Tips to Build Your Brand on Social Media

Written by Chris Harman. Chris is the founder and creative lead at Parent, a brand agency with a specialism for the property sector, working with everyone from home staging companies through to developers, software companies and estate agents to build their brands on and offline. Over the next few months, we’re going to share some branding insights to help build your home staging brand. This month — Social media, and our top XX tips to build your brand on ‘the Gram’ (and the others). There’ll no doubt be some obvious ones you know, but hopefully some gems you hadn’t discovered.   There is no denying that social media is eye wateringly important in 2019, with 2.4 billion Facebookers, 250 million Pinterestees and 260 million people now LinkedIn. But how best to use these platforms to build your home staging brand can be a daunting affair. Being active and effective on social media can increase your brand awareness and build your audience, generating new website traffic and valuable leads, costing you nothing but a bit of time. 1 — Decide which platforms are right for you. Just because it’s there, doesn’t mean you should use it. Give some thought to which platforms work best for you to reach your audience. Home staging is a visual business, so you might find Pinterest more engaging than Twitter. Then again, where does your audience spend their time? If your key audience is estate agents, and the ones in your area are big Twitters, you might decide it’s worth posting there regularly, whereas Pinterest might be full of people looking for inspiration, nice to provide it, but are they going to instruct you to stage a home for them.   2 — Align your profiles It may seem obvious, but misaligned profile names are my pet hate. If you’ve already done it, or you think it goes without saying, good work, skip to the next tip. It sounds like a simple one, but as with any branding exercise, consistency is key. Just as colour, typography, and language should be consistent, so should your name, and how people find you. Use a tool like https://www.namecheckr.com/ to find a good name that’s available on all the platforms you use. There really is nothing worse than being @my_username_here on Instagram, but @myusernamehere-ltd on Twitter – Keep it consistent and you’ll be found easier and look more established.   3 — Get your image right When it comes to your profile image or ‘avatar’, consider your overall brand strategy and audience. If your business is centred around you personally and you’ve no desire to build a team, then a professional—ask your interiors photographer to take a few shots next time they shoot one of your staged properties—headshot is ideal. If on the other hand, you have grander ambitions, use a clear version of your logo tailored to viewing at small sizes. This might be an icon or initials, remember most people will see this on a mobile phone, so an interior shot or detailed text won’t translate well.   4 — Define your audience First off, decide why you’re posting, is it to reach new clients and get home staging work, or is it to boost your profile within the industry and attract staff? Both are valid, but quite different audiences. Once you’ve worked out who your audience is, consider what they might like, what they might find useful and how they absorb media, before tailoring your content to reflect that. Write down your audience profile so you can come back to it later, checking your content is still aligned.   5 — Tailor your content Each platform has a different kind of user and each type of user absorbs media in a different way, tailor your content to reflect that and build it into your strategy. For instance, Instagram is more image lead with less time for each post, so copy can be minimal with your main content within the image, whether it be a successful ‘after’ shot, a client testimonial, or a staging tip. LinkedIn, on the other hand, is more business-focused and a place where discussions happen. This makes it a super-platform for opening a debate on the benefits of home staging or offering free tips aimed at developers and estate agents.   6 — Create a content plan Fail to plan — plan to fail, is just as true online as in actual life! Having a clear strategy and content plan helps retain consistency and flow over time and stops things getting stale or tired. Compose a schedule, or pattern that you stick to, making sure you’re not posting about the same things all the time. For example;   Monday — Insider staging tip Tuesday — Work in progress staging shot Wednesday — Before / After shot Thursday — Evidence / statistic Friday — Share a stunning interior (not yours) Saturday — Portfolio shot Sunday — A product or brand recommendation   Daily isn’t necessary, but the more consistent you can be, the better.   7 — Template your posts Creating a design / layout template will do two things; Firstly it will save you time when creating new posts. But secondly, and most importantly, it will help you maintain a consistent look and feel to your posts that’s in line with your brand’s identity, making for a recognisable and professional feed. It will help to create a range of post templates for different purposes; job openings, before / after shots, inspiration posts, should have a different but unified look. Spend some time designing a good range of templates and it’s time saved over and over again when it comes to posting.   8 — When to post There is no fixed answer to this as it will depend on your audience. If you want to talk to estate agents, think about when they’re likely to be browsing social media—most likely to be during the commute if they’re in central London, or evening rather than during the day.   9 — You’re not selling double glazing! Intrusive, hard-sell marketing doesn’t sell anything except cheap double glazing. Your audience doesn’t want to be sold to, so use social media to build relationships and connections rather than always trying to flog something.   10 — Sharing is caring Following on from the previous point, and related to your content plan is sharing. Don’t be afraid to give your knowledge away, in fact, you should be encouraged to do so. Offering hints and tips on property staging, interior design advice, or even cleaning tips won’t stop people commissioning you. It will, however, build trust and a following, and if people trust you, they’re more likely to buy from you.   11 — #Nailedit Use them, don’t abuse them. Hashtags can be really useful when used correctly, and make it easier for you to be found. People follow hashtags they like, such as #homestaging to discover new ideas and accounts to follow. Hashtags like #sawitherefirst or #nailingmondays do not serve your purpose well unless your purpose is to sound like a teenager! There are lots of tools like keywordtool.io to find popular hashtags for your audience. Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags in a main post and 10 in a story, copy your most used tags into a text file so you can paste them to posts without having into rewrite them all every time.   Parent is a brand and digital design agency specialising in the property and interiors sector. Follow us @madebyparent or visit www.madebyparent.com