What Does Your Audience Really See?

Social Media provides an opportunity to know others. As we connect with friends and family we see what they are doing, the things they view as important, and we may learn new things about their personalities – hopefully all positive. Our consistency in how we present ourselves to the world sends an important message. It may give us pause if our friends, family or acquaintances are presenting erratic messages about what they are doing or what they think is important, or things we might not wish to know about their personalities.

Our business social media presence provides opportunities for our audience to learn about us – what we are doing, the things we view as important, and our business personality (culture). If we are inconsistent about how we present ourselves, we may be sending mixed messages. We may be causing our audience to pause and wonder who we really are and what is important to us.

What you say, how you say it, how it looks – all contribute to your brand identity. Do you include your logo or website address every time you post? Do you always include a proper “call to action”? Is there consistency in the style of all your graphics, photos or video? Is there a common sentence structure and style on all your posts? Are you consistent in your message? These all reflect who you are as a company. They are your brand identity; your business personality.

If you have multiple people posting on social media, it’s important to have a strategy and ensure that everyone understands and shares the vision and the specific identity you are creating. Social media is mass communication, but your business should have one face and one voice. How good is the communication among your social media team? Are you all on the same page? Your social media pages will reflect that.

Have an identified mission within your business first. Create a vision of how that mission will drive what you do. Identify the values that will help drive that mission and take you to that vision.

Measure all you do in marketing, including social media, and display that vision in a consistent way. Whether it’s one spokesperson or a team approach, ensure that the audience sees clear and consistent messages that accurately create your identity and support the business brand to take you where your vision is leading you.

Written by Holly L. Gibbons, Blog Contributor