the results are not very direct. If this is their first interest list, your fan will first have to name the list and choose who else they want to include in it — and then later, they still will have to go to the side menu and choose to look at the interest list they built.
Want a more direct answer and a simpler one to institute? Ask your fans to choose to see your updates directly in their newsfeed! This means that they would see your updates streaming right along with their friends’ updates in their regular newsfeed.
Here is a message you can use to ask your fans to do this:
Do you want to see more of our posts? Please do the following. (It’s quick! I promise!)
STEP 1: Visit our Facebook page: (insert your full FB business address here – http://facebook.com/yourpagename – so they can click on it & go)
STEP 2: “Like” our page (if you haven’t already)
STEP 3: Hover over the word “liked” and in the window that drops down, select “show in newsfeed.”
Thanks! See you again soon!
This is the feature you are directing them towards:
And that’s it. Simple, straight forward, and direct to their newsfeed!
Posted in Communication Facebook How to Marketing Social media Strategy by .
Jul 12
18
Be a Better Communicator Means…?
What does the phrase “be a better communicator” mean to you?
The first things that come to mind usually focus on being understood. Perhaps we think we should speak more clearly or explain ourselves better. We always look at how we speak and how others hear us.
The thing is… communication is a two-way street. For successful communication, while one person talks the other needs to listen. While our desire to communicate better brings our focus to the speaker, one of the most powerful ways we can become a better communicator is to become a better listener!
Next time you are talking with someone, try one or more of these steps:
- Focus on what they are saying until they are done speaking. Then create your response.
- Be patient. Breathe, and focus on what is going on right now rather than what you need to do next.
- Look directly at the person speaking – especially at their face. What additional information do their facial expressions tell you about what they are saying?
- Watch their hands and their body movements while they speak. How do they feel about what they are saying?
- Occasionally nod or make an acknowledging sound that lets the speaker know that you are following what they are saying.
If any of these steps are new behaviors for you, they might feel a bit uncomfortable at first so try them on a few different times. We live in a fast-moving, impatient world. These may not be easy skills to implement at first, but it’s worth it. When you improve your communication by becoming a better listener, you will respond more often to what the speaker was actually trying to say rather than what you think they might have said.
How does this style of communicating by being a better listener feel different compared to when you do not follow these steps?
In what ways does it impact your communication experience?
Posted in Communication How to Networking Patience Strategy by .
So, how’s your email inbox looking these days? Do you cringe when you see how many files you have stored up? If you’ve decided you really can’t take it anymore, here are just a few easy ways to start managing your email:
- S
top the flow of clutter. Are there any emails that you regularly receive & just delete without reading them? That’s a good sign that they are part of the “clutter”. Next time you see one of these emails, take a moment to open it up and “unsubscribe” (there should be an unsubscribe link at the very bottom). If you have trouble letting go of any of these messages, keep this in mind: If you find in the long-run that you miss them, you can always re-subscribe. - Organized obliteration: If you decide to go on a cleaning spree, you can use the “search” function to help you move along quickly. Before you delete an email you receive regularly (see previous point), copy their email address, paste it in the search bar, and hit the search button (or enter, or the little magnifying glass…). When the whole list comes up, delete them aaaallllll.
- Round-file it: When you are done with a message, do you normally delete them or move on? Now’s a good time to create a new habit: As soon as you are done reading a message, hit the delete button rather than just moving to the next message. Delete is your friend!
- Sometimes it pays to save: Email may serve as the ultimate storage device. If you receive information via email that you suspect you will need to access later, consider leaving that message in your email where you can search & find it later.
NOTE! If the subject line of the email does not reflect the information that you are keeping it for, do this:- Forward the message to yourself with a new subject line using keywords that identify the information you are keeping it for (i.e. schedule for trip to Paris, recipe for one-a-day chocolate cupcakes that help you lose weight…) and then…
- Delete the original message.
Final thought: Managing your email box is a goal to be always working towards, not a static state of being. It’s a journey, not a destination, if you will. The route you choose to get there will define how close to your goal you stay. Consistency is key.
Posted in Communication Strategy Stress by .
