Ep. 30: BRAND VIBE: What Is It + Why Do You Need It?
Oh hello there, my rad entrepreneur friend,
and welcome to the Feel Good Social Podcast!
Ready to relate to your audience on a personal level? Want to develop deeper trust with your followers? Looking to boost your brand loyalty with your customers?
Today, we're chatting about the first step to achieving ALL of that on social media: Your Brand Vibe.
This is the first episode in a series about honing in on WHO your brand IS on social media - so you can show up consistently and confidently for your brand on social media, build your loyal following and boost your sales.
Today, we're talking about what makes up your brand's vibe on social media and why all of these things work together to improve your strategy. And next week, we'll be diving deeper into how YOU can hone in on your own brand's vibe.
keep scrolling for the transcript to this episode!
Struggling to hone in on your brand’s vibe on Instagram?
More of a reader than a listener? Here’s the Transcript for this episode:
Hey, hey, Feel Gooders! I want to start this episode by saying welcome back, friends, or simply, welcome.
If you’re new to this podcast, my name is Kinsey and I’m your feel good social media marketing guide. But what does that mean?
I help down-to-earth entrepreneurs marketing their businesses on social media in a way that works with their lifestyle, feels good in their gut and actually works to boost their brand online and make more sales. We do that through authentic storytelling, genuine audience building and confident selling on Instagram - and we have fun doing it!
Whether you’re a long time listener or a Feel Good Social noob, thank you so much for tuning in!
Today, we’re talking about one of my favorite topics: your brand vibe on social media… And I love this topic so much because A. I geek out about it, and B. this is actually something that I myself receive a lot of compliments for. Not to toot toot my own horn too much, but I hear this a lot:
“I love your branding.”
“Your copy is so spot on.”
“All of your photos and graphics flow together.”
And while I do think I have a slight knack for this sort of thing, I don’t think I’m anything special.
You honestly don’t need to be born with a branding gene to hone in on your brand’s vibe on social media. All you need is a little direction and a few guidelines. So I’ve decided to dedicate a good portion of this month to just that.
Today, we’re going to be chatting about what exactly your brand vibe IS and why it’s so important to develop on social media - and in next week’s podcast episode, I’m going to be walking you through the steps to honing in on your own brand’s awesome vibe.
Then, the following week, I’m actually going to be hosting a live 3-day challenge where we can all congregate, bounce ideas around and hone in on our brand vibes together - which will not only be super helpful but you know it’s going to be a whole lotta fun.
And I know that’s all a lot to take in right now, so what I’d love for you to do is simply start by listening to today’s episode about what a brand vibe is and why it’s so important on social media, then head to feelgoodsocial.com/brandvibe to grab our free Brand Vibe Worksheet.
This worksheet basically goes hand in hand with next week’s podcast episode, and will help you hone in on your brand’s story, voice + visuals for social media. It’s a wonderful idea to go ahead and grab it now, so next week, you’ll be ready to go. Just head to feelgoodsocial.com/brandvibe to get started.
Oh man, this is going to be such a great month, my friend! You ready? Let’s do this.
Alright, what the heck is your brand vibe and why is it so important?
Well, humanity is falling down a digital rabbit hole, my friends, and it’s creating a greater thirst for personal interaction. Nowadays, the best way to market & grow your business is to connect with your customers on a personal level (which is why everyone’s shouting about branding these days.)
When we brand, we humanize our businesses. We set ourselves apart from the crowd and make our brand more relatable on a personal level, so we can build an audience who feels like they know us, like us and want to buy from us.
And this is especially important on social media for two reasons:
Firstly, Social media is a freaking crowded space. There are so many businesses out there JUST LIKE YOURS, selling the same products, talking about the same things, using the same photos, fonts and colors… and our audience is being bombarded with an exhausting amount of this same content from these similar businesses every single day.
I’m not saying this to bring you down. This does not mean you should call it quits at all. This only means we need to make you stand out from the crowd. We need to up your memorability and likeability factor. And we do that by making your brand unique and personable.
Secondly, Social media is personal. It’s meant for cultivating human connection, so when you’re using social media to market your brand, you need to humanize it as much as possible. You need to give your business a specific personality & style that relates to your target audience in a personal way, so you can grow that loyal following of supporters (or, one might even say, friends).
So, when I’m talking about your brand vibe on social media, I’m talking about WHO your brand IS. WHAT MAKES YOUR BRAND HUMAN?
Well on social media, it’s broken up into these 3 things:
your brand’s experiences or story
your brand’s appearance or visuals
your brand’s personality or voice.
Ask yourself this: What does my brand look like? What does my brand sound like? What story does my brand tell?
These 3 things will create your brand’s persona on social media, and help you show up consistently, week after week, with the same personality and style and flair - so your audience will feel like they know you, like you and trust you on that personal level.
Next week, we’ll be diving deeper into these questions to figure out your answers (so if you’d like to get a head start on that, don’t forget to grab our free brand vibe worksheet at feelgoodsocial.com/brandvibe) but for now, I’d like to really drive home how these 3 things can help you improve your social media strategy, boost your business and make you more sales…
So let’s start with story…
Why is it so important to know your brand’s story on social media?
Well, our story is made up of our experiences, and our experience creates our perspective - which is really important for consistent storytelling, you know? We need to know what our brand has gone through and how our brand views the world, in order to tell stories in a consistent manner in our social posts.
Our experience also molds our values - which are important to know as a brand. What do you believe in and why? What do you want to see change in the world and why?
All of these things - our values, perspective and experiences - make us more relatable to our audience. People can more easily connect through experience and emotion than facts and figures, so it’s important to know this about your brand and share this through storytelling. It makes you and your brand who you are.
With Feel Good Social for example, I started this business trying to be something that didn’t feel quite right. I was trying to fit into a mold of what I thought people wanted or what I thought was expected of me, and it was honestly exhausting me and making me feel icky and inauthentic.
So, I started leaning more into my values of authenticity and realness and human-to-human connection. I started focusing on those genuine marketing tactics that made my soul feel better, and it actually worked better than when I was trying to make myself and my brand into something we’re not.
Now, we encourage people to use social media in a way that feels good to them so they can live their best life and make a positive impact in the world.
That’s Feel Good Social’s story, so when I show up on social media knowing how she sees the world, what she values and what she wants to encourage, Feel Good Social’s persona feels more consistent. Does that make sense?
Like I said, next week we’ll be diving deeper into figuring out your brand’s story, but if you have any questions, make sure you hit me up on instagram at @feelgoodsocial.
Okay, now, let’s talk about why visuals are so important for your brand vibe on social media.
Well think about yourself and your human friends for a second… I mean, it’d be really weird if all of a sudden your friend showed up for coffee with a different face, right? You’d probably notice it right away.
But the same goes for subtle visual differences as well… We notice when our friends color their hair or do their makeup differently (or if you’re me, do their makeup at all). And sometimes, it’s not something you’ll even really notice directly, like when a friend who always wears muted colors suddenly shows up in a bright ass orange jersey, and you’re like, whoa, something feels a little off here…
The same thing goes for your brand. It’s important to create a cohesive visual identity on social media, because it will make your brand’s persona feel more natural and attractive. As humans, we’re attracted to some visuals more than others, depending on our personalities and natural preferences, so the right visuals can more easily persuade your ideal audience to follow you, like you and trust you.
This happens to me with Feel Good Social’s branding. I’ve had multiple people reach out to me to tell me they love my brand colors and the photos I choose, because it speaks to them. And that’s great! That’s what I’m going for.
Being consistent with your visuals will also make your brand recognizable. The more unified your visuals are, the more easily your followers will be able to pick your posts out from their daily scrolling and pause to read your awesome content.
Which leads us into the third factor that makes up your brand vibe on social media: your brand’s voice.
Now this one may be my favorite to talk about, because this is where your brand’s personality really comes into play. All of these things come together to make your brand more human, but your voice is really where you can add that flair and emotion - which ups your relatability + likeability factor a whole dang lot.
The voice you use in your captions will do the most to make your brand seem more human to your audience - which makes them relate to your brand on that deeper level, so they feel more drawn to you as a person and not just a business.
Your brand’s voice is also very important for setting the tone for your relationship with your audience. We’ll get more into this next week when we talk about how you can hone in on your own brand’s voice, but consider all of the different ways you speak to the different people in your life. You probably wouldn’t talk to your child or dog in the same way you would talk to your boss, you know?
When it comes to Feel Good Social, for example, I want to position myself as a trusted guide and optimistic friend for you. So I’ve adapted an enthusiastic, friendly, tells-it-like-it-is, sometimes nerdy yet knowledgeable tone for our captions. And showing up consistently with this same personality and tone, week after week, makes my audience feel like they know me and can trust me.
Which leads me to my final overall point for why developing a consistent brand vibe on social media is so important, and it’s this:
It all comes down to trust.
When we hone in on our brand’s persona and show up consistently with the same story, voice and visuals in all of our marketing content, our audience will feel like they can trust us - on that human level.
And if consumers are buying from anyone these days, it’s the brands they trust. Trust leads to more follows and shares. Trust leads to more sales and recommendations. Trust leads to brand loyalty and long term support. Trust is the most important thing you can develop with your customers - and social media is one of the best ways to do it.
And it all starts with honing in on your brand vibe.
Are you ready? Cause you know I am! What I would love for you to go ahead and grab our free brand vibe worksheet at feelgoodsocial.com/brandvibe - and in next week’s episode, I’ll be walking you through the questions I pose in the worksheet with real life examples from my own brand and the clients I work with.
And I know that sometimes it can hard to hone in on your brand vibe on your own, so the following week, I’ll actually be hosting a live 3-day Challenge where we can come together to discuss your brand’s story, voice + visuals - and make sure you know exactly who your brand is on social media.
It’s going to be so much fun, and I’m so excited to get this show on the road, friends!
Don’t forget to head to feelgoodsocial.com/brandvibe to grab your free worksheet - and please share this episode with your biz buddies who need to hear it, so they can join us in this journey. Have a wonderful week, my friend and I’ll catch you next Thursday as we tackle your brand vibe.
