By Janette Speyer, Web Success Team ––

How do you make a brand  social media “friendly”? What a strange question. If I suggested this to a client a few years ago, I would have been laughed out of his office. In the social media world, however, we all are aware that we have to “humanize” a brand.  This is probably one of the most difficult tasks a brand is faced with, especially if it is B2B or has to show a very professional image. In this article I will show you some techniques we use for making our clients’ brands more “friendly”.

People will be people in how they react

Thanks to social media outlets we have discovered that we are all susceptible to a few triggers: Food, pets, selfies, quotes, beautiful images among other things. Using any of these in your content will always get a reaction of some kind. There are many ways to integrate and weave this content on to your posts so that it becomes more personal and “friendly”. We all understand that social media is about connections and engagement. Engaging content makes your company seem trustworthy to your followers.

How do I use the triggers? I am tired of seeing food and pets on Facebook.

Take a look at your post and think about how can you make pets and food relevant to your brand’s audience. Here are some examples:

• If you have a Real Estate business page show a picture of your pet on open house day. “Come and visit Pat (cute dog) at _____ open house address”
• If you are an accountant: “Cookies on Tax Day”. Show a picture of delicious cookies on a post
• If you have a corporate page, share fun office information. Red Bull showed us how they skateboard at the office in their post “Who says skateboarding is not an office job?”
• Take fun selfies of your employees and share away.
• If all of the above doesn’t resonate a good quote or a beautiful image can always do the job.

The Key Is Getting Engagement

Sure we all want to sell, sell, sell. But with Social Media, it’s really about offering good content and perceived value (tips, recipes, relatable posts, etc). Consumers want to be entertained and dialogued with not just spoken to. No matter how big and corporate your company is, people will respond to honest content and content they can relate to; not just the mundane “special offer”. Win their hearts and minds and their pocketbook will follow.

How do you make your content “friendly”? To continue the discussion, follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.