Consistency is key

In the current online landscape, social media marketing is so important, and when executed correctly, it can have a significant positive impact on the growth of your business.

Before we begin, its crucial to understand that social media shouldn’t be used for a ‘hard sell’; it should instead be incorporated into your marketing strategy as a brand-building tool to create and nurture long-lasting relationships with your target audience.

So, how do I build my businesses’ brand presence through social media you ask? The answer is simple; be consistent about how you represent your brand. 

There are a range of different components that make up the big picture, but I’m just going to highlight a few of the more significant factors.

Be strategic

Without a clear marketing strategy in place, it’s easy to fall victim to posting aimlessly and infrequently (which social algorithms will punish you for).

This is why it’s vital to have a clear understanding of your marketing strategy from the word go. Your marketing strategy will typically consist of several components that relate to what want to achieve from your marketing efforts, i.e. building brand awareness, increasing sales etc.

💡 Tips

• Be clear about who your target audience is and tailor content to suit them.
• List your marketing goals and think about the type of content you can create that will help you to achieve these.
• It can be helpful to put together a post schedule to ensure you stick to the post frequency you would like to achieve. 
• Creating content ahead of time will help you to achieve your marketing goals.

Get down to business

Your business name forms an essential part of your brand identity. 

Most businesses have social media accounts on several different platforms; for example, Ziba Creative can be found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

To make finding your business on social media easier for potential customers or clients, use the same username and @handle across all of the social media platforms you use.

💡 Tips

• When you’re setting an account up for your business, it may not always be possible to get the @handle you want because another business has already taken it. When you have to pick an alternative name, select something as similar as possible.
• Steer away from adding numbers, or your businesses’ Pty Ltd suffix as they look untidy and become too long.
• Most social media usernames can be changed at any time, so don’t stress if you haven’t been consistent as you can update it now.

Create an impression

First impressions are everything. When someone lands on your social media account, chances are they are going to be curious to know what you’re about. Their first port of call will be to take a cheeky little glance at your bio. If it’s uninspiring or doesn’t actually explain what your business does, they will be frustrated and go elsewhere. I outlined a few pointers on how to write a killer bio in a previous post – Building trust from the outset. 

Click here to check it out.

Be visually engaging

Social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook are highly visual. As people scroll frantically through their feed, they won’t stop and engage with your post unless it speaks to them, visually.

I strongly recommend investing in brand imagery. This usually involves engaging a professional photographer to capture a diverse library of imagery for your business. It will be unique to your brand and you can use your own creative direction (or ours) to craft imagery that tells your story.

As social media marketing is a brand-building tool, it’s important to align your brand with quality. Most equine brands are associated with luxury and/or the love of the horse, so it’s essential to articulate this through the imagery you use.

Tell a story through all content you create. Use imagery to communicate what your business is about. Create a community by embracing and showcasing people who have benefitted from using your product or service. Be organic and let your brand’s personality and identity shine through in the content you create.

💡 Tips

Image consistency is critical, especially on Instagram. Do you ever stumble across carefully curated Instagram accounts and think how the heck have they made their grid look so dang good?

There is actually a formula for achieving this:

Use imagery with the same tone and colour palette + build your IG grid using a combination of diverse images + apply a similar filter preset across all imagery.

(We’ll be going into this in more detail in a future post).

Speak to your audience

The image + caption combo used should work harmoniously to articulate your message. Whilst it is totally okay to write a one line caption, you should make sure it has an objective. For longer bodies of text, it can help to put a structure in place to assist with writing a caption that executes the message you’re trying to get across.

The caption should use language that reflects your brand. It is therefore important to understand your brand’s personality, i.e. is it fun and laid back or formal and reserved?

💡 Tips

• Tailor your brand voice to align with your business and target audience then keep it consistent across all touch points.
• Make a list of the things you’re trying to achieve with the post then use those points to structure the caption.

You got this!

If you don’t got this, feel free to drop us a line. We’re equine marketing experts and would love to help you grow your business!

Facts from our Founder Jasmine Robertson