Stand Out From the Crowd with your Social Media Content

Stand Out From the Crowd with your Social Media Content

by Frederika Angus

stand-out-social-media

Social media can be overwhelming. Especially when you are using social media for your business and you want to be heard and stand out from the crowd.

At the end of 2011, Facebook had on average 483 million daily active users. Twitter had over 100 million active users. Google+ had more than 150 million active users. Those numbers are continuing to be on the rise.

That’s a lot of competition!

It’s like being a small fish in a small pond with millions of other small fish for small businesses.

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And at the rate that social media moves, your ideal customers can forget about you just as quickly as they found you. It’s like my mom always told me, “Out of sight. Out of mind.”

Your brand cannot afford to be out of sight from potential revenue generating opportunities nor out of the mind of your ideal clients. This is why your branding efforts on social media is critical for you to stand out. Social media branding is bigger than a great profile picture or background. While your brand strategy should incorporate visual elements, those visual elements should help support your overall brand message.

How do you expand your brand through social media in a stand out way?

Too often I see the “self-proclaimed experts” sharing the ideas and opinions of everyone else and very little of their own original content. It’s fine to share great articles and quotes that resonate with you from others … occasionally through out the day. The trouble starts when you begin to bombard your following with everyone else’s opinion.

This style of social media content distribution downgrades your expert credibility and leaves them with questions like:

If you are the expert, where’s your opinion? Why should I follow you if I can just follow the person whose content you’re always promoting?

It’s difficult to differentiate why you are different from the thousands of competitors you have on social media with this strategy. That’s why it is vital that your website has blog functionality attached to it or that it is completely built using a content management system like WordPress.

You have to be the creator of valuable content that your target market can’t wait to not only read, but consume.

3 Tips For Stand Out Content in Social Media

  1. Commit to writing at least twice a week. Yes, I understand you have work to do and you don’t need another thing on your plate. This is only recommended this to those who want to go beyond their current level of success. Your ideal customers are consuming the majority of their content in snippets of 140 characters and through article links on status updates. Get your brand in front of them consistently to avoid the out of sight, out of mind syndrome.
  2. Use current events as a way to attract into your niche. We are in a right now society. Content that is quickly consumed and shared via social media is relevant to what is going on in the world. After Steve Jobs died, the internet and social media platforms immediately had articles and graphics posted for others to consume from all different perspectives. Write content in your niche that people are currently searching and looking for.
  3. Share you! People recognize and respect authenticity. Don’t be afraid to be genuinely you as your write. It’s not necessary for you to write like a journalist for people to love and appreciate what your write. Ensure that your content sounds the same as if someone was talking to you across the table sharing coffee. The best way stand out in the conversation is to contribute content with your unique and fresh way of thinking.

Stand out brands are leaders in their industry. Social media is a great, cost-effective avenue to expand your brand quickly. Elevate your social media strategy by standing out with your content.

Talk to you soon!

Start Your Small Business Brand Strategy By Bringing You to the Table

Start Your Small Business Brand Strategy By Bringing You to the Table

by Frederika Angus

I bet you can recognize all of the above businesses without seeing the company name. Talk about brand recognition!

But what is branding anyway?

Depending on who you talk to, branding is often thought of as a name or logo. The visual identifier that everyone will see, remember and relate to. Maybe you’ve already been through the logo design process. You researched different colors and the emotion that they invoke. You spent hours determining what the perfect tag line or even company name should be.

While that is all good, people do not do business with logos and tag lines. Yes, those items can help attract clients to look at your company. Having eyes on your business is great! The goal is to also make a profit while you have people looking.

Have you ever been at the grocery store and selected a shiny red, apple that looked flawless? No blemishes. No bruises. Leonardo da Vinci could not have painted a better work of art. But when you get home and take bite, it is not at all what you thought it would be. The skin is tough and the flesh lacks flavor. The outer appearance was deceiving and as you got below the surface you were disappointed.

Does your business brand leave your customers and clients that way? The image and logo look great, but just under the surface, what they identified with on the outside isn’t there?

Small business branding IS the owner. It is about what the owner says, does and how you as the owner and your personality meets your client in every aspect of the business. Branding is how you build and maintain relationships, the manner by which you do business and serve other people. It is how at an individual level, rapport is established because your clients trust your character, not from theme music, logos or slogans.

People are attracted to you! The best way to begin your business brand strategy is with you. Every business has a personality and as a solopreneur, you must make sure that it is your personality (not the person you pretend to be in the shower when no one is looking) that is showing up everywhere.

Faking it until you make it no longer works in the marketplace.

Consumers are craving authenticity and real connection with the people they do business with. Your ideal client has to believe that you are credible and will deliver exactly what you say that you are able to do.

Bringing all of who you are to the table means that your brand is instantly as unique as you are. The one thing your competition cannot copy is YOU. They can make a similiar logo, or advertising campaign. They will never be able to replicate you. Save the money you would have spent on all the shiny objects and flash and utilize it for more effective and strategic advertising.

Perhaps you’ve heard the quote, “Be the change you want to see.”

When it comes to branding, be the brand your customer wants to see.

Talk to you soon!