Killer content, amazing visuals and customized formatting are just some of the many ways that your business can stand out on social media. But, an important factor that often gets overlooked is establishing a strong brand voice.
News flash: consumers don’t want you to talk to them as if they were dollar signs. They want authentic communication they can resonate with. The more personal you make your brand, the more your target audience will trust you.
Finding a voice for your social media marketing campaigns is not easy. This is because the concept of establishing a digital voice is somewhat unlike other optimization strategies. Your brand voice is not a statistic you can track or a design element you can tweak. Your voice goes much much deeper than that.
Brand Voice vs Brand Tone
When you're developing your brand voice for your social media campaigns, you automatically touch on your brand tone. In fact, the two go hand-in-hand and are pretty often used interchangeably. But, for the sake of definitions, here you go…
Brand Voice: your brand personality described in an adjective. ex: positive, professional, innovative
Brand Tone: a subset of your brands voice that adds flavor based on audience, situation and channel
Essentially, your brand has one voice, but many tones. Think of it as your voice is your mission statement while the tone is the application.
It is important to recognize that in order to have a brand tone, you first need a brand voice. Your brands voice is your goal, your endgame, your purpose for having a business. In fact, your brand voice can be broken down into four simple categories:
Character: who/what is the personality behind your brand?
Tone: how are you applying your voice to various platforms?
Language: what type of words do you use? what do you stay away from?
Purpose: why should consumers care?
When you truly understand what makes up your brand voice, you can effectively engage with consumers online. Thus, impacting your bottom line.
Social Media Marketing
We can all agree that having steady traffic on our social media platforms is nice. However, isn’t having a conversation with the consumer so much nicer? I mean, a glorified RSS feed is a complete waste of your time, money and marketing efforts.
The ultimate reason for establishing a brand voice is to humanize your brand online. This allows you to take part in conversations, naturally. Isn’t this more appealing? I mean, a successful and well establish social media brand voice can lead to others doing your marketing FOR you. Yeah, I’ll let that sink in.
How it works:
1. You establish a brand voice that attracts your target audience
2. Attracted customers talk about your brand, essentially creating new content (for free!)
3. This new content reaches potential customers, driving your brand’s message
Think of establishing a brand voice in order to give consumers somebody to talk about, not something. In other words, add a little personality behind your brand so the unique traits of your business shines through. Why should you care? Because consumers want to make a connection online, not be fed information or be sold. Do this right and you could end up with an army of fans who will gladly grow your brand for you. #winwin
Find Your Voice
I always like using the comparison that social media is like a giant cocktail party or networking event. This is the perfect way to look at finding your brand voice. At a networking event, I wouldn’t walk up to someone and say “Hey, I’m Carolyn. My design services are 20% off. Come buy my services”. I would get stared at and make no connections. What you DO is ask questions, tell stories, listen and relate to the people you want to make a connection with.
This ties back into the idea that consumers don’t want to be talked to as if they were dollar signs. No one should want to be telling everyone about their low, low prices. Instead, it’s critical to find that unique voice that is evident in your marketing campaigns. If you do this correctly, you won’t have to be blasting a sale every day. Draw consumers in with your style and personality, not your deals.
When you are looking for your voice, you’re looking for adjectives. Find the adjectives that best describe your brand, and finding your voice will be inevitable.
Bottom Line
Developing a brand voice for your marketing campaigns can lead to a better overall experience for your customers — not to mention your brand. A voice helps you connect with your audience in an endearing way. And, not to mention, the payoffs can be huge.
Need guidance on developing your brand voice and implementing a variety of tones? Schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation with a Careiginal Social Media Expert — no commitments, no tiny fine print, just guidance into developing your presence on social media.
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