Among the many ways to stand out on social media is to ensure your communication is authentic and can influence perceptions, for which it is imperative to get your social media voice and tone right

Modern-day businesses seem to flirt with social media without truly understanding the rules of the dating game. What most people/ brands seem to overlook or underestimate is the level of creativity involved in the communication put forth by these multiple channels that are constantly being seen/ used by potential buyers or even repeat customers.

Social media today, has the power to make people like your business if you are a new kid on the block, or even help solidify your marketshare if you have been in the fray for a while now. In fact, social media has the inbuilt potential to take your brand from mediocre to simply amazing and sought-after. But it all hinges on one thing and one alone — the voice of communication that the people associate with your brand.

A social media voice can be hip, communal, playful, educational, sophisticated, fun, irreverent, inspirational, cynical, helpful, or any other adjective you choose. The point is to get it absolutely right so that it can make your brand attractive and also endear you to just about everyone you hope to make a customer.

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA VOICE?

Maya Angelou once said, “People don’t always remember what you say or even what you do, but they always remember how you made them feel.” It’s often the way we say something that breeds a certain feeling. People can be extremely sensitive to language, forming impressions of people as soon as they begin to hear or read their words.

Similarly, when one talks about social media voice, it is imperative to touch upon what is also the tone of your communication. To put it simply, Voice is your brand personality as described by an adjective, for instance, playful, funny, cynical or purely professional. Tone, on the other hand, adds specific flavor to your voice based on audience, situation, context or channel. Essentially, there is one voice for your brand and many tones that can refine your voice and its communications.

Your brand voice will help customers understand what you want to do for them and with them. It’s the way in which your business communicates: the language it uses and the tone sets the internal culture, personality and values of your brand, and those of your workers. Are you working to educate your user base? Do you want to delight them, and get them to visit your store or website just because they’re taken in by the clever writing that you have showcased on your social media page? Most importantly, what can you give people to help them become engaged to your brand?

Once you’ve found the answer to the “purpose” of your brand voice, develop a roadmap for your brand’s voice, which you can share with everyone who is involved in writing for, or speaking on behalf of, your brand in social media. Add buzzwords — words that describe your brand and that you want to have used when appropriate; for instance, if you’re Disney, your buzzwords are something like magical, family, experience, and fun. Then add some “dos and don’ts” guidelines for your engagers so they can get a feel for the types of language and content you expect them to create.

DEVELOPING A BRAND VOICE

The starting point to developing a brand voice is to determine your customers so you can identify the persona of your brand that will resonate with your target audience. What do you stand for? What do you talk about? What makes you stand out? This is your organisation’s personality. Make those elements the inspiration for your online voice. If you have multiple audiences, you will need to be slightly flexible about your brand voice and then rely on various channels to disseminate information to the varied subsets of customers.

Another key element is the language of your communication. If you come off sounding more knowledgeable than your customer even if your brand is a leader in its space, it can be a major put off. Instead, be careful of the slang, jargon and words used in your communication, since you don’t want to be seen as trying too hard or not at all. A fine balance is required while meshing terminology or jargon while still remaining hip and understandable.

The sale of beauty products tends to feature specific types of language, depending on the values of the brand. Take Lush and L’Oreal, for instance; both sell skincare products. Yet while Lush is concerned with being eco-friendly, L’Oreal alludes to notions of science and advancement.

To successfully build rapport and trust between your brand and your consumers, all of your communications need to be consistent and familiar from one message to the next. The result of this is that you will inevitably strengthen the perceptions that people have of your business, whilst taking the necessary steps to influence and persuade them to choose you.

When pitted against competitors, the way in which your messaging comes across needs to distinguish and separate you from opposition. With every organization, we have our own ideas about who we are as a company. We have our own panache and our own eccentricities to exploit — capitalise on these and relay them to your customers when you are communicating with them.

Last but not the least, your social media voice is your unique method to reach out to your audiences, both old and new. What better way to set the tone than to let them become a part of the conversation? Let them express their problems and concerns while you learn to assuage them without strong-arming or hard-selling — just talking in a way that’s comfortable, conversational and relatable.