Lean Into Your Strengths

You have worked hard to develop your product, or in starting a new business and you've decided to take the plunge on social media to start promoting it, whether that be through a specific, targeted medium that you know well, or across multiple channels, make sure you're avoiding these common pitfalls when starting out.

Not all party's are good, not all people are interesting.

You're so excited to take that first step in to promoting yourself on social media, you look at other brands accounts and how they interact with their audiences and you want something like that for your brand. This is a great first step, you should be analyzing and comparing yourself to brands you hope to be like someday, but first you need to keep your expectations realistic.

That brand’s social media presence and following likely took years to build and their follower engagement levels didn't happen over night. Furthermore they may even have a whole communications and marketing team that handles their social presence… and the fact is, you're just not there yet, but that’s OK!

Accept that you and your brand are just joining the social party and that some groups and cliques have already been formed and are socializing so you are going to have to put yourself out there and meet some people. Even though you are the new person at the party, you made sure to bring something unique and tasty to share with those who give you the time and eventually you will start to find others who share your interests, who start to talk you up and introduce you to others with similar interests, and pretty soon you’ve got your own group of friends talking, sharing and conversing about you and what you have to offer.

Social media is a party, you just need to lean into your strengths and figure out where you fit in.

• Find Your Voice | How you present yourself, brand, or product on social media
• Find Your Audience | Targeting the right audience and demographics
• Find Your Scene | Choosing the right social media platforms to promote your brand
• Tell Your Story | Promoting your brand your way

Find Your Voice | How You Present Yourself on Social Media

You and your brand are different, and the same.
 
You know your brand better than anyone else, you are passionate about it, your wants, desires, interests, and passions are most likely one in the same. So why try to make your brand something different than what you have already built it to be? Lean into your strengths by leveraging your expertise and knowledge of your brand or product to find your social media voice.
 
As a new business or brand, you need to determine how you are going to present yourself at the party. Your brand’s voice is essentially it’s online persona, and much like your own persona, you can talk, act and present yourself in different ways to different people and in different situations, but at your core you cannot change your personal voice i.e., who you truly are. Your presence on social media should remain consistent and true to your brand or organization’s mission and goals.

Party Tips to help you find and align your brand’s voice:

• Determine who and what is important to you, your company, your brand, or your product, beyond sales, ROI, growth, etc.
  • Family, Friends, Experiences, Situations, Locations, Life Events, etc.

• What interests you and possibly lead to the creation of your company, brand or product.
  • Improving upon or fulfilling a need that has never been addressed another way.

​​

• What characteristics, traits and features makes your brand or product unique and special.

Find Your Audience| Targeting The Right Followers

Finding your crew at a party should be simple enough, but there are always caveats to building relationships and creating connections.
 
Don’t forget that you are (or should be) the kind of person that you are looking for in your ideal target audience.

Party Tips to connect with the right people:

• Who's house is it?
  • Seems simple enough, but you should always be cognizant of what house you're in. Things work differently in others homes. Don't barge in, be respectful, show appreciation for being there.

​

• Who's having fun?
  • Find the person conversing the most, has the most people following them around, hanging on their every word. Be friends with that person, but don't overdo it - desperation is obvious.

​

• ​Who's having too much fun?
  • ​Avoid the person causing trouble, trolling people, or outright pissing others at the party off. Don't engage with them, you will lose, or worse, you get grouped with them and get tossed out too.

​

• Who's been there from the start?
  • ​The person who showed up early to help set up the party usually has a lot of pull with guests and knows the ins and outs of the house. They're also most likely the biggest proponent and fiercest advocate for the scene. That's a good person to befriend.

Find Your Scene| Choosing The Right Place To Promote Yourself

Being the new brand in town you have an open invitation to all of the parties, it’s up to you to determine if you have the time and capacity to attend all of the big shindigs, or maybe just a couple of them, or perhaps you only have the ability to attend one for now. Only you can decide what will work best with your busy schedule, regardless of which party or parties you decide to show up at, you want to make sure that you are able to do so well in order to really make a good impression.
 
Choosing the right social media platforms to be present on is no different than choosing which party you attend or what to expect. You go to a party if you have time to attend, if you feel comfortable there, and that you feel like you know or that you can find people with similar interests.
 
 Each party may have some people you recognize from other parties, but each one is unique, so don’t stretch yourself thin trying to be at every party because at the end of the day, nobody will remember the person jumping from party to party just to drop off some party favors, hardly carrying any meaningful conversation, and then leaving without saying goodbye.
 
Essentially it all comes down to the simple fact that only you know what kind of time and attention you can dedicate to being present on when promoting your brand, so make sure you focus on the right platforms that you feel comfortable with.

Party Tips to keep in mind for attending a party:

• Be a considerate party guest
  • Bring interesting content, insights or perspectives to share.

​

• Be present, engaging and attentive at the party
  • If you don’t respond or contribute, than people will get bored of you and move on.

​

• Don’t force a narrative, be a part of the conversation
  • Nobody likes the person who tries to constantly steer the conversation to talk themselves up.

​​

• Be mindful of your stories and audience

Don’t retell the same story you just told the business people at the LinkedIn party to the travel photographers at the Instagram party. Sometimes the story translates with a few tweaks, other times you look like that person who just zoned out of the conversation only to snap out of it with a conversation ender that everyone ignores because it didnt make sense.

Tell Your Story| Promoting Your Brand The Right Way

Party Tips to determine what your story is:

• You know your voice, you can't change who you are.
• You’ve found where you’ve decided to hang out, you wouldn’t go to a party you don't belong.
• You’ve found your people, keep them interested, be interesting.
• Now you need to talk - provide value in the conversation.