Following our first Founder Stories event it’s find out How to Build a Brand on Social.
This month we launched Livia’s Founder Stories event series. The new and interactive event series will offer insightful Q&A’s, talks, masterclasses, workshops and panels on starting and growing a business. Our founder, Olivia Wollenberg is so passionate about sharing her journey to help all of you chase your dreams and make your ideas a reality!
Founder Stories will cover everything from marketing and brand building to fundraising and recruitment. So, whether you’re looking to start your own business or are generally interested in different aspects of business, this series will offer the perfect opportunity to be inspired.
Founder Stories Launch Event: How to Build a Brand on Social
As a start-up without million-pound budgets it’s important to consider social as a brand building and marketing tool. Social media has been key to driving the growth of Livia’s so it made sense to kick off our first event of the series by focussing on How to Build a Brand on Social.
Olivia was joined by lifestyle content creator and best-selling author Niomi Smart and Stay Wild Swim founder and fitness blogger Zanna Van Dijk. The three panelists shared their own personal experiences of everything from content creation to staying authentic. Throughout the event guests were able to feast on freshly baked sweet treats, kombucha and wine. We’ve popped some photos below so you can peek at what went down. We’ve also included some key takeaways from the panel for those of you who couldn’t make it!
Photography credit: Stories by Chloe
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Be authentic. With Instagram’s smarter than ever algorithm it is becoming even harder for creative brands to capture the attention of users. When our panel were asked ‘how do you stay authentic and drive engagement’ the key response was that your brand must stay true to its core. It’s so important for a brand to keep doing what its audience follows it for. Olivia Wollenberg says ‘keep sharing what you’re passionate about and be consistent’ while Zanna Van Dijk shared that ‘sharing personal experiences is what gets the most engagement by far’. Users want to see the raw side of the brand.
Be selective with brand collaborations. Collaborating with brands is a great way to drive brand awareness and reach new audiences on social media. However, this doesn’t mean you need to collaborate with anybody and everyone. Whether it’s a brand or influencer, it’s important to invest in long term collaborations. Niomi Smart says ‘as the years go on, it’s so important to be selective. I like to work with my favourite brands long term’. Long-term collaborations appear more authentic, engaging and trustworthy.
Invest in community management. Do you use social media to gather product feedback? Or to build a community where users can interact with each other to discuss topics they are passionate about? ‘We’re very lucky to have a platform where we can talk to our consumers directly and act on their feedback straight away’ says Olivia Wollenberg. She goes onto say ‘our Instagram fans are our biggest research platform. We want to talk to them and get to know them and be able to give them the product they want in return’. Niomi Smart says ‘my videos that end up online are usually the result of what my audience ask for. For me, my business absolutely revolves around my audience’.
Instagram is a networking site after all so it’s time to start talking to your audience.
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