Creating Your Brand Voice on Social Media

Today, digital media has revolutionized exposure and improved access to an individual’s or a company’s profile. Social media platforms have disrupted commerce and the global economy by providing instant access to unfiltered information. With such exposure to an unbelievably large audience as well as instant access to any brand in a competitive market, it’s imperative to stand out and develop a recognizable brand voice.

Developing a unique voice and style for your brand is the perfect way to stand out and establish a real connection with your audience. If you’re careful to use this branding consistently across all your social media channels, you will be boosting your visibility online as well as establishing yourself as a unique and recognizable brand.

What is Brand Voice?

Brand voice is essentially defined as the selection of words, as well as the attitudes and values of the brand that is displayed to the target audiences such as customers, prospects as well as employees.

Why is Brand Voice Important for Your Organization?

A strong and recognizable brand voice will help develop and nurture customer relationships as well as build trust and loyalty by delivering a consistent message. As such, your brand voice ends up giving your brand a personality that is credible, trusted and portrays confidence.

How to create Your Brand Voice?

1. Determine your brand’s core values and mission statement

• Core values: to identify the values that shape your brand, you’ll want to ask some key questions such as what kind of image you want to portray, as well as consider the personal values of the individuals who make up the company.
• Mission statement: this should be a clear, concise statement of what your company does, as well as how and why it does those things.

2. Create a brand style guide

Creating a brand style guide will help refine and specify your brand voice. This way, everyone will know exactly what it is and how to use it. Consistency is key — no one likes confusing or contradicting messages. In that sense, creating a style guide will make sure you keep your brand voice consistent across all of your social media channels.

Generally, creating a style guide involves writing a down a few rules and guidelines for how certain aspects of your marketing will be handled. Some of these aspects include brand tone and personality — will you communicate formally or casually; brand story — how will discuss your business and its mission; key words and phrases — important phrases to frequently use that reinforce your mission statement and core values; typography –the type of fonts used, considering that they should reflect your brand voice; and last but not least, visuals/imagery — this involves specific colours or images that reinforce your brand voice.

3. Apply your brand voice to all relevant social media channels and be consistent

Each social platform is slightly unique in what content works and does not work. However, your brand voice, tone, and look should be consistent throughout all the social platforms your brand is currently on. As I have mentioned above — consistency is key! Every message and communication your business puts out there should retain the same voice and personality. There are a few things that should always stay within your brand style guidelines, and they include:

• Profiles and company bios;
• Posts and updates, which often include captions and images;
• Replies and direct messages.

As I have mentioned above — consistency is key! Every message and communication your business puts out there should retain the same voice and personality. Think of your brand voice as an extension of yourself that others can easily recognize, relate and form a relationship with.