6 Easy Ways to Be Consistent on Social Media
Busting the social media myths on how to be consistent!
You have to be on all the platforms to get your brand out there.
You need to post every day and be on stories 5 times a day.
You need to engage for at least 30 minutes a day
It doesn't matter what you post, as long as you post.
You've all heard that consistency is king when it comes to social media.
And for the most part that's right.
However, all of those statements above are just wrong.
Today I'm busting those social media myths and sharing my six easy ways to be consistent on social media.
Why is Consistency King?
First, let's talk about why consistency is king when it comes to your presence on social media and more importantly for your brand.
A brand creates awareness and builds trust and loyalty with customers. It takes about 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember your brand. Then many more to build on that awareness and develop the trust that will turn a cold audience into followers or customers. The more thoughtful and consistent we are with our brand across every touchpoint, the more success our brand will have.
But more importantly, there is this thing called the Brand Promise.
It's the unwritten (or sometimes written) commitment you are making to your audience. The values that you stand behind that your audience can expect to see from your brand and what defines the experience you want your audience to have with your brand.
The brand promise is important because at the center of it is trust. Trust is the ultimate thing that turns your followers into customers.
And the best way to earn ones' trust?
Yep. It's by being consistent.
If you were at a bar and ordered a martini 5 different times, and each time wasn't the same as the time before, what would your impression of that bar be?
Now, they could have all been tasty. Maybe one was made with vodka, the other gin, one super dirty, one with a lemon twist, and the other a blue cheese olive. But that's very inconsistent. You never know what you are getting when you walk into that bar.
It's even worse if one of those drinks were weak, not cold, or poured into a dirty glass. One bad drink and you may never walk into that bar again.
The same goes here. If you are inconsistent on social media, then people may think your brand is weak and not dependable.
Now here is the good news and the biggest thing to bust those myths above:
Quality matters more than quantity.
You'll see in 6 ways to be consistent, that it doesn't take more work. In fact, you may even be more targeted in your social media that it will take less work!
1. Be Consistent in Where You Show Up
There are so many social media platforms out there and unless you are a very large brand with a huge team, you just can't be on every one of them.
There just isn't the time to build an audience, create unique content and engage on each platform individually. Period.
It's so much better to go all-in on one or two social media platforms than show up weak on many of them.
In addition, it's very likely that your brand and your ideal audience don't mesh with some of the platforms. For instance, if your audience is over 50, maybe TikTok isn't the best place to invest your time in. Similarly, if your brand focuses primarily on B2B, you may want to go all-in on Linkedin.
The number of "major" social media platforms for brands in the U.S. continues to grow. It's not just Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and YouTube. TikTok is becoming more and more popular for businesses and Clubhouse is also making waves. In fact the list of social media sites you can join keep growing.
When thinking of which social media platforms to be on, consider these questions:
What are your goals?
Look at your brand goals. What type of content will you be sharing based on those goals? What platform will help you reach those faster? Where can you best accomplish them?
Where is your audience hanging out?
You want to be where your audience is. If you've mapped out your ideal target audience, you know have an idea of where they spend most of their "online" time. Make it easy for your audience to find you and go where they are!
Where can you be authentic?
Don't twist your brand personality just to be on social media. We dive into authenticity below. It's important to be true to your brand on social media. If your brand voice isn't suited for one platform, you shouldn't be on it. There is a place for every brand to shine.
How much time do you need to put into a platform?
Not all platforms are created equal and some may require more time from you or a skillset that maybe you or your team don't have. If it's not in your wheelhouse or one that you don't enjoy, it will be more time-consuming for you. For instance, Instagram not only works for my brand, but I love creating the type of content I need to for it. However, I am not as pithy as I'd want to be to excel on Twitter so I'm not on there. The same goes for video. I'm not fast at video editing so it would take too much time to have a channel on YouTube/.
If you are trying to decide between one platform over another, here is a great comparison tool!
2. Be Consistent with Your Brand's Look and Voice
When you launched your business, you likely also created your brand identity with your look and feel and your brand voice. Are you still relying on both when you create your content?
Both go a long way to building consistency on your social media platforms.
Having a cohesive look and feel in your content will give you content a more polished look.
You want to think about the colors, fonts and imagery we use to convey our brand.
I don’t believe you need a perfect Instagram grid, professional photos, or overdesigned content to create an impactful, professional and cohesive look.
You can get a cohesive look that with a camera phone and stock images, simple graphics made in Canva using the same set of fonts and colors, and using a set of filters in a photo editing app to give photos a similar look.
Your brand voice is how people connect and relate to your brand. It's the overall way you talk to your audience, your brand personality, the tone, and your messaging. You don't want to throw people off by having two different personalities.
Think about the human characteristics your brand has. How can you convey that through the tone in your messaging? I love using Grammarly's tone detector to ensure that I'm consistently speaking in my brand voice.
3. Be Consistent in the Content You Share
Are you all over the place in the content you share and talk about online? It's one thing for an individual to share anything that comes to mind, but a brand needs to offer its audience more structure.
The best way to do this is through content pillars.
Content pillars are the 3-5 subjects or categories that you discuss or share most about online. This isn't the time to be the jack of all trades. When you are growing your audience, you want it to be clear what your account is about. If you are all over the place, people may not feel that they will consistently get good value from you and won’t follow you.
I like to have three main content pillars and two supporting pillars:
The main pillars are the topics that really speak to the core of your brand. The 2-3 topics that you have the most authority in. Most of your content comes from your main pillars.
Supporting pillars are your outlying passions or hobbies that you use to show a personal side to your brand. These pillars help people make a connection to you and your brand.
By establishing content pillars, you are further defining your brand and setting it apart from others in your field. Simultaneously, you are building trust with your audience by being consistent in the content you push.
4. Be Consistent by Being Authentic
“The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.”
When you are unique and less like other people, you are being authentic. Same with brands.
When your brand is always showing up authentically, true to its values, and not trying too hard to impress or look and act like other brands, it's guaranteed to be consistent.
When something just "screams" that person or that brand, you know they are on-brand. Authentic, true to themselves, and confident in their identity.
The same goes for your social media. Showing up as an authentic brand or showing that things aren't always perfect and polished with the business will earn you the trust of your followers.
An easy way to do that is to just be "real". Try sharing what is happening behind the scenes or the ups and downs of the business.
You don't need to be vulnerable each time you post on Instagram. But sprinkling some realness into your feed will show your followers you are authentic.
5. Be Consistent on When You Post
Back to those myths from the top. I'm never going to tell you that you have to post every day or multiple times a day to be consistent.
How often you post on social media or send your emails out is entirely up to you.
Here's what I do know... if you post irregularly, you haven't given your followers a chance to get to know your brand or get used to seeing your content in your feed. That means when you do post, they may not remember why they followed you in the first place.
I will regularly clean up my follower list and if I see a post from an account I don't see regularly, I figure I don't need it in my feed so I unfollow.
Similarly, if you post too often you may also lose followers.
It is all about balance.
What’s more important is that you show up weekly and with quality content. When you are just starting 3-4 posts a week will help you build your audience. But don’t be afraid to post more often if you have good content and you are finding a lot of engagement on your posts.
6. Be Consistent By Engaging in Your Posts
Finally, you want to engage with your followers and those you follow to further connect with them.
But that doesn't mean you need to necessarily comment on posts every day if you don't have time (though it does help to grow your follower count but we'll dive into that another day).
What is most important when you are building a consistent brand is that you are engaging in your content.
In other words, don't post and ghost.
If you have a great post with a clear call to action for people to comment on your post or DM you and then you need to be ready to respond to those comments and DMs.
Building trust is a two-way street. Your audience wants to know you appreciate and value them and their time. If they put themselves out there with a comment, you need to respond.
So there you have it, the 6 easy ways to be consistent on social media. Hopefully, I busted some of those myths for you and you see the importance of being consistent in building trust for your brand!
Have questions or comments about this post? Shoot me a DM!
