New brand? Now, how do you implement on your socials? My top 5 tips.
You’ve got this amazing new brand, you’re feeling a million bucks with a shiny new fabulous identity. Your IG feed, your Pinterest boards, your collateral, they’re all calling out to you, knowing what’s in store for them and they’re so excited, you’re excited!
But now what? You stop dead in your tracks because how the hell are you meant to actually apply this gorge new brand you’ve spent some serious cash on?
Cue the panic.
Cue the overwhelm.
Cue the doubt.
Cue the ‘OMG did I just make a massive mistake’ spiral.
Fast forward 20 minutes, you’re in a Pinterest rabbit hole searching for template ideas, on Creative Market finding generic templates to hopefully make something work. You can piece this together, it’s what you were doing before!
Sound familiar? Don’t sweat it. It’s all going to be fine. You will be ok. Your brand is going to be ok.
Grab a coffee (or maybe some tea if you’re already on edge) and let’s dive into the five tips I tell all my clients post brand handover.
The Pre-Step
Purchase, download and install your fonts — they’re you’re new fave fonts.
Get friendly with your colour palette — know, feel and embody your colours.
Access your templates — get familiar with them. They’re your new biz bestie.
Begone Montserrat and Helvetica!
You’re thinking, fonts! Ha! No one really notices fonts. They’re only a small part of my branding.
You might underestimate fonts because they seem like a minor detail, but they play a crucial role in conveying and showcasing your brand personality. Hours go into choosing the perfect font that encapsulates your brand essence, customising it to perfection and then finding supporting fonts that match to create a whole vibe that no one else has.
Implementing your brand fonts across platforms can be tricky, but it’s important to stick to the fonts your designer selected for you. These fonts reflect your brand essence, so trust it! You might be sick of the fonts after a while, but trust me, your audience isn’t.
Stick to your colours!
Your new brand bestie, your colours go hand in hand with your fonts. In our brand style guide for clients, I always make sure to provide an Instagram Grid Guide and colour ratio that guides their content design. This picks a few key colours to spotlight on your feed, and how to use secondary colours to keep things interesting. Always choose photography (especially stock images!) that look cohesive on your feed and are aligned to your palette.
Spy on @gotoskincare’s visual feed — their signature coral colour is dominant, creating a signature staple and creates a stunning on-brand feed. Paired with … they’ve kept their individual posts interesting but kept it visually cohesive and enjoyable to look at.
Don’t underestimate consistency when it comes to your colours.
Your brand voice
Now that you’ve got the basic visual sorted, it’s time to start sounding a certain way. Your brand voice is unique, it’s you. It’s power is immeasurable at invoking emotion, igniting creativity and keeping people around and following your business. Your brand voice can be anything from educational, approachable and witty, as long as it’s aligned to your brand persona and business ethos.
Your signature brand voice allows you to show up as your true self and foster genuine relationships and helps to build a community of aligned people.
In the Brand Blueprint (brand strategy) documents, I lead with your brand personality and brand voice which guides visuals and content. Stick to how you sound, invest in a copywriter and let it guide how you show up for your audience.
Just keep it down to earth, real and you!
The Dinner Ladies @thedinnerladies do this oh so well. It’s witty, not-mumsy and works effortlessly with their brand identity to create a seamless and exhilarating experience for their ideal audience.
Templates = biz bestie
Templates are business game changers and aren’t just limited to socials! Investing in on-brand, custom templates for your business (think socials, onboarding, pricing lists, lead magnets and more!) are crucial for maintaining a consistent presence across all your platforms and all client touchpoint.
Here at TGS, we offer customised and completely editable templates as an add-on with all our branding packages. Created in Canva, I know it’s important that you have complete access and ease of editing so you can implement your brand effortlessly.
Interested in a social starting point? I got you.
Stand out
Your brand is just beginning, and you have the control to experiment with new ideas, caption styles and types of content.
If you want to try out a new carousel format, go for it! Just ensure your fonts remain consistent to your brand guidelines.
Want to take a great new photo? Amazing, just make sure it’s edited with your colour palette in mind.
If you’ve got a killer newsletter idea, use your brand voice to convey the message, ensuring it’s aligned to your socials, website and more!
Your brand guidelines are there to guide you once you’re feeling more comfortable to experiment with it. Add your own twist (but make sure it’s in line with what you’ve got!) to templates, content creation, email templates — the options are endless!
Applying your brand should be a fun, exciting experience that will help you set up your business socials for success, helping your content to shine through and cut through, while setting you up for success for all future plans.
Look, I know you’re probably thinking that this all sounds great and is exactly what you need in your business right now. Well, you’re right, and here’s more information about our offerings. Let’s work together!