In our previous blog, we discussed brand identity and why it’s important for small businesses. In today’s blog, I’m going to dive a little deeper and give you some tips on how to create content for your small business's brand, the channels to post to and how to tie everything together.
Before we get started, let me recap what brand identity is! Brand identity is how a business portrays itself to its customers and how the customers perceive the business.
When you begin creating content for your business, you must stick to your brand identity and brand!
Ready to start learning?
After you’ve defined your business’s brand, it’s time to start creating content! Don’t think you have to have all the bells and whistles from the get-go. It’s totally fine to start small.
The best place to start is to post photos of your team members, your office/building and your products. After you’ve gotten the basics covered, you can then go into more specifics about the services you offer and the processes your business takes.
This first step lets your customers learn more about your newly-defined brand and adds a humanized approach to your marketing. Both of which help build trust for your small business.
Photos are a great option, but video seems to be performing better nowadays. Once again, you don’t need a fancy video team to create your content. Think about what’s easy for your business to make.
Smartphones have so many apps that you can use, and here are just a few options:
You’ve got your photos and videos, but what else can you do? Come up with themed posts, such as Tip Tuesday! This content allows your business to interact with your followers.
Bonus Tip: If your business has been around for a while, you can always throw in some nostalgia by doing a Throwback Thursday. A lot of companies recently did the “10 Year Challenge,” and people absolutely loved this on social media!
What channels should I use?
Now that you know what content you should be creating, let’s talk about what channels you should be posting to.
Social media is one of the best resources that your business can use to gain exposure. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are the top four channels that businesses typically use to post their content.
Whether you’re using one, two or ten places to post your content to, you should always plan your content in advance and make sure you’re creating a strategy around it.
Having an integrated strategy is best when it comes to posting on social media. If you’re making a post on Facebook, make sure to post on your other social media channels, too.
But remember to optimize your posts for each individual channel. For example, if you’re posting to Instagram, make sure to include hashtags!
How does everything come together?
You may be wondering, how can I plan my content in advance? Great question!
If you’re just getting started, think of your content by quarter (this can help with seasonality). Planning your content allows your business to be strategic with posts, sales, holidays and much more.
After you’ve had a year of quarterly planning, consider doing a 12-month overview to see what worked and what didn’t work for your content.
After two years, do a year-over-year (YoY) campaign to watch your business’s growth.
Not only will this help you stay on track, but it will give you the opportunity to provide more value for your customers by creating quality content.
Don’t just push out content to your social media channels because you have to. Create content that has meaning to your brand and will resonate with your customers and audience.
Have you ever seen a page you liked on Facebook make a post about something that wasn’t relevant to their business? How did it make you feel? You were probably confused as to why they posted it.
Your audience will feel the same if your business makes a post and it isn’t relevant, which makes being strategic much more important.
Final Thoughts
Creating content for your small business’s brand doesn’t need to be difficult!
Start small and work your way up to more advanced posts. Remember to be strategic by planning out your content, and don’t forget to keep your brand at the forefront.
If you start getting off-brand, take some time to revisit what your business’s brand identity is.
Lauren Snyder, Content Contributor
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