Why do we use Social Media? What is our purpose as consumers? We use it because of what it says about us, what it tells others about us, what image of us it portrays – what does your brand say about me?
As companies, we need to be mindful of this and why someone would Like our business or Follow our brand – it is what being associated with our brand says about them. For example, Liking a small family run cafe will tell others that family is important, Following a particular clothes shop will tell people how we like to dress, Liking a small boutique food shop tells people that we care about food, Following charities shows others where our heart lies. This is the same as stating who we are married to, what job we do and for whom, where we live and come from – they all say something important about us and build up a picture of each individual.
So how does this translate for your business? You need to think about your whole brand image, not just what you do, portray on your Social Media sites who your company is, what your values are, creating more than just and advertisement (see my previous post). You also need to interact with your customers, responding to Facebook comments and messages, and to Tweets; this helps solidify your brand as personable and caring as well as being able to reach new customers this way.
If you are a Business to Business company, this still applies, another brand will decide to associate itself with you because of what your business represents, and how it reflects on them and their brand, bringing us back to the original question: what does your brand say about me?