In a recent article, Alex talked about building brands and why you need to be very specific in the way you go about this.

This week, I wanted to expand on that and help you better understand how to build your brand using social media, and how you can start to differentiate yourself from the rest of the noise.

Facebook™ Page:

Your Facebook page is the hub for your digital online presence. If you did not already know this, Facebook Pages rank REALLY high in Google Rankings, and it’s one of the easiest, and most searched places, for people to find you.

Keeping that in mind, it’s really important to understand what this means. It means if a potential client is looking to hire you, one of the FIRST places they are going to see you, or your business, and that means it needs to be designed properly.

A few quick tips to designing the perfect Facebook Business Page:

1. Keep your colors consistent. Alex discussed utilizing the proper color palette in his article– You want your “brand” to be consistent. Your logo, cover photo, and the photos/videos you post should utilize these in each and every item throughout your page.
   
2. Use your cover photo to your advantage. This is one of the first things people are going to see when they come to your page. Help them know they are in the right place! You can use Canva to make sure you’re using the proper size cover photo. Also make sure to have some sort of call to action- usually in the HEADLINE of your Facebook Business Page.
3. Since you should be taking advantage of Facebook Advertising, be sure to be consistent on your page. A post a day, every 3 days, every week, whatever it may be. Just make sure that when you decide your schedule, to be consistent in when you’re posting. Not only does Facebook know that you are posting, the more interaction you get on the photos, the cheaper the ads, and the higher your organic reach will be.
4. Be engaging. Ask questions, ask people to comment (in a non-invasive way). This will drive interaction and Facebook will reward you for people interacting with your posts.

Instagram:

I’m personally a huge Instagram fan. I love being on there, the quick pictures, the occasional meme (pronounced meem), and the luxury homes of my dreams!

Many people don’t realize that Instagram can be one of the most powerful brand-building platforms around. In fact, it can be argued, that in many ways it’s even more powerful than Facebook!

Why?

Well there’s a few reasons, but the main one is the amount of eyeballs on a daily basis. Instagram recently hit a billion users and that means on a daily basis, almost 95 million photos are posted and each day billions of likes and comments are generated.

Building a successful Instagram platform is actually much easier than you think, but the one thing that is most important here, is consistency. Make yourself a plan for the week/month and stick to it.

A quick tip to ensure you stay consistent, is to put your plan together in an app like Buffer that will alert you when it’s time to post. I personally do this with my own social media business. Each Sunday, I take about an hour, curate all the content for the week (two posts per day at varied times) and schedule them through Buffer.

While Buffer will not actually post the images for you, it will send a notification to your phone that it’s time to post. With just two simple clicks, your photo/video is now posted to Instagram along with your caption(s). Now like I said, it’s not necessary for you to post twice a day, or even once a day. But stick to your schedule, and make sure you’re posting on a consistent schedule.

Website:

As you’re aware, there’s a lot of chatter going on in the industry on whether a website is even necessary anymore. I do see both sides of this argument, but I can say that you should still have some form of a website. Even if you do not have an IDX feed, in today’s world, not having a website is like still doing business on a flip phone.

Your website can cost as little as 50 dollars per year, with a basic design, and tell your story. That’s the key here, it’s about you, your brand, and your story.

Just like on social media, make sure your story is branded and consistent throughout. As people find you throughout the “interwebs” 🙂 …you want to make sure that they see your brand, see your consistency, and most importantly, make sure that all your social media channels are easily found so people can see your social profile!

Remember why a brand is important…

Developing a brand strategy across social media is a really important strategy for growth. While marketers say “Ensure you are always ‘on brand’” the biggest thing to focus on is consistency. By showing people who you are and telling your story, it will give you a long-lasting image and in turn generate more organic business for you.