Small business owners and brand managers often decide on the types of content that are presented on their platforms. This affects the way their brands are perceived. Learning how to better manage content is vital for optimising their customer’s experience and conversion. In this article, I talk about how businesses can make use of content platforms to juggle different types of content to create a coherent brand identity. 

There lies tremendous creative potential in every brand, especially for businesses with many services or products. There is so much that can be expressed through your content, and there are so many ways to portray your brand.

Is it a good idea to express all of your styles and content to your audience or should you limit yourself to one style/message/genre?

Understand that at any time, you have new viewers who are just finding out about you without knowing what to expect and loyal fans who are tuning-in to you for specific content. Your main followers only follow you for what they think you do, and they may not be interested in -and can possibly be turned off by- your side projects. If they do not find what they want, they stop trying and you lose followers very quickly.

Surely, venturing into creating different types of content all at once can confuse and distract your audience from your company’s brand identity – at best, it dilutes your identity…. right?

Not quite.

Like brands, we appear differently to different people. To our mothers, we are sons/daughters. To our spouses, we are husbands/wives. We behave differently because we want to meet different expectations and needs, so should a brand with different target segments.

Use multiple content platforms

I think it is a good idea to use multiple content platforms to segment the different aspects to your brand. There are so many dimensions to your brand, and showcasing them creatively on different platforms will help you create many “small worlds” for your fans to dip into and learn more about you. You can do that by figuring out what is your genuine brand identity then express your key message and brand values on your main platform.

Start and stay with the foundations

Hold on to a set of values that permeates into your decisions and work on your main platform. Then feed and grow your target audience by creating content that genuinely enriches their lives and meets their needs. Use your main platform to advertise for your side project where loyal fans may choose to explore the other dimensions of your brand but understand that you should not force it upon them. To create space for your side projects and ventures, help your brand audience to know what to expect. You can show clips or text snippets but they should not draw attention away from your main content.

Build communities on each platform

Remember, you are building communities on each platform. Each audience is composed of different target segments and they want different things. You should be a reliable guide in directing them to the communities where their needs can be fulfilled.

• You can position your website/blog to be the place to find your main content.
• Direct them to Youtube to let them learn about your creative process or niche videos (remotes).
• Direct them to Pinterest if they want to save and follow your visual work, and so on.

Learn the composition of your audience on each platform.

Different platforms can offer unique insights into your brand, take advantage of these. (Instagram = instant shareable memories, Facebook = opportunities to develop conversations, Twitter = live updates and quick thoughts, and so on…) There you can evolve your content to better suit their needs.

It’s increasingly common to showcase many facets of what we do and what we like to do. It is important to focus on the audience’s expectation and needs when deciding to showcase any of your creative expression so that you can continue to impress, captivate and nurture every single viewer.