Branding Across Social Media and Your Domain
Branding is one of the most difficult and important things you’ll ever do if you own a website. Branding starts with your website design. Many Professional themes are designed to make branding easier by making it simple to get your logo on the correct parts of the site, by supporting Gravatars and with other features. On social media sites, it’s not so easy, but there are strategies that you can use to make sure that you are branding yourself effectively.
1: One Image
Try to use the same image for your social networking profile and your website. Even if you use a picture of yourself such as an author would be likely to use the same picture in both venues. This ensures that people instantly associate that image with you, which is the entire point of branding.
2: Color Consistency
If you have a business or some set of trademark colors that you use in branding, make sure your theme and your social networking profiles employ those colors as much as possible. Obviously, this is an area where you have more power on your own domain than you do on your social networking profiles. If you’re using a good theme, you’ll have the ability to change your color scheme in any way you need to and that means you can match your existing branded color scheme quite easily.
3: The Other Type of Image
Make sure the image you project of yourself on your social media sites lines up with the image you’re trying to project on your own domain. For example, if you have a website that advertises your dog sitting services, don’t go on your social networking site and start ranting about how much you hate your neighbor’s dog. If your social media profile is used to promote you in some capacity, you have to make certain you’re posting things that are consistent with the brand you’re trying to promote. Not doing so is what is called being “off message”.
4: Tie them Together
Use plug-ins and other features to tie your website and your social media profiles together. This ensures that there’s a seamless transition between one venue and the next for the people who follow you and maybe want to see your website. If the branding is consistent between both venues, it’s more likely that they’ll absorb the branding message that you’re trying to give them and that your branding efforts will be more effective overall.
