How to Develop Your Brand's Social Tone of Voice
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Transcript of How to Develop Your Brand's Social Tone of Voice
Your Brand’s Social Tone of VoiceHow to Create a Unified Voice in Social Media
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL 2
A well-defined brand voice helps make content sticky
TONE LANGUAGEPERSONALITY CONTENTYou’ll want to make sure
you’re authentic – but by
outlining personality traits
and acting more like a person
and less like a corporation,
you’re giving your community
a reason to engage
It’s not just what you say
and how you say it, but
what you share. Defining
your brand’s social tone of
voice will help set
standards for content
creation and curation
Snarky Bold Irreverent Your Cooler, Funnier Wingman Style Guru Perky Down To Earth
Tone may change based on
content or audience, but
those changes should be
nuance – An overarching
tone will set the stage of
how you behave.
Personality and tone can be
interpreted differently.
Setting linguistic guidelines
will help all content creators
have specific rules they can
check themselves against.
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL 3
How does a brand voice manifest socially?Brands, like people, should adjust their voice depending on who you’re talking to and where the conversations are taking place.
An attitude
A filter
Flexible
Personal style
Unique, but natural
Semantics
A point of view
One part of a bigger picture
Capitalization & punctuation
Accessible
The secret sauce
Representative
Fractured
Fake
Complicated
All-encompassing
A set of words
Pre-approved responses
A Britney medley at a Phish concert
Forced
Rigid
Complete
IS IS NOT
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL 4
Start with inspiration
1. A social tone of voice shouldn’t be
a complete 180. Ask employees and
people working with the brand to share
their favorite pieces of existing
communication & those that they
feel are most representative of the
brand – from status updates and
tweets to brochures to internal
employee communication.
2. Look externally and identify
other brands that you feel have
nailed it.
• What elements do you like?
• How is it received by their audience?
• How does their voice change by
platform?
• How do they showcase their brand
personality through language?
3. In social media, it’s important to
act like a person instead of a
corporation. Identify a muse for your
brand – someone you can look to for
inspiration for both personality traits &
linguistic cues.
Have your core team identify inspiration from other brands, but also from within.
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL 5
Workshop the solution
How would employees describe your brand? How would competitors describe your brand? What’s your brand truth?
BRAND 101
Who are you talking to? How does this differ based on platforms? How do they perceive your brand?
AUDIENCE
What personality traits does your muse have that your brand should aspire to? How do they change their personality based on who they’re talking to?
PERSONALITY TRAITS
If your muse is a celebrity, consider printing out scripts from a movie/show they’ve been in so that people can identify linguistic cues. How does your muse speak? Does he/she have a catch phrase? Do they use slang or are they a bit more formal?
LINGUISTIC CUES
You’ll want at least 3 people and no more than 40. If you have more than 10 people, split into groups of no more than 10. Guide participation through questions that will provide inputs for a guide.
TIP: Know where you’re going before you get there. Work with your community manager(s) and strategist(s) to set a tone for the day and to have an idea of the direction you want to go in.
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL 6
Creating a guide
Make it pretty.You’ll want something that community and content managers, and even brand managers, will want to keep on their desks.
Designate a leader – and empower them.While many people should participate in the workshop, you’ll want a core team of 2 to 3 people who will lead the development of the voice and the output document.
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Keep it short and sweet. Give just enough detail for people to feel like they have something to follow, but don’t overwhelm as too many guidelines can limit creativity.
Include examples.Develop sample content that’s written within the new social tone of voice. Point out which personality traits were used and linguistic cues referenced for easy understanding.
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