Building a personal or business brand online isn’t easy. Displaying the consistency across multiple online channels is a necessary part of the brand but it’s also something that’s difficult to keep up.
It’s important for businesses to have an online presence that is as consistent as the offline presence.
Keeping the Brand
Imagine if one time you went into a store the staff was friendly and smiling and ready to answer all your questions. The next time you go in the staff is grumpy and doesn’t seem to want to help.
Put that scenario online where a customer may find your website where you answer every question promptly. The customer the next time contacts you on Facebook where you aren’t very active, your brand image is now tarnished.
This is why building your brand online is important, but even more important than that is to not overextend yourself. It’s not necessary to be on every social media platform. It is necessary though to at least have a helpful and easy to use website plus one or two social media accounts where your customers are.
Imagery across all your brand pages online should display the same message no matter where a customer finds you. That means the avatar is always the same across pages and your messaging the same.
Many social media sites offer a place for a quick blurb about your brand, usually 120-160 characters among other elements.
I put together a document and folder with the following information in it:
- 120-160 character blurb about what I do, fewer characters the better.
- Detailed description about what I do and my focus, around 2-5 sentences.
- Avatar for social media sites.
- Consistent header photos for any social media sites you’re active on (this infographic on HubSpot is a great cheat sheet for social media image sizes).
The document and folder with these items in it ensures that I have one source for putting information into my social media accounts. I can focus on making the most of the little space I have and not have to worry about inconsistencies that arise if I write on each site.
This is just a start to building a consistent online brand though. It isn’t a perfect method and I still find that I end up with inconsistent text across some of my accounts but it helps.