Staying Socially Consistent

Social media is an ever-changing field, nothing stays the same and there is always “the hottest new thing” popping up all over the web. Besides making sure that your company and social media team is on top of all the hype, there is also another important aspect of all social channels that can go overlooked: consistency.

To extend the greatest impact of your brand through social channels you have to start from your website. Taking photos, colors and verbiage from your website and adhering it to your social channels keeps all the pages that represent your company or brand consistent. To stay consistent you need to make sure that when a user clicks through all your different channels, they can easily recognize that all of the pages belong to your brand and are sending the same vibe and message. Even a slight change in the avatar or color scheme can throw off the effectiveness of your pages and make your brand seem disorganized or “lost” in their personal branding. It is not hard to make all your outposts consistent, just follow these tips.

Tips for staying socially consistent:

• Using the same avatar on all social channels
• Typing up a short general description, usually around 140 characters (the usual character limit for Twitter) that can be placed on all channels
• Utilizing the same color scheme off of your website throughout all social pages
• Having links on social channels to other social channels and your website
• Having a folder of top pictures (some of which are off the website) that are to be used throughout all pages

As a user surfs from your Facebook page to your Twitter page and clicks through to your Pinterest page, you want them to feel as if they have never really left your website and can really understand your brand and the message that you brand is portraying. Having the same colors, photos and descriptions make it easier for the user to keep your brand top of mind and recognize your brand with just a simple description or color scheme.

So just like a company logo, staying consistent in the details of online pages is very important and beneficial to you and your future customers. You want your social channels to mirror your website and give everyone who views your site and social channels to absorb, understand and remember the message and style you are exposing them to.

Happy Holidays from Hunch Free!

Fa la la la la, la la la la...

We're just 3 days from Christmas Day and we wanted to take time to thank each and every one of you for being a part of the Hunch Free network in 2011.

Whether you're a client, vendor, friend, family member or general fan of our company, we appreciate and cherish your followership. There wouldn't be a Hunch Free without you guys.

We have big, big plans for 2012 with some outstanding new clients alongside our loyal base of customers that have been with us since the beginning. We also hope to pump out more fun, creative video in our newsletters once the opportunities arise.

Have a very warm, safe and fun holiday season, from Jimmy, Valerie, Kari, Nick, Sean, Michael, Kinga, Ervin and Carl!

Do You Have a Personal Brand?

I know someone on our team has blogged about this before, but the area of personal branding has piqued my interest again.  I remember the time when you actually had to talk to someone to get to know them - either through numerous interviews (professionally) or through numerous dates (personally).  Now, you can google a person and decide if you want to be their friend, boyfriend, girlfriend or colleague by reviewing their "online identity" first.  I wonder how many encounters never happen or job opportunities are lost because someone's online personality doesn't really match their real-life one.

So that begs the question - do you secure all of your necessary URLs, keep your profiles on various social and professional networks up to par, request professional recommendations, blog weekly, edit your photos (the list goes on an on) in order to tell the story you want to tell about yourself?  Or, do you only reveal your basic information so as to keep some things sacred for those who are an integral part of your "real" life?   In other words, do you force people to get to know you in-person and not just on-line?

Recently, I had to fill out a questionnaire in order to be invited to a special event happening in Detroit this month called TedxDetroit.  Who knows if the event organizers want it to be super-exclusive, if they just want attendee data or if they they're truly trying to connect with their audience online, but the invite request questions asked for (3) web links that will help them know me better and also requested my personal LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook URLs.  I provided all of them, but then thought  - is it enough?  Am I "enough" online?  Well, my invite was accepted so I guess I'm good for now!  

Now I'm wondering, though, if the same questions will be asked if I ever look for another job. Will my resume be archaic or is it already in the two years I've been with Hunch Free?  I'm assuming the resume is already a formality for a lot of digital/new media-focused companies, and a candidate's interview process happens way before (s)he sits in front of someone...

Well, at least I'm not in the dating game still... :)