Content should look good but not too good. Polished content is going to look like an advertisement and on platforms inundated with the Look what I can do! Brands, your brand is likely to be lost in the shuffle. Instead, shoot for what I call professionally amateur content that looks good, like someone competent made it, but not so good that it looks like another commercial. Think of how people use social channels; it’s a constant and quick scroll until something catches their eye. A post that doesn’t look perfect is actually more likely to do that than a polished and branded image that would be more at home in an airplane terminal or subway platform.
Your competition isn’t who you think it is. If you make alpaca wool jackets, your competition isn’t other companies that make alpaca wool jackets, at least it’s not just those companies. You are competing for attention with every man, woman, and child that posts content on social media. That’s a lot of people! You can either post a ton of content. More content than seems reasonable. Or you can be respectful of your audience, post content with a goal, a real actionable objective, and people will respond more positively. There’s a huge difference between, “Buy our Alpaca Wool jackets!” and “Check out our new line of Alpaca Wool jackets!” People appreciate brands that respect their time and will treat you accordingly.
What’s the story?
Tim Girvin founded GIRVIN | Strategic Branding in 1976, and it’s been consistently running since those opening days of sign writing, shop decoration and interior merchandising, signage and detailing and pin-striping boats, motorcycles and tattooing people. His clients range from smaller, boot-strapping startup enterprises like Christi Meshell’s House of Matriarch Perfume, to Zoe Mesnik Greene’s Lasting Smiles Lip Balms, from larger startup programs like Apple’s Power PC systems microprocessors, to Visio and Pagemaker’s initiated brand creation and the re-ignition of the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratories messaging and positioning. GIRVIN’s teams are in Seattle, NYC, San Francisco, and an office alliance in Tokyo. Fletcher Helle is the lead Social Media consulting strategist at GIRVIN, who has developed and built internal teams to support expansively enlarging social communities for Kettle Brands, Emerald Nuts, Fukuju Saké and others.
Growth & Funding Strategist