How To Use Today’s Social Media Platforms To Develop Your Brand
And also expand your influence
I learnt one thing from Gary Vee, it’s that, thinking you don’t have to invest in all the social media platforms available today because you feel it’s best to concentrate your efforts on one or two is a foolish mistake.
I’ve been in this online journey game for about 3 years now, and the major advice I get from everyone — by everyone, I mean the books I read, the blogs I visits, online courses, etcetera — is to stick to one platform at a time.
“Find out where your audience hangs out, go there, grow there and then move to another platform”
Not that there’s anything wrong with this advice, it’s just that Gary Vee has made me understand that it’s not always the best approach, in his book, “Crushing it”
For real, when blogging came out in 2004, many bloggers stuck to their blogging platforms, posting content on a regular basis. They never thought about using some of the social platforms that came up as the times went by.
Most bloggers, even Medium writers will tell you they don’t have a strong presence on other social platforms because they are writers. “I’m a writer, writing is my skill, how do you expect me to create videos for YouTube?”
According to Gary Vee, “They found something that worked and preferred to rest on their laurels rather than stay hungry and sharp”. But it didn’t get them that much far, their platforms became obsolete.
If you are present on a lot of social platforms, creating content regularly, staying consistent and giving value, you might just be the next social media sensation if one of the platforms blow up.
For example, look at how TikTok became a massive platform. When it came out, I’m sure many people must have ignored it because it wasn’t their style, or it didn’t fit their brands, but those who did, reaped the dividends.
How Do You Then Use These Platforms and Reap Rewards From It?
1. Show Up
You first have to show up, yes, find out where your target audience goes to and then show up there. But I tell you this, your target audience do not show up on just one platform. They are on 3–4 other platforms too.
Say you’re a manufacturer who produces and sells paints to people. Your target audience are newly weds looking for a new house, people who just recently or want to relocate, house painters, interior designers, etc.
Tell me who amongst these people wouldn’t have a Facebook account, an Instagram page or a Linkedin account. Some of them will be ardent Youtube lovers, while some others would listen to podcasts, or some other cool platform.
It doesn’t take a lot of hard work for a platform to become obsolete. Your target audience are on a lot of platforms, so find out what these platforms are an show up there.
2. Have A Branded Look
Effective and consistent branding is a great way to communicate value to your audience. Use your brand style guide as a starting point.
A brand style guide is simply a document that contains all the information about your brand, your visual designs, your methods and so on.
Determine your visual identity and create a theme with your platform, especially on Instagram. Let the last 6–9 images on your Instagram be visually pleasing. Once someone lands on your page, these last images are what they’ll see first, so you want to make sure it grabs attention.
Create templates that will help you stay on brand. Create Instagram creatives template, create templates for Facebook and so on. Determine your brand coulors, your fonts and your photos. Then use them in all of your designs.
3. Invest In Programs That Help You Close Your Knowledge Gap
I recently bought a video course for 45 dollars, it contained some of the things I need to close my knowledge gaps. Although, I attended the webinar, which lasted for 3 days. But at the end, I still bought the course, because I knew I would need to refer to it later.
If you are really good at what you do, opportunities will come for you, and you will do well, impress your clients and grow your business exponentially. It’s better to do this than to take a short cut.
One major reason people have self-doubt is because they lack adequate skill or knowledge in a particular area. If you know what you bring to the table, you won’t have to worry about self doubt.
If you do a shoddy job for your clients, you’ll lose them one after the other until you’re out of business. That’s why it’s important to understand your business, understand your customers and understand your social platforms.
4. Use Today’s Tools For Content Creation
Whatever you aim to achieve, whether it is ultimate productivity, to create value, to make impact or to grow your audience, there’s always some tool somewhere that can help you with that.
And the most interesting thing about these tools is that they come in free and paid versions, they are easy to use and they give you the best results.
For instance, if you want to create content for YouTube, you don’t need to hire the services of a video creation company, with your mobile phone, you’re good to go.
There are a lot of apps that can help you create and edit your videos, there are tools that can help you to upload them on your platform, and tools that help to record your analytics.
Running a business is challenging, and it takes a lot of hard work to manage a team, set up a website, create content and so on. But with the right tools, you can make things very easy for yourself.
Conclusion
Don’t forget the advice of Gary Vee and I, show up on as many platforms as you can, and show up regularly, because you never know which one would blow up next.
