Brand consistency is crucial for any successful marketing campaign. If your customers visit more than one of your social channels and see wildly different messaging on each network, it may confuse them and they might not understand what you’re offering. Consistent branding creates loyal customers that can relate to your business and stick around longer.
Every social channel serves as a useful tool to engage your audience, so it’s important to review your social channels from time-to-time. This process can help you make sure you’re staying consistent and engaging audiences the right way on all of the social channels your team uses for marketing your brand.
Here are three questions to ask your team in order to make sure you’re keeping a consistent presence across all social channels.
1. Are we maintaining a consistent visual appearance?
One of the first things customers will notice about your brand is its visual assets. Typically, this involves a unique logo, colors, and other branding elements that people may remember.
It’s important to have your branding integrated into all of the social channels you use to reach your audience.
For instance, let’s look at the e-commerce company Shopify. As you can see on their Facebook page, they use a distinct logo and cover photo that their audience can associate with their brand.
If you visit their Twitter account, they use the same two photos.
Imagine if one of Shopify’s Facebook fans searched for Shopify on Twitter. They’d have no trouble finding them, and this is what you’ll want to aim for as well. Keeping tabs on your brand’s visual assets is a simple way to create consistency between your social channels so that your customers can instantly recognize them.
2. Do we have a regular content schedule?
Humans crave consistency. When it comes to the content you produce, people will follow you and support your brand if they enjoy what you have to say. However, keeping a regular content schedule also helps them stay engaged with your business longer. Your content needs to remain steady, or they may look elsewhere.
For example, let’s say that you post on social media three times per week. If you suddenly begin sharing content only once per week or sporadically, you may confuse your followers. If they become used to one schedule, try not to change it too much without warning. Just like your brand’s appearance, how you deliver content needs to be uniform across all channels.
To increase engagement, such as shares and comments, make a habit of asking for them without being spammy. Calls to action are a proven technique that entices users to do something specific, such as:
- Telling users to share their thoughts on a blog article
- Asking social media followers to tag other users that might enjoy a particular post
3. Are we using a familiar voice?
A subtle but powerful aspect of branding is the voice or tone you use. Depending on your target audience, you might speak to your customers differently. Some audiences enjoy a professional and formal voice, while others appreciate something more casual.
Across social media, blog posts, videos, and other channels use the same voice for everything. Someone following you on social media may visit your blog for the first time, and they’ll feel right at home if the tone is consistent.
In sum, reviewing your social channels’ visual appearance, content schedule, and voice can help you make sure you’re keeping a consistent presence that your audience will quickly recognize and enjoy.
Have any other tips for reviewing your brand’s consistency online? Share them with us in the comments.
