Knowing your Brand and Growing

The church that we attend although looks old and traditional is fairly modern in approach.

Often I have had followers on my Instagram question inquisitively about the fact that I tag our church in photos when we have them. I think sometimes people disconnect the idea of a church being a place that would have social media accounts.

Over the last 18 months our church has been growing and with that they have wanted to really put a stamp on social media and what is out there. Many of the congregation know that I am a blogger and are aware of my social media accounts that are attached to it. Due to this they have asked me to help create the relevant accounts for them properly with a plan on moving forward.

For many it is a strange concept but in my head I had the idea of the church as a business or brand. In these situations the “company” would have a website and social media attached and then promote what and who they are and I couldn’t see why this would be any different in this case.

I have never thought of my blog as a business and I definitely not financially supporting my family from it but I have often see it as a brand. I am a home education, single, disabled dad documenting the life and adventures, highs and lows and creating interest from that.

So where did I begin?

Knowing the Brand

When starting a business and creating situations for publicity it seems to be good to know exactly what your brand is and with that build around that. For me, I have a few unique selling points, as listed above, but I believe that this is based around the home education that we do; I am, after all, the only Home Educating Dad blogger in the UK that I, or others in the field, know of.  Using this to extend to being a single dad or one with a disability is easy to create.

This concept is the same across social media and I, therefore, create posts, photos and activities that promote this as a central point. For the church we stuck with our core principles and made sure that whatever we promote is based around our church and God.

Using Social media

Having the basic 3 accounts, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram is useful to create a followership and promote who we are and what we stand for. The key here is the activity and engagements.

Once these basic accounts are in place you can look to extend further to sites like Pinterest and Youtube. Again, promoting and back-linking to your main accounts or website.

Social Activities

One really strong point for a business is to get out there and be known in the public. The concept is a face to face engagement which will show the public who you are and what you are.

Many companies like to take part in annual and local events. We, for example, have a historic events like the Sweeps festivals which, although is centralised about history and community, has a lot of local businesses working and promoting themselves.

Our church is exactly the same and has held events for Christmas, Easter, Pancake Day, Harvest and family events like a Teddy Bearspicnic.

Pop-up events are a great way to connect. If you are unsure how to do this then you could always visit RPM who do fantastic campaigns big and small for companies showing the best behind the business.

Start Small and Grow

It is often easy to fall into the trap of the excitement of starting up and getting involved in everything as soon as possible but often it is easy to burn out. What I would suggest is to start with your website and have the basic 3 social media accounts and have pop-ups or small events to get your brand out there.

At that point get established in what you do and then extend bigger.

Ultimately stay true to your brand and your unique selling point. Keep focused on one aspect and engage with the people who are supporting you with this your small business will grow over time.

(This was a collaborative post. My opinions are my own and I am under no obligations to give a positive review. Please see my full disclosure at the bottom of my blog)