Tweet like Kanye: 3 Lessons for Brand Personification on Twitter

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Kanye_West_Lollapalooza_Chile_2011_1-1024x774

By Christina Gaines | @stinaegaines

Kanye is a rapper. An artist. A lucky husband. An endearing father. A fashion designer, a director and a record label founder. Perhaps, even the next president (via his eye-opening MTV Video Music Awards speech).

Kanye Omari West is many things.

You probably didn’t think social media mogul was one of them.

Now, let’s take a look. What could we, mere social media marketers, learn from Yeezus?

If nothing else, Kanye is as Kanye does. Whatever we get from the star will always be unapologetically, undeniably himself:

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Kanye’s rambunctious rants and ramblings present more of a learning opportunity than anticipated. Brands just treading into social media waters, or even those that may have existed (though not engaged), may feel lost as to who they truly are. They might be missing that one thing that defines them or makes them stand out of the bunch.

Behold, 3 unexpected brand personification lessons from Yeezus:

1. Be yourself. (You were born this way.)

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True that, Mr. West.

Like Kanye, your business’ personality should shine through every tweet and interaction you make on Twitter. If you’re a quirky brand of cookies, act like it - don’t be afraid to crack jokes. If you’re a professional, buttoned-up league of financial analysts, you need to let your expertise shine. Imagine your brand as a walking, living, breathing person. How would they act?

For some major companies, documents are drawn up just on brand personality alone, so that your team can be united on all fronts.

Why is brand personality so important, you ask? Because when talking to humans, the best reception you will garner is when you act like a human yourself. No one is interested in following a Twitter account chock full of automated tweets and robotic responses. You will lose followers faster than you can say North West.

2. Get creative.

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Mix up the types of content! Include photos, text-only posts, video and polls. Feel free to incorporate the very method we use at Social Media Delivered: Inform, Entertain, Interact and Convert. (In other words, The Social Media Business Equation created by my lovely CEO.)

This assures that you are mixing a fair amount of fun, knowledge, engagement and sales conversion - every element that a wise brand should embody. However, don’t completely do as Kanye does. Restraint and respect are valuable qualities, too.

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3. Go behind-the-scenes.

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People love seeing people. It makes them feel happy and connected in a medium that may otherwise appear relatively cold and computerized. Share any images of the “squad,” exclusive photos of your processes, any behind-the-scenes looks you can muster. It will make your followers feel they they are on the “inside,” as well as give them closer insight as to who you truly are - behind the packaged goods or stony corporate face.

Rumour has it that photos of women may actually draw greater benefit in some content marketing cases. So perhaps it would be more appropriate to part with this:

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Thank you for the reminder, Kanye.

Need a little extra push in your brand personification? Need more than cryptic Yeezus genius to get you there? Give us a call at (469) 248-0616, and we’ll take it from here.

Will Nesbit