There are 7 steps to building a successful social media platform. During the next few weeks, we will be going over these steps one at a time.
The steps are:
- Create a Vision
- Set Strategic Goals
- Find Your Social Media Voice (Persona)
- Build Your Social Media Platform
- Create a Publishing Plan
- Build Your Tribe (Community)
- Evaluate Your Results
This week we’ll talk about finding your voice.
PICK ONE (or more)
Consummate professional? Girl next door? Helpful assistant? Wise mentor? Busy mom/family nutritionist?
Each of these has a place in Social Media depending on who you are, who your audience is, what platform you’re on, and what your message is. You might even pick more than one of these depending on how many platforms you’ll be using. Many professionals use multiple platforms and may present a more professional persona on LinkedIn than they would on Facebook.
Some examples:
- One women I know specializes in travel plans for Disney vacations. Her online persona is very fun loving and family oriented.
- A productivity coach I know (Evie Burke at One Insight Closer) is always positive and upbeat in her Facebook persona. She is an entrepreneur and she works with entrepreneurs helping people be more productive. If you read her blog and newsletter you see she does not hide the fact that sometimes she struggles with productivity. This shows that she can relate to her clients since she faces the same challenges that all humans do.
- The folks at VAclassroom.com will typically have their social marketing platforms talk about current (and free) classes, but on Remembrance Day they mentioned the courageous men and women who fought for freedom and showed a photo of poppies. (Which is what I mean when I say “be consistent – mostly.” It’s okay to step out of character once in a while, as long as you keep your authenticity).
PICK BOTH (no less)
Consistency (mostly) and authenticity.
Probably the best word I can think of to describe this quality is “mensch,” which is defined as a person of integrity and honor. Integrity, authenticity, accountability, and transparency are all important in your social media voice. You can add other qualities like humor (one local retailer uses “hump day humor” every Wednesday and one Doctor I know posts something fun every Friday.)
I have seen businesses change their brand or take a different direction with regards to their target market. But if you remain authentic to yourself and to the core of your vision, you can still remain authentic and consistent.
Next time we’ll talk about setting up your platform. While the basics are pretty much the same across all the platforms, I’ll determine which platform to use as the example based on the comments I receive.
Related articles
- Five Social Media Lessons from the Spice Girls, Steff Moore (spinsucks.com)
- What Makes Up a Professional Internet Presence? Sarah Greensonbach (business2community.com)
- How to Find Your Authentic Voice on Social Media, Ross McCammon (entrepreneur.com)
- 20 Great Social Media Voices (and How To Develop Your Own), Courtney Seiter (marketingland.com)