FAQ 2/4: Should You Include Your Branding on Social Media? | MP 08

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FAQ 2/4: Should You Include Your Branding on Social Media? | MP 08

How much of your branding should be put on your social media? Are you branding on social media correctly? What platforms should you be using?

In this podcast episode, Sam Carvalho dives into some frequently asked questions around marketing your private practice. This episode answers whether or not you should be including your branding on social media.

Meet Sam Carvalho

Samantha Carvalho DesignSam Carvalho is a graphic designer living in Cape Town, South Africa, with over five years of experience in both design and marketing, with a special interest and experience in the start-up environment.

She has been working with Practice of the Practice since 2016 and has helped over 70 therapist entrepreneurs take their practices to the next level by enhancing their visual branding. She loves working with a variety of clients on design-intensive tasks and is always up for a challenge!

Follow Sam on Instagram to see some of her work. To work with Sam, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding.

 

In This Podcast

Summary

In this podcast episode, Sam Carvalho talks about whether or not you should be including your branding on social media.

Should you include branding on your social media posts?

Social media can be an independent platform, but should still contain elements of your brand. It’s a great way to add to your brand image. Each platform has a personality of its own and it’s important to treat each platform differently. First, find out where your ideal client hangs out to give you a direction of where you should be focusing on social media.

A brief breakdown of the social media platforms and how to make use of them

Facebook posts can be more ad hoc and less planned but it’s still important to stay consistent in terms of branding. Make sure the images you are sharing include your logo and/or a URL on all images. You want people to share what you are posting and when they do, they’ll share information on your brand along with it.

Instagram needs a bit more of a plan of what your feed is going to look like. It’s a very visual platform so visual consistency and branding are very important. Don’t post ad hoc, rather plan it out, be consistent and incorporate a colour scheme. Use an app called Preview to plan ahead. Your followers will get to know your look and feel when you stay consistent. Have your Instagram posts pull through to Facebook too if you would like.

Pinterest is not so important when it comes to consistency as you are often curating other people’s content. But when sharing your blogs or content of your own, include links to your website and logos where possible.

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Thanks For Listening!

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Podcast Transcription

[SAM]: Marketing in Practice Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice podcast network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Beta Male Revolution, Empowered and Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, or Faith in Practice, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.
Welcome to the Marketing in Practice Podcast with me, Sam Carvalho, where you’ll discover everything you need to know about marketing and branding your business. To find out more about how I can help you brand your business, visit www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d like to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design.
Hi there. I’m so glad you’ve decided to join the Marketing in Practice Podcast today. I’m so glad to have you here. If you didn’t listen to the episode before this, I’m currently addressing frequently asked questions when it comes to marketing and design. So, over the next three episodes, I’ve already done one, and then over the next three episodes, I’ll be addressing a question per podcast. So, in the previous podcast episode, I answered the question on how to choose the right colors and pictures for your website that both resonates with you and your ideal client. So, if you haven’t listened to that, be sure to give it a listen after this. And then today I’ll be addressing another question and in the next two episodes, two other questions. I got these questions from the Next Level Practice community, which is an online community for people wanting to grow and take their practices to the next level. So, if you want to check that out, head on over to Practice of the Practice.com forward slash invite.
But onto today’s question, so this person asked, how much of your branding should you pull through to your social media? So, I think this is a really great question. For those of you who have not yet delved into the social media realm, I know it can be quite intimidating, especially if you’re not familiar with using any of the platforms. But I would definitely say that this is something you need to do. Social media is a great way to market your business and to reach your ideal client over and above your website and kind of any physical networking that you’re doing. So, I would say social media can definitely be an independent platform, but it should still contain elements of your brand. And this kind of goes into each social media platform independently.
So, each social media platform kind of has a personality of its own and you need to interact with it in a different way. So, I would say first and foremost, finding where your ideal client hangs out will give you an indication of which social media platforms you need to focus on. So, if, for example, you are counseling young adults or teenagers, I would say Instagram is a great platform to be on. If it’s maybe you know more of the older generation, then Facebook is where you want to be. So, I think realizing that each social media platform is different from another is kind of the starting point. But what I always recommend is that whatever social media platform you’re using to make sure that the images you are sharing include your logo and/or your all on those images. So obviously the nature of social media is you want people to share what you are sharing, right?
So, you want to upload a quote with a description that then people will share with their friends or we’ll share onto their page. And when they do that, they’re essentially sharing your branding along with it. So they’re sharing your logo or they’re sharing your website URL, and so if someone receives that and they really like the quote or whatever, the description really resonates with them, they’re then able to easily get onto your website, the person who came up with the quote or kind of the source of that post and able to find out more information. So that’s something you definitely want to do. But then as I said, when it comes to, I mean it’s difficult to kind of have generic rules that cover all social media platforms because each one is so different. So, I would say, you know, Instagram for example, is definitely a lot more visual than any of the other social media platforms.
So, on Instagram, I think it’s important to not just post ad hoc images, but to kind of have a plan from the get-go, of what your feed is going to end up looking like. So, kind of alternating between maybe an image and a quote, but then making sure that all the quotes are designed in a consistent way. Another benefit of that is that your followers will start to get to know your look and feel so that when they’re scrolling on Instagram and they come across one of your quotes, they’ll know immediately that is from you because they started to familiarize themselves with that design or that color that you’re using or that font that you’re using. So, I definitely think consistency with your branding on Instagram is much more important than on any other social platform. I would say on Instagram to be consistent with your color scheme. So, whatever the color scheme that’s associated with your brand is pull that through to Instagram and have that feature. It doesn’t have to be in every post but every second post or whatever you’re kind of making use of color, make sure that you stick with your branding. And as I say, then include your URL or your logo onto those images.
When it comes to Facebook, however, you can be a bit more ad hoc just because you never really get the opportunity to see all of the posts that you’ve posted in one spot like you do with Instagram. It’s more of a scrolling nature. So, I would say obviously the easiest is to have whatever posts you post on Instagram feed through to Facebook. But if you are posting on Facebook over and above that, you know, it’s not the end of the world or if you’re sharing somebody else’s post or something like that.
Pinterest is obviously then again, a bit different because that’s more curating other people’s content or sharing kind of your blogs or infographics. So obviously all of that content but kind of be different, but again, include links to your website where possible, include your logo where possible. I think the big thing to remember when it comes to marketing online is repetition. So, if you ever have an opportunity to include your logo or include your branding, do it. Like there’s really no harm that can come from it. In essence, you want people to get sick of seeing it because that means that you know, they’re remembering it. So, I would say definitely include your branding when the opportunity arises. Another, sorry, something I just wanted to get back to about Instagram. A great tool that I use is called preview. So that’s an app that you can get on your phone and you can actually plan your Instagram feed ahead of time and you can see what it’s going to look like and if there’s something that is out of whack or doesn’t really fit, you can play around with it and you can stop it up before posting to Instagram because obviously once you’ve posted to Instagram you can’t change the order. But that’s going quite in-depth. I mean, obviously, as a designer, I’m very specific about my Instagram feed and making sure that it looks great, but it is just if that’s a platform where you are marketing your practice, then I would say definitely spend a bit more time on the visual aspect.
But yeah, so I heard that that has answered that question. Definitely include your brand in anything that you post on social media, but more so on Instagram than any other social media platform. Great, so I’ll see you in the next episode. We’ll be answering another frequently asked question.
Thanks for listening to the Marketing in Practice Podcast. If you need help to brand new business, whether it be a new logo, rebrand or you simply want to have a print flyer designed, head on over to www.practiceofthepractice.com/branding. And if you’d to see some examples of my design work, be sure to follow me on Instagram at Samantha Carvalho Design. Finally, please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast on iTunes, if you like what you’ve heard. Talk to you soon.
This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or any other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.