Marketing Social Media

2019 Social Media Branding Must-Dos for Wedding Pros

By Anja Winikka

There’s no doubt about it: Social media branding for your business is a big meaty topic that is tough to unpack in a single blog post. (We could practically write a book on the topic!) All that said, there are a handful of very important must-dos as it pertains to your wedding business’ social media presence. These are them!

1. Understand How Each Channel Works And Then Post Accordingly

It all starts with understanding that each and every social media channel was designed differently and with different actions in mind. Think about it: Your friends on Facebook are probably mostly friends and family. Your followers on Instagram are probably more likely a big mix of industry, friends, family and couples. And the actions you’re encouraged to take on each social channel are different! So why would you ever want to post exactly the same thing to Instagram as you would to Facebook? The short answer is that you really don’t want to do that. In order to get the most out of each channel, you have to understand what each one of them were built to do. Here, a rundown of the most popular social channels below plus some branding must-dos for each:

Instagram (Your Profile & Feed): Your Instagram profile and feed is another extension of your brand, most notably photos of your work.

Must-Do: Curate those photos. If the top 6-9 photos in the grid aren’t images you’re particularly proud of, archive them. Also, check to make sure that your bio is succinct and conversational and that you have a business profile. (A business profile will give you access to all of the analytics and insights you need in order to build a following and engage your followers.)

Instagram Stories: Instagram launched Instagram stories to help you engage with your followers when you’re not posting to your main feed. In other words, you don’t have to have a gorgeous photo to post every day so long as you’re using your stories to engage your followers.

Must-Do: Stories are designed to be raw and authentic (hence the reason they disappear after 24 hours) and so that’s how you want to approach them in your world as well. Try behind-the-scenes video and photos showcasing what you’re up to in prep for an upcoming wedding!

Facebook: Facebook was designed to help people connect with other people they know (remember it started with college emails?). That’s why we like to think of it as a word-of-mouth tool for your business. So instead of posting a pretty detail photo (like you might on Instagram), think news when you’re posting to Facebook.

Must-Do: The work you do and the images and video that come as a result of that work is your news! Start posting blog posts of your most recent real weddings (the more recent the better!) to Facebook. Make sure to tag all of those other pros involved so that your newsy post ends up in all of their feeds.

Pinterest: In a nutshell, Pinterest is a visual search engine. So if you’ve ever sat down to learn about SEO (search engine optimization) for your website or your storefront, then you know what we’re talking about. On Pinterest, you want to do something similar so that your photos can be found in a search on Pinterest.

Must-Do: Before you pin, make sure you’ve optimized the caption to include search-friendly terms (like instead of “blue heels for the bride” you’ll want your caption to read “blue wedding shoes by Manolo Blahnik for the bride”).

 

2. Take Inventory of Your Channels (and Do the 3-Second Test)

Now that you’ve resolved to keep those channels in mind and not to post the same thing on all of them, you’ll want to do an audit of sorts. According to a recent study by Google, when a person lands on your website, it takes 2.6 seconds for a person to make a first impression about your business. That’s less than 3 seconds for someone to make a decision about the way they feel about you. For that reason, visuals are super important across the board.

Must-Do: Do the 3-second test on every one of your social channels. On Instagram, feel free to archive any images in your Instagram feed that don’t quite fit the look you’re going for. Make sure your bio is succinct and you’re taking advantage of Instagram highlights.  On Facebook, take a look at the top half of the page. Do you have a nice horizontal image that fits the space to represent your business? Make sure that’s an image you consider to be one of your hero images. And make sure you have content on your page. Upload videos from past real weddings you’ve done over the past year. Create a couple photo galleries of recent real weddings (don’t forget to tag everyone!). And then start thinking about the types of newsy content you can post regularly.

 

3. Post Regularly (Quality over Quantity)

This is a biggie. A lot of pros think that they have to post all the time in order to be successful on social media. The truth is that you want to post as often as you have the right content to post (ie, posting just for the sake of posting is not a great strategy).

Must-Do: Plan out your social posts for the week or for the month and come up with a schedule that works for you and stick to it. If it helps, get yourself a scheduling app to help with the busy work of posting to your social channels.

 

4. Use Your Analytics to Guide Your Next Best Post

If you have a business account on Facebook and Instagram (and if you don’t, get one!), then you also have access to analytics. Why so important? Understanding what posts have outperformed the rest will give you the insights you need to understand the type of content that will resonate with your audience.

Must-Dos: On Instagram, tap on the analytics tab in the corner and note your top-performing posts. Ask yourself what those top posts have in common (are there a lot of photos of bridal parties? Are they mostly emotive images in black-and-white?). Once you’ve noted a pattern, start looking for more content like that to promote. Do the same thing using your Facebook analytics tab and then do the same on Pinterest.

 

5. Start Posting Videos  

Across the board on social, video is out-performing the typical photo on social media. According to Hubspot, 55% of people watch video online every day and 77% of people would rather watch a video about your business than read about it.

Must-Dos: Look for real wedding videos from weddings you worked on over the past year and use that as a starting point. (Make friends with your videographer friends!) Also, consider other types of videos to post. You could do instructional videos (how to measure for a tux) or even a Q&A interview format. The goal is to help your audience understand who you are as a business and brand (and create that trust before they’ve even picked up the phone).

Then, last but not least, use Instagram stories to post videos of your work (like short edited clips from professional videos) and videos of yourself (like you behind the scenes prepping for an upcoming wedding).