Want your brand to stand out on social media?
Not sure about what content to share to get results?
The bad news is there is no shortcut. But the good news is no matter what niche you are in, it’s still possible to create engaging content that your fans love to share. It all comes down to your brand’s personality.
The following is a guest post by Ravi Shukle.
Adding your brand’s personality to your social media content is the secret ingredient to growing loyal followers
That is why in this post I am going to show you the steps you need to take to showcase your brand’s personality on social media in order to grow a loyal community of fans and followers.
How to showcase your brand’s personality on social media
Share your story
We have all heard the famous quote about building trust: “People buy from those they know, like and trust.”
One of the key ways you can begin to build likeability, familiarity and trust is to share your brand’s story.
Injecting your personality into these stories is key to helping your audience relate to you. Let’s face it – when was the last time you shared a corporate slide show video on social media?
Here’s a great example of how Dollar Shave Club used humour to showcase their personality and share their story.
Here are some steps you can implement to help inject your brand’s personality into your story:
- Showcase emotion in your story (e.g., express your passion for your product/service)
- Show empathy towards your customers’ situation and reflect this in your story, demonstrating how your brand can help
- Communicate what your brand stands for — its core values – your journey – your point of view in the industry – as this is what your customers will relate to.
Let’s have a conversation
Have you ever had a full-blown conversation with an automated answer machine?
I hope not!
The language in there is often too slow and never specific enough to answer our questions.
That’s why using a conversational tone is far more relatable. This also applies to your social media content.
Using a conversational tone not only helps to build rapport with your audience, but also helps to make the content more relatable as you can imagine yourself speaking with the person rather than being spoken to. It also enables your brand to add in its personality such as humour or sharing a particular point of view with your fans.
If you have a team looking after your social media, you can always sign off your personal comments or feedback (e.g., Thanks Bryan for allowing me to share this blog with your audience – you rock! ~ Ravi Shukle).
A good tip for creating this type of content is to imagine you are having a conversation with a friend.
Here’s an example of how I’ve used this to introduce myself to my YouTube audience:
Share what you’re into!
Sharing your interests has to be one of the most underrated strategies to help showcase your personality with your fans.
For companies who have teams, this could involve sharing:
• Team birthdays with your social media audience
• Interesting facts about your employees – pets, hobbies, etc.
• Favourite snacks/foods/beverages of your team
For those who are personal brands, you can share activities you enjoy doing outside of the office and more personal interests.
Let’s face it – it’s impossible to work at your desk 24/7, and your audience knows that – so sharing your personal hobbies and interests is a great way to engage your fans.
Here’s how social media author Andrea Vahl has used this approach to share her passion for stand-up comedy on her YouTube channel alongside her business content.
It has even helped her increase sales for her business!
Andrea Vahl : “It’s actually gotten me business from people who say they appreciate my comedic side!”
There’s no I in Team
The days have long gone since the CEO or Founder was the only person who spoke on the company’s behalf. Now, thanks to social media, companies have the opportunity to share information from their whole team.
Showcasing your team on your social media channels is a great way to build a more human brand that people can relate to, and also gives your employees the chance to share their expertise and experience.
Here are some ideas you can implement to start involving your team a lot more in your social content:
• Host a Q&A with your employees and your followers
• Share company and team events
• Highlight what your team members are working on
For personal brands, you can always use these opportunities to engage with others in your industry to communicate your personality, such as collaborating with your content and interviews.
Here’s how the team over at Agora Pulse have done a great job of this by allowing Scott to share his expertise and collaborate with others in their industry via their podcast. In this case, it’s with Instagram expert Jenn Herman.
Engage with your fans
While this might seem like the most straightforward advice, it’s often the most overlooked – although our businesses focus on putting content out on our social media channels, we often forget to pay equal attention to the engagement of our followers.
Your personality is often best showcased on social media when you are talking directly with your fans, and what better way to achieve that than to engage in the comments.
You can achieve this by carrying out the following on your social channels:
• Live Q&A
• Ask open-ended questions in the comments to increase engagement
• Reply directly to each comment received
• Tag and mention your followers in each update so they get a notification and can respond
• Utilise UGC (User generated content) on your pages to help increase community content shared on your social media pages.
Here’s how Social Media Examiner have used this strategy to host a live Q&A with industry experts:
With these top tips you now have the skills needed to plan, create and execute content that oozes personality!
Say goodbye to boring content and hello to passionate, engaged fans!
I would love to know which strategy you will try first! Simply tweet me @RaviShukle.
Which strategy have you already tried?
