Hey everyone,
This week we learned about brand messaging. Kayla Stewart gave some good input on this topic. She mentioned that it is important to make your personal pages on social media something you are professionally and to be mindful of yourself on social media (in terms of what you post, comment, and like) as it can be asked about in a professional setting. In other words, she summed it up by saying that you’re a reflection of your brand and your social media presence is your public resume to the world. This is useful for me to know as I want to become a social media manager or marketer for a company. So I want to ensure that I am posting and liking things that relate to the position, brand, and person that I am. I have to ensure that my goals, vision, and values align with the brand’s goals, vision, and values, to ensure that the brand or company would consider me for their position as I want them to like what they see.
Image Source: PostMedia Solutions
To make it more specific, I am interested in photography, design, self-care and mental health. I would like to work for a brand or non-profit social media position that promotes self-care and mental health awareness, like TalkSpace, Headspace, or the Canadian Mental Health Association. So I would try to like posts on social media that correlate with all of this and post about these things. For example, I like a lot of self-care and mental health posts and sometimes even post them on my stories. I also want to make the goal and effort to post some of my design and photography work on social media, when I feel I am ready to promote what skills I have to offer to these brands. I also learned to be a bit more self-cautious of what I like on social media as it can always be tracked or questioned about, and I don’t want to like something I don’t agree with. So, Stewart’s advice has helped me give more thought to my social media use and how it can impact/be helpful to my professional career.
Image Source: Launch Marketing
From Rebecca Riserbato, I also learned some brand messaging tips to stay true to your brand that are useful to know. She mentioned that you should “stay focused on the brand positioning, relate to your audience, don’t be perfect, communicate your message everywhere, and be simple” (2020). I agree with this because it’s important to let your audience know clearly what your brand is about while also staying authentic and relatable to build that foundational trust/connection that every brand needs with its audience. I also think this can be useful for personal social media usage as well to help attract brands to want to hire you as you are following similar guidelines/tips that they are, which makes you look like a good candidate. Also, going back to where I mentioned how posting what brands would like to see is good, Riserbato highlights that you don’t have to be “perfect”. This makes me realize that being authentic in your content is important and that you shouldn’t have to try to be “perfect” by being someone you’re not. Your personal values, vision, and goals (your personal brand voice) should naturally align with the brand you want to work with, and finding out your brand archetype can help aid you with this.
References
How to find the right brand messaging to connect with your customers. (n.d.). https://www.inc.com/heidi-zak/how-to-find-right-brand-messaging-to-connect-with-your-customers.html
Kalkat, H. (2022, March 25). How often should you post on social media in 2022. Postmedia Solutions. https://www.postmediasolutions.com/blog/how-often-should-you-post-on-social-media-in-2021/
Riserbato, R. (2020, September 29). How to craft brand messaging your target audience will love. HubSpot Blog. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/brand-communication-strategy
Tuttle, C. (2023, October 4). Four things to know: B2B messaging tips. Launch Marketing. https://www.launch-marketing.com/things-to-know-b2b-messaging/