Your brand voice and tone are essential elements of your social media strategy. They help you communicate your personality, values, and message to your audience. They also help you stand out from the crowd and build trust and loyalty. But how do you define your brand voice and tone for social media? Here are some steps to guide you.
Before you can craft your brand voice and tone, you need to know what you want to achieve and who you want to reach. What are your main objectives and values? Who are your ideal customers and what are their needs, preferences, and pain points? How do you want them to feel when they interact with your brand? Answering these questions will help you align your voice and tone with your goals and audience.
In my experience as a freelance designer, brand creator, and social media manager, for the past 3 years, is that the key to attracting the right audience and/or an audience in general is to be direct with your message. I know it can be tempting to incorporate indirect messages in this creative field, but not everyone will get it. Rather it can make people confused regarding the services you provide and/or the values you hold as a brand. My free lancing goes under the brand name “malaak.co.” The name “malaak,” not only being my name, but directly translating to “angel.” The company values carrying three components that tie in with the name: simplicity, honesty, & unique.
More and more people are starting businesses today, and I have learned that if you get too niched in before your business gets started you may miss your true target market Market. When I started my business in 2016 I just "knew" my target market was going to be businesses with 20 to 100 employees in the technology space. Come to find out my true niche is B2B consultants with less than 10 employees. As you execute on your content strategy you'll get clarity on who your true target market. Very important! You being you will attract the exact right people in repel the wrong ones. That's the foundation for building your business and attracting the right people in repelling the wrong ones.
Before diving into crafting your brand's voice and tone, start by envisioning what success looks like and defining your audience. What do you aim to achieve, and who's the community you're speaking to? Understand your core objectives and values. Picture your ideal customers – what makes them tick, their likes, dislikes, and the challenges they face. Most importantly, envision the emotional vibe you want them to get when they engage with your brand. These answers are the compass guiding your brand's voice and tone, making sure they resonate with your goals and audience.
The next step is to review your current social media content and see how it reflects your brand voice and tone. What words, phrases, and emotions do you use? How do you address your audience and respond to their feedback? How consistent and coherent are your messages across different platforms and formats? How do you compare to your competitors and industry standards? Analyzing your existing content will help you identify your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement.
I find this is a little bit vague with analyzing your Content. It's important to use the data to understand who your Contin is resonating with in doubling down on
Now that you have a clear picture of your goals, audience, and content, you can define your voice attributes. These are the characteristics that describe how your brand sounds and speaks. For example, you can use adjectives like friendly, professional, witty, authoritative, or casual. You can also use metaphors or analogies like a mentor, a friend, a coach, or a storyteller. You can also use examples of brands, celebrities, or characters that have a similar voice to yours. Defining your voice attributes will help you create a consistent and recognizable brand identity.
While your voice is your overall personality, your tone is how you adjust it for different situations. Your tone can vary depending on the context, the platform, the audience, and the purpose of your message. For example, you can use a more formal tone for a LinkedIn post than for a Twitter reply. You can use a more empathetic tone for a customer complaint than for a product announcement. You can use a more humorous tone for a meme than for a testimonial. Adapting your tone for different situations will help you convey the right mood and emotion.
The final step is to document your brand voice and tone in a social media style guide. This is a reference tool that helps you and your team maintain consistency and quality across your social media channels. Your style guide should include your voice attributes, tone variations, dos and don'ts, examples, and best practices. You should also update your style guide regularly to reflect any changes or feedback. Creating a social media style guide will help you streamline your workflow and measure your results.