In the past decade, consumers have stopped responding to traditional marketing, instead opting for practices like social media where they have more control over what messages are exposed to them. As a business, this presents you with unique opportunities to utilize social media to better reach and engage your audiences. However, the world of social media is an ever-changing landscape; you need to be constantly aware of trends and align yourself with the social formula.
The Value In Social Media
Social media is more than just images and captions; it’s about engaging your audiences in real-time. This is where you can have direct conversations with your consumers outside of stores or experiential marketing tactics like pop-ups. This example from Starbucks shows how brands can join in on conversations, and spread organic, positive publicity at the same time.
@mention.com
Fast replies to comments, reposting, and sharing content produced by consumers establishes a better relationship between businesses and their audience! This can translate to good customer service and makes your business seem more approachable and caring.
Social media isn’t just about throwing content onto different platforms and hoping for the best! Social media requires strategy, meaning you have some very important homework to do before diving in headfirst. Otherwise, you’d be wasting your time screaming into a void.
Where to Begin - Voice and Tone
The first thing to narrow down before beginning your venture is the brand voice. Once this is solidified, your brand will have a consistency that will differentiate you from competitors. Brand consistency leads to brand recognition - something large brands like Coca Cola and IKEA have been building for years. A unique voice can lead consumers to recognize your posts without even seeing the handle or icon.
Consistency is Key
In order to ensure further consistency, Sprout Social recommends creating clear brand guidelines. These guidelines should outline what sorts of colors, fonts, and tone you will use for your brand which will then create consistency among the logo, handle, images, graphics, and videos that you post.
Can you recognize which brand posted these pictures to Instagram just by their unique style?
Cards Against Humanity is another example of a company with a recognizable brand voice. They’re famous for their informal voice and edgy humour that extends past the product to be seamlessly incorporated amongst all aspects of their branding.
@uxdesign.cc
@cardsagainsthumanity
Brand Persona
If your brand were a person, who would they be? Since social media has a conversational tone, consider who you want to come off as. Who is speaking to your consumers? Are they funny? Serious? Friendly? Academic? These are the questions you want to ask. When choosing which social platforms to use, think about the audience of each social platform. Once you know who you’re speaking to, you can decide how you would like to speak.
According to Mail Chimp's Style Guide for Voice and Tone, a brand should have the same voice throughout all platforms, but the tone can change depending on the audience. When considering tone, Mail Chimp also highlights how important it can be to consider what your audience might be feeling when you speak to them. What state are they in when viewing? You can shape your tone around the audience, so long as your voice remains consistent.
@zastavi.com
Nike keeps their brand voice consistent on all platforms, by sharing inspirational words and imagery that resonate with both athletes and non-athletes.
Wendy’s uses the same voice among all platforms but opts for a very humorous and sassy tone on Twitter specifically. The landscape for fast food accounts on Twitter is saturated with bold and bright copy, so Wendy’s social media team went with a sharp (and sometimes harsh) approach to be recognizable. The popular Twitter account even dedicated an entire day to roasting their customers.
@Thrillist
Like any effective marketing venture, you can only be successful if you have a clear understanding of what your brand stands for. Once you have a coherent brand identity and a consistent voice, you’re ready to grow your brand on social media and take advantage of the exciting technological time we live in. Don’t get left behind.