Growing Social and 10 Social Media Tips to Help Build Your Brand Loyalty

LIKE
Like similar and complementary content on facebook – when using facebook, use the service as your company identity and not as yourself or your personal profile. Then, Like relevant companies and also be sure to Like and share posts to your stream  – never under-estimate the power of a Like!

PROFILE
Create a truthful, professional description – For all your social streams be sure that you create an accurate, professional “about me” profile using good descriptors. Stay away from terms that are too general or fluffy and use words that you wold want to have people interested in – if LiDAR is important to your business then use it in your descriptor!

SHARE
Share and help on LinkedIn – Don’t bombard your linkedin stream, however, you can easily share a couple of news items each day. Share items that help give you more Klout in your industry and most important, comment periodically on group posts, this will also help to bolster your appearance as an expert in your field. Offering up recommendations on people you know and providing positive feedback can also go a long way.

ABOUT
Create an About.me landing page – About.me is a like an online business card for all your social streams. Create a professional looking profile, customize the page, and list all your important social properties there – consider using your about.me custom url as your website referenced in all your online bios. (here’s my About.me page as an example)

PR
If you create and distribute promotional material for your company or product (PR releases, flyers, brochures, posters, etc…) always include your Twitter @name and relevant social links in them. If you have long, clunk urls leading to your resources then consider using a shortening service like bit.ly to generate clean, trackable weblinks.

NAMING
If you got to the social game late it may be tricky, however, be sure to be consistent in naming your social media properties. For example, try to select the same username for twitter, facebook, pinterest etc… it will make it easy for people to locate you

BROWSE
Browse Twitter several times a day for a few minutes. ReTweet (RT) a couple of items each day (don’t do too many else you’ll bombard your followers) and be sure to also create curated, useful lists and favorite lots of items you like – when you fave or list people they will usually notice that and may follow you back if they don’t already do so. Be sure to mention companies and people who you want to have notice you… if they see that you mentioned them it is likely that they will notice and follow you back. Finally, never under-estimate the power of a simple “Thank you”

EMAIL
Do you use email? If so be sure to create a clean, professional signature and always include some of your important social media links in the signature file… most important is your Twitter handle and LinkedIn page

CARDS
If business cards are your thing (yes they are still relevant) consider having 2 or 3 options to select from depending on the kind of event you are going to attend. I have a professional “Geo” personal card, a more social media flavored one, and a personal card – all of them include my Twitter @name and various social links. I suggest you get creative and try a cool MOO card, perhaps in a different size or style, something that will stand out.

TEAM UP
Finally, to grow your corporate social efforts involve the whole team. Get the whole crew on Twitter, be sure to develop corporate policies and practices and rotate through the staff letting everyone have a crack at running the content periodically… 2 heads are better than one!

BONUS TIP – Use video! If you aren’t already using video (youtube in particular) then think about it and give it a try. If webinars are your thing consider hosting a Google video hangout. The session will be automatically saved and stored for you with an option to share via youtube.