As you start to use social media pay attention to your brand, and that means you! Your presence on social media is defined by your words, conversation, communication, the videos and photos you upload, groups you join, support, or become a “fan” of, as well as the messages you eventually (but cautiously) include about your business, products, and services.
It should go without saying (but I’ll say it anyway because there are many business people active in social media who don’t get it) that your message and your “brand” should above all be consistent. There are two levels of business social media brand consistency:: internal consistency and business consistency.
When your social media contributions are internally consistent they “sound” like the same person, possibly with minor variations to allow for moods, but in general the voice, style, tone, and types of content should be consistent to the point of being recognizable. The second layer to internal consistency is when it crosses media – your Facebook presence should not differ greatly from your Twitter persona (and many people will follow and notice you on both).
Social media consistency for your business means your persona and personality are best if they seem appropriate for your business, even though you’ll be adding a human face to the business via this media. If you’re a new car dealer, for example, it won’t likely work if your social media content is focused on political or religious issues or food, or animals. Imagine how it will look for your business brand if your social media content is all about partying or dating.
Some people keep separate social media identities for their business and personal lives, but I don’t recommend doing that – it’s enough of a challenge to keep fresh content in social media for one personality; maintaining a balance between business and personal at once confuses the issue and may not even be possible.
A note to recent college graduates: If your Facebook (or other media) presence includes a lot of info about partying or other content or activities that you don’t think would serve your business identity well, do you best to remove and discontinue that content. ‘Nuff said about that.
