Finding your brand voice on social media

Having a strong brand voice online is crucial as you grow a business. People look to your company's website and blog posts, as well as its social media outlets, when they are trying to get a feel for its missions and what it represents. Believe it or not, every social post helps define your brand for consumers, so it is crucial that you take each one seriously. Here are some tips that will help you establish a strong and cohesive brand message through the use of social media.

Defining your brand

Before you start posting pictures, blogs, and other content online, have a good idea of the overarching image you want to present. In this exercise, simplicity is best. Start by trying to describe your brand in one word. While it might feel as though you are oversimplifying a complex concept (i.e. your business and its mission), using a single word as a road map makes marketing efforts much easier. Before you ever post, you weight the value as it relates to that word.

Defining your brand in this fashion requires a great deal of soul-searching and a look into the future. How sustainable is your business model? If you see yourself branching out into many more directions, your one-word brand concept may seem significantly larger than your current business model. Do not let that concern you. Play the long game when you think of company branding.

Social media and your brand voice

Once you know your business and see a clear direction for your brand, it is time to put some effort into your social posts. Try to create value in every post in order to align with your overall brand mission. No matter what your goals are in your specific industry, you want to be known as a brand that takes itself (and the time of its followers) seriously. Always think quality over quantity with your social posts—even when you are squeezing them into 140 characters. Frivolously posting on Facebook or Twitter will lead to consumers ignoring future posts.

More importantly, figure out how to tie images into your brand mission and social media strategy. Photos get more page views and shares than posts that rely solely on words. Brands that specialize in design, fashion, art, or photography have it easy in this regard. For a business that has no ostensible visual angle, find a way to get images into the themes of your post. Law firms, pet adoption services, and food truck owners each have ways of making noise on social media with the right pictures.

Finding help from followers and advocates

When you are stumped on how to write about your brand, take a tip from the many social media users who already cover your brand in their daily activities. Social media followers who comment on your products and services can become brand advocates—a company's best allies—when you engage them in the right way. This give-and-take relationship with brand ambassadors and advocates also allows you to hone in on your brand voice. The response people have to your business should not be lost on your marketing efforts.

To engage followers and advocates more, consider offering them samples of new products to review or test while you are still developing them. You might consider reaching out to bloggers and journalists for their takes on your products, and for a measured review. These steps all allow you to gain more exposure while igniting conversations about your brand on social media. As long as you monitor and respond to the activity, you are helping differentiate your brand and present its voice to the public through direct interaction.

Nailing down a company's brand voice on Facebook or Twitter might seem like a tall order for a social media novice, but offers from partners in The UPS Store can help. Constant Contact social campaigns can push your posts out to more followers, expanding the reach of your company's mission.

How to master the changing social environment and stay relevant as a business

While running a small business, you may feel like you have threats coming from all sides. Competitors copying your concept, innovators on the rise, and a constantly changing world will test even the best businesses. The fast-paced social environment is another aspect for small business owners to consider. As everything shifts around you, it is normal to feel like your company is being left behind. Here are a few ways for your business to stay relevant.

Stay informed

The technology section of your local newspaper will give you a beat on what is happening on the digital landscape, and there are specialized websites for everything from social media marketing help to improving your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to gain ground in Google rankings. Tech conferences and marketing forums also highlight developments in the business world and society.

Another excellent way to keep on top of societal changes is by talking with your children or anyone who is young. What makes it into the newspaper and what the kids are saying do not often meet halfway. Have a source with an ear to the ground to stay informed about changes in social life. You may learn nearly as much by watching the top 10 YouTube videos of any given month.

Find out what works

While small business owners may feel overwhelmed by social media strategies, you have more tools at your disposal than ever to measure what is working. Twitter campaigns work for many businesses, but if you do not see any increase in followers, favorites, or retweets after months of activity, then your best bet is to change course and try another network.

Each social network has a way for you to see how your marketing efforts are performing. A skilled marketer will suggest ways for you to move the needle and expand your brand's reach, but you can take a look for yourself whenever you have doubts. The changing social environment is making it harder for marketers to tell companies tall tales of their success. Everything is verifiable.

Hire young

Those who say great recruiting is an exact science suggest you hire employees to address weaknesses in your company. In order to keep up with changing times, you may consider hiring a younger candidate to offer tips in social strategy and help you grasp what a new generation is looking for from your company.

Ignoring the fast-paced social environment was the downfall of many companies, like Blockbuster and Tower Records. In both cases, shifting habits and trends among younger consumers eventually made their products obsolete. By the time these businesses tried to adjust their approach, it was too late. Even the smallest business can learn from companies on that scale.

Outsource your concerns

As you try to keep your business model relevant, you may want to look for help outside your company. Business coaching, social media strategy, financing options, search engine optimization and help for other concerns are available through UPS Store professional partners. When you are having trouble with one area of your business, hiring a new employee may not be the most practical solution.

Outsourcing has the potential to solve your company's pressing needs without a large commitment in money or the valuable time of your staff. Businesses operating with a tight-knit group may not have the advantages of larger companies, but the number of freelancers and one-off professional service providers is allowing small businesses to close the gap. Before taking on more payroll, consider your outsourcing options, which require far less commitment.

A rapidly changing social environment should not intimidate a small business owner, no matter how long you have been in the game. Let The UPS Store partners help make your website mobile-friendly or give you the edge in any other area where you feel like you have fallen behind.

Are Customer Needs Receiving The Attention They Deserve?

Most entrepreneurs start a business with an answer to a problem. You notice something is lacking in the marketplace and create your company to provide the solution. You anticipate customer needs and offer the product that meets them. Thus, a brand is born. The growth successful companies experience tends to complicate this relationship. However, anticipating and meeting your customer's expectations should remain the focus of your business model, even when priorities change.

Are your customers satisfied?

Customer feedback is crucial as you grow any business. The first people to buy a product are often surprised at how a company could meet or exceed their expectations with such a great solution. This type of response is why many people go into business in the first place. Entrepreneurs see an inadequate marketplace and deliver a product to take care of that issue once and for all. The challenge of business is sustaining success through expansion and new product development.

Along the way, you will learn a great deal about how your customers feel, if you are willing to listen. Open multiple channels of communication (e.g., social media, e-mail, online chat, etc.), so customers can take the time to leave feedback quickly and easily. Through these comments, complaints, encouragements, and suggestions, you will likely see a picture of what your earliest adopters think of your work. Understanding the prevailing mood of customers is important if you want to meet their needs. Then, you can grapple with ways to respond.

The customer needs conundrum

An apocryphal quote usually attributed to Henry Ford perfectly sums up the complexity of company-customer relationships. "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses," the saying goes, according to Harvard Business Review. Basing your entire business strategy on company feedback and suggestions could lead you down a dead-end path. After all, no one following you on Twitter suggested a direction for your company back when you created it.

At the same time, burning a bridge with an existing customer is foolish. Any experienced marketer will tell you it is far easier to sell a new product to a returning customer than it is to convert someone using another brand or find a new customer in the clutter of modern media. Likewise, loyal customers (i.e., brand advocates) serve companies better than any splashy ad campaign. Your customers are your best marketers.

Meeting customer needs better

The best way to meet (or exceed) customer expectations is to compromise on the warring urges. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your company as you apply feedback. If you entered the market as the budget provider of a popular product, you may enter dangerous territory by expanding to high-end goods. Consumers in the luxury market tend to prize brand recognition when they make purchases. As Kia learned with its venture into the luxury car market, convincing people to associate its brand with exclusivity can be a long, hard battle.

A better direction for a provider of budget goods would be to expand into another market using the same tactic. The case of Warby Parker, the maker of fashionable eyewear at low prices, is an instructive example. Were this company to enter another fashion accessory market at the best-value option, existing customers would undoubtedly give the products a shot. Other ways to meet customer needs are less complicated. Improving your shipping options or order fulfillment can change your company's reputation without having to change the business model. Great customer service, extended product warranties, and lower prices also work well.

When customers talk, business owners are best served by listening. Whether you tune in to social networks or launch an online survey, there are ways to receive valuable feedback you can use to improve your company's standing in the marketplace.