Analytics

If you visit here often or we follow each other on social media, you would have noticed some changes last fall to my photography and branding.

It was just some simple, subtle, yet positive changes that helped to spice things up around here and on my social platforms. Hello, new headshot! 😛

Its like when I re-arrange furniture in my house when the seasons change, it is the simplest thing to do and the BEST feeling when its done. In the social world, you really always have to be changing it up to keep fresh, continue to evolve and be noticed as you and your brand grow and evolve.

The intended change was good because it made me realize how you have to take continued stock or inventory of your digital footprint. Simply put, you have to keep track of all your social profiles. Sounds easy but it isn’t.

Even if you’re not rebranding, having all of your passwords and log-in information in one place is a good place to start. This made things SO much easier for me when I went to do my rebrand and proudly post my new headshot across all my social platforms last fall.

This blog post can serve both individuals or even businesses and social/digital managers that manage their company’s corporate communications and brands. Here are 7 things I learned last fall with my rebrand for how you too, can easily manage your digital footprint at any point in time.

7 Ways to Manage Your Digital Footprint

Create and maintain a locked password document (that requires a password to get into the document). This should contain all of your social media platform passwords. This is an easy way to keep organized, period.
Establish and set your brand guideline. This will ensure you execute your brand with consistent colours, fonts and look/feel across all social platforms you use. It is best to create a mood board and then a brand board to always refer back too. I’ve provided my latest rebrand branding board below for your reference 🙂
Once you’ve set your ‘look and feel’, hire a professional photographer to capture your brand – it’s a wise investment and some of the best money you will spend!
Have a consistent logo/photo/headshot across all of your social platforms.
When/if you decide to change your logo/photo/headshot, take the time to update your bio and descriptions with the same consistent wording and put this across all of your platforms.
Update your website or your blog at the same time to reflect any of these new changes and introduce your new rebrand.
Review your analytics on each of your social platforms and website/blog to determine what platforms are working best for you. When you rebrand, its a perfect time to add new platforms, change the function of existing platforms or decide altogether to stop using certain social platforms if you find you’re not getting the ROI for the value you’re putting in. Your followers on each of your social platforms will tell you a lot about what they consume from your brand.

If you have questions about your own social media profiles, need help in rebranding or want to know more about the analytics behind your social platforms,let’s get in touch!

I am continually surprised at the number of individuals and businesses/companies who do not have a good handle of their social media channels.. or even, how social media works in the first place. Which at first, when social media was introduced years ago, was fine. But now that some social media channels are 10+ years old, it is now an ‘expectation’ that your social media game should be sophisticated and well-orchestrated with a lot of strategy and thought put into it.

Social media has become crowded. Almost every major company/business has at least 1 social media channel (or at least they should if a majority of their customers or potential customers are online!). From a personal standpoint as a business owner, if you offer a service, want to been known as the ‘go too expert’ in your field, or are trying to attract new clients, you must ask yourself two things:

Are you on social media (and if not, why aren’t you.. if you aren’t, you should be!); and
If you are on social media, how do you know if your social media game is good/on par?

Here are 6 areas to examine and ask yourself to know if you’re heading in the right direction (or not!) with your social media game:

Analytics – do you track how many people visit your accounts with tracking software (there are many for free!) and do you know which content is the most impressionable with followers/friends to continue to share that type of content?
Consistency – are you posting at least 2-3 times per day (depending on which channel) and are you posting at the right ‘peak’ times each day depending on your followers?
Audience – who are your followers/fans/friends and what are their interests? Not just how many followers you have is important, its whether or not you are engaging with them with the right content.
Interaction – are you ensuring you are not only putting your thoughts/ideas out to the world, but are you asking for feedback in return? Are you also showing a keen interest in others’ content? Social media is a two-way conversation.. not just an outlet for you to rant or only share your opinion.
Transaction- Has one of these interactions with a fan/follower led to a ‘transaction’ where you’ve taken the conversation offline? This could be a networking opportunity like a coffee as an example or an email exchange; perhaps maybe even a friendship or a business acquaintance that has developed because of social media; or the best type of ‘transaction’… have you been able to gain a new client because of a social media channel?
Community – are you ensuring you engage with a larger audience on your social media channel(s) to be part of bigger communities beyond yourself? Do you like/follow or chat with people who are part of online communities that interest you, both work and non-work related?

Want to learn more or have any questions about these 6 areas of your social media game? Contact me to get in touch, I’d be happy to chat!

[Photo Source]