A thought-provoking quote recently caught my attention it said - "In a smaller business, you don’t have the budgets, so you’ve got to find ways to do things differently. You’ve got to trust the 21-year-old to bring your brand to life on platforms you aren’t familiar with."
If this strikes a chord with you as a brand founder, then this article’s for you.
So how can brands truly do things differently and set their Social Media Lead up for success?
Firstly, Expand Your Horizons
If your content strategy revolves around these pillars; 'Entertain', 'Inspire', 'Educate', and 'Promote', it might be a good time to take a step back and reassess. It's essential to question if this strategy effectively encapsulates your unique brand story in the ultra-competitive 2024 beauty marketplace.
If asked, could your customers describe what your brand represents beyond high-quality products? Would their perceptions of your brand distinctively set you apart from your competition? Therein lies the importance of evolving your content pillars to delve deeper into your brand's unique narrative, creating a stronger and more meaningful connection with your audience.
That's why a content strategy only spotlights product features, benefits, or testimonials, isn't enough. Your social feed should be a colorful tapestry that expresses all the layers of your brand's identity, and illuminates the unique essence of your brand.
Secondly, Provide Support with Strategic Brand Frameworks
So with all this in mind, how do we set the stage for your Social Media Lead to do their thing?
Well, the strategic brand frameworks critical for their success can include;
- A comprehensive brand positioning strategy that defines your brand's visual identity, brand values, brand tone and brand story.
You'll need to ensure the everything you intuitively know about the essence of your brand is downloaded from your head, and captured for your new recruit in a comprehensive brand strategy guide. This information shouldn't be a guessing game for your Social Lead, and when documented can ensure their content is consistent and differentiated from competitors. When done, following best-practices, the research from your brand strategy documents, will be a go-to for your Social Lead to continue revisit for evergreen insights, to create strategy-led social ideas. - Brand content pillars that are beyond the basics and delve deeper into your brand's core.
Some brands on social media only scratch the surface of articulating what their brands all about, and you have to work overtime, to find clues that reveal what they truly stand for. By having more meaningful content pillars uniquely shaped around your brand's essence and DNA, your team can create content that is more meaningful, engaging and connects with your audience on a deeper level. - An annual game plan (planned out well in advance) that balances product promotion with strategic storytelling and maps out your quarterly brand-building content campaigns that stem from your brand strategy.
In theory, we all know that planning in advance allows for more savvy resource allocation and takes away the stress of last-minute execution. But in reality, as a Founder of a lean, yet growing brand - your plate is full. So forward planning sounds more like, "What are we doing for marketing next week". Carving out the time to create a top line brand marketing game plan can do wonders for your brand. And your team can become incredibly focused and intentional about brand building, by perfectly balancing product promotion with storytelling over the year.
Teams with more strategic content pillars, based on their brand's true DNA, have a simple system to draw from, for brand-building campaign inspiration.
By providing your Social Lead with these frameworks and the systems to accurately interpret and translate the vision you have for your brand, your Social Media Lead can create content that tells your brand story in the most captivating way. With these essentials in place, you can truly give them more leeway to showcase their tactical expertise to bring your brand to life and they can truly be the catalyst that propels your brand to newer heights.
If you’re thinking to yourself, you don’t have some of these frameworks in place, don't worry - it's a common occurrence for many growing brands. The good news is, it's never too late to get these essentials in place.
At Beautiful Sparks, we help brands put these fundamentals in place to support the success of their team. You’re welcome to reach out for a free brand assessment to explore which tools could be the best for your team, to help them to create stronger and more meaningful connections with your community on social media.
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Author: Effie Asafu-Adjaye
Effie Asafu-Adjaye is the Founder of Beautiful Sparks. Beautiful Sparks helps beauty and fashion businesses get more fanatics in love with their brands, by refining their brand strategy, messaging, branding, content storytelling, and community-building strategy. Read more about Effie here. Linkedin | Youtube
