Social Media is every where!
Within todays society, roughly 64%, or two-thirds of adults have not only home Wi-Fi,
but they have access to at least one, if not more, smartphone, desktop, laptop,
or tablet that enables them to have consistent access to the internet.
(Source:) Because of the easy access to the internet and the quick availability
to the multiple online channels of information, people are starting to spend
more time online, than anywhere else. However, even though there are millions
of websites and apps, social media apps are among the most used out of all
them. It is because of that, that it is becoming imperative for media
organizations, such as magazine, newspapers, television and even radio
stations, to not only have an online presence, but to develop a social media
brand, as well.
However, before we can start
talking about how to build up your social media presence, we need to fist discuss
what a social media brand is. So, what is a brand?
No, we are not referring to the kind of permanent mark that a farmer leaves on
their cattle. The brand that we are referring to in this sense is that of a
“name,
term, design,
symbol or
any other
feature that
identifies one
seller’s good
or service
as distinct
from those
of other
sellers” (Source:)
Take
the talk radio show, The Breakfast Club, for example. The Breakfast Club is
arguable one of the most popular morning talk radio shows in America. The show
is hosted by DJ Envy, Angela Yee, and rapper Charlamagne tha God. The original
talk show started in 2010 on New York’s Power 105.1 FM. However, in 2013 the talk show
became a syndicated radio show. This means that the show was licensed to
broadcast on multiple different radio stations around the world. Part of the
reason why the show became as popular as it has is thanks to their social media
platforms.
The
Breakfast Club radio show is now broadcasted on 41 radio stated around the
world, including the main radio station of which they started Power 105.1 FM in
New York. So, how did a radio station utilize social media and build such an influential
social media brand? I mean, it’s a radio show, all they do is talk on the
radio. No one even likes to listen to the radio anymore, right?
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube
are the three main social media outlets that The Breakfast Club talk show uses.
Each morning their broadcast is filmed live on Facebook. This is important for
two reasons. One, you get to actually put a face to the voices that are coming
out of your speaker. Two, once the filming is done, people can still watch and
see what happened during the live broadcast. The Breakfast club utilizes
YouTube in a similar way. The show will post their broadcast on their YouTube
channel, but they also post more exclusive and personalized content from their
broadcast. Take for instance that you only like to hear the “Rumor Report” and don’t
care too much about the rest of their show. Well, then you could go on the
shows YouTube channel and watch all of the “rumor reports” that have been aired
on the show. Their Twitter page is probably their least used form of social
media, but the show utilizes it to further advertise for the show and the
different things that is talked about on show. They also utilize it as a way to
interact with their fans by sometimes retweeting something a fan said, or
shared.
So, lets talk numbers. How do you
know if you have a strong social media presence? The simple answer can be found
in the amount of followers that you have. The Breakfast Club the show has over
2.4 million people who either follow or like the Breakfast Club on Facebook. The
shows YouTube channel alone has 4.21 Million subscribers. On Twitter, the show
has 624 thousand followers. Out of three of the most popular social media
platforms, the Breakfast Club has a combined following of over 7.2 million
fans, or followers. This is not even including the personal accounts that each
of the host has. On Twitter alone, the three host have a combined following of 3.8
million, with Charlamagne tha God having the majority with 2.12 million fans.
The success of the show has to
deal with their ability to cultivate such a large and loyal fan base among
their social media channels. So, how can other radio shows, newspapers,
magazine, or news channels build their social media brand like the Breakfast
Club did? There are a few steps
in which you can take in order to brand yourself on social media better. The
first thing that you need to do is to make sure that your social media accounts
are all updated. You also need to figure out which social media platform(s) you
plan on using. The most popular social media platforms for branding are
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat. However, once you have figured out
what you want to be known for, or what your niche is, you will get a better
idea as to which social media platform will work best for your brand.
The second thing that you will need to really focus on is finding your
niche. What do you want to be known for? What areas do you have expertise in?
Are you a makeup artist and want to showcase your makeup skills and review
popular makeup brands? If so, then I would suggest using Instagram and YouTube
as your primary social media platforms. Are you a travel photographer?
Instagram and YouTube could also work for you to showcase your photographs.
“The more unique and
engaging content you create on your chosen topic of expertise, the more your
followers will start to think of you as a leader in your chosen field.” (Source:)
The third thing you can do to help build up your brand on social media
is to make sure that you are posting your content on a regular basis. Are you
going to be able to post every day? Every week? Every other week? Whatever the
time frame, make sure to stick to a schedule. One of the things that can kill a
brand before it even gets a chance is inconsistency. The majority of people on
social media, myself included, have rather short attention spans. Therefore,
it's not only important to grab the attention of your followers, but you must
also be able to maintain their attention in order to stay relevant. According
to the Digital Marketing Institute, posting 3-4 times a week is the “sweet
spot” for individuals.
Lastly, you want to make sure that your content is creative and
captivating. No one wants to see the same post done by 30 different social
media influencer wannabe’s. Make sure that the content you create is authentic
to who you are. If you are creating random content based on what other people
are doing, you are likely to lose followers because they will see you as
someone who is just trying to get famous. If that is your goal, you will likely
never reach it. As I’ve stated in my last post,
“People don’t care
what you do. They care why you do it.” – Simon Sinek.
Therefore, you want to make sure that your
content stays true to the brand in which you are trying to create. Keeping up
with trends is okay, as long as you can find a different way to do them, or
find a way to make them relevant to your brand. Branding for your organization is not an easy thing to achieve. As we are finding out
each week, utilizing the power of social media is not as easy as some people
make it seem. However, once your brand has been established, you can start to
enjoy the benefits of it.
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