Social networks are increasingly an integral part of the online presence of every business. Accordingly, it is of great importance that the content we upload to these platforms always matches our brand. As is probably evident, in this article social networks are examined through the prism of the brand. That is, how to use them to be an extension of our brand in another channel.
In order for your presence on social networks to be consistent and to increase the trust of users in your channel, and thus in your brand, you must consider the following elements:
Username
Your username in all your social networks should be the same. If this is not possible, try to keep them as close as possible, and in networks where your username is different, try to use the same profile picture (which you should also consider as an action in principle).
Profile photo
Your business’s profile photos should be either completely identical or as similar as possible across social networks. This allows users of different social networks to recognize you immediately and, accordingly, trust your channel without worrying that it might be an imposter impersonating you.
Help your users recognize you and use the same profile photos
Colors
Try to use the same color scheme in your posts. Colors, as well as the style of images (or photography) are elements that people recognize easily. We all know the colors of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, McDonalds, but also Facebook, Google and Twitter. Of course, the frequent encounter with these brands also plays a role here – in advertisements, in stores or on the Internet. But if they used different colors (or styles) every day, no matter how often we see them, it remains absolutely impossible to recognize them by color, style or anything else.
Choose a style for your publications, certain colors and stick to them. If you decide to change them at some point, due to rebranding or another marketing decision, then announce your decision (directly or implicitly), but again you should stick to your style.
Brand voice
The way your brand “speaks” should be the same across all social networks (unless you are targeting different audiences). Keep in mind that social networks should be an extension of your website, not a completely separate medium. So, just another channel to deliver the same message, not a new medium where you build everything from scratch.
If you want to learn more, you can check out our article on brand voice.
Publishing guidelines
It is always helpful to have established publishing guidelines that you and your colleagues can follow. Such a document should always be updated when your approach to social networks changes. Publishing guidelines are extremely useful when hiring a new person (even if they are experienced) for a position related to social networks.
Image guidelines
Images, whether illustrations or photographs, should be consistent and fit the vision of your site. Therefore, they should be in one style. When it comes to the images you use on social media, you can try to add your logo to them in some way.
Content Type
In your posting and image guidelines, also indicate the type of content you will use. Whether you will rely on “kitchen” photos, professional-looking ones created by users (some clothing brands do this), or even funny images for the purpose of engagement and sharing (known as memes/mimes/mims).
It is good to have the type of content pre-set and not change it just because you liked an image a lot and thought it would look good in your stream.
