subject: Are You Being Consistent With Social Media Marketing? [print this page] I live in a little town much like Hooterville on the old television show Petticoat Junction. We have just a little country store like Sam Druckers minus the pickle jar. We also have a bank, post office and gas station. So when I say I live in the middle of a corn field, I mean it literally. As you can imagine, there's not much to do here but watch the corn grow.
In the summer months I like to go to yard sales on Saturdays just for something to do. I see lots of people I've known all my life there. It's funny, but it gives me a sense of community. These are people I played with as a child, went to school with, their parents, my old teachers. It makes me realize how important living in the community I grew up in is to me as I get older. It anchors me.
Thinking about this makes me realize how different we are in these digital times. It used to be that we got our news talking to our neighbors over the backyard fence, at neighborhood cook outs, from our front porches or school and community gatherings.
That was then
Now, we talk on social media. People get to know you and decide if they trust you enough to do business with you on Twitter and Facebook these days. Are you being authentic and consistent about who you are and what you do? Or does your blog say one thing, your Twitter profile another and your Facebook "about" something else? Is your look consistent? Does your feel and message in your social media marketing match no matter where people find you online?
Social media is the new backyard fence
It's not the same as your neighbors expecting to see YOU over the fence on a daily basis and recognizing YOU no matter what you look like that day. You are not meeting your clients in person, face-to-face in most cases, so it's important that the photos you use on Facebook are the same as the one you use on Twitter and your blog. Your photos need to be recent, not one of you at high school graduation, one at a costume party 5 years ago and one now. You need to become instantly recognizable wherever they find you online, therefore your "look" needs to be consistent.
Is your message consistent, too?
Your clients should also know exactly what you do in your business the minute they see you around the internet. That means you need to say the same things in your profiles across the board as well. To do otherwise will muddy the waters and confuse your would be clients.
Make sure you message and image is the same everywhere your clients find you. It's just fine to let them know more about your personally within your tweets and posts. As a matter of fact it helps them to know you, like you and want to do business with you, but your "about" information in your all of your profiles must convey the same information.
