There’s something awfully discomforting when you see a company break brand consistency. It’s even worse if you’ve been following them for some time and you feel like you know them somehow. Then, one day, you find them on Twitter and they’re acting totally different. It’s like if a character on your favorite TV show suddenly turned to the screen and asked you to make her a sandwich.
Businesses do it all the time. They may have had an experimental phase when they first started out or handed the account off to a temp and completely forgot about it. Whatever the case, when customers find it, they’re completely confused and put off. They may even be unsure they found the right company and leave altogether.
Below are a few tips to help you maintain brand consistency across all avenues of social media.
Do you know your focus?
To be able to maintain a brand you have to know what it is in the first place. While you may have ironed out some details, it helps to go the next step and really understand what makes your business tick.
For example, let’s say you want to focus on customer service. You believe your business will be successful because you know how to make customers leave with a smile on their face. You figure out problems in no time flat and aren’t afraid to go the extra mile to correct a mistake.
This is a great idea for branding. However, you haven’t ironed out the details of all your policies when it comes to dealing with a customer who repeatedly breaks their product and demands replacements. Eventually, one of your representatives tells the customer via Facebook they simply cannot replace their product again.
Most customers don’t know the full story; they just know you denied an angry customer their replacement. To them, you just broke your entire brand. They don’t know what to believe anymore. Worse, if it spreads around the web, all your hard work is for nothing. Make sure to get your story straight top to bottom.
Google Yourself Frequently
Did you know your business has a Google Plus account? That’s right, a nice shiny G+ account is open right now, talking to your customers, answering questions, maybe even taking orders. It doesn’t matter that you didn’t set it up nor do you have anything to do with it – it’s there, that’s all that matters.
Let’s face it: jerks are everywhere, and some are out to ruin your day. Who knows why the person set up a fake Google Plus account for your business, but it’s now your problem because it’s hurting sales. If it isn’t yet, wait until the first time they cuss a customer out. That won’t exactly work with your brand, will it?
Use Google Alerts or a service like Social Mention to keep tabs on your online presence.
While you’re posting on social media and replying to messages all day, do you take the time to get a better understanding of your customers? You should, as they’re telling you quite a bit, both about themselves and about how you should treat them.
For instance, you could spend all day talking to customers on Facebook about customer service issues so you think that’s all that’s important. On Instagram, though, your fans are all about how aerodynamic your product’s design is and it should win awards. If you compare the two, they don’t seem to have anything in common, but in reality both sets of customers are discussing what they think is important.
They’re all your customers, so pay attention to what they focus on. They love your customer service but they also love your product’s design, although they happen to talk about it in two different places. This is still a great opportunity to dream up a new brand, one you can use across all social media to further your company’s reach.
How do you maintain brand consistency on social media?