When people ask us what we do at Big Voice Social we have a simple description: we develop and implement brand personas, using social media platforms in the voice of our clients to serve as a true human behind the keyboard, building community, creating a groundswell of interest and developing leads.
We pride ourselves on being able to harness the voice of a brand and carry it out, authentically, AS the brand. Sometimes that means we create a human in our head, and sometimes we are using the voice of the founder – words and phrases that person uses, speaking with a point of view that person has.
We tell our clients we will take a lot of time and work off their plate. We bill for time, so we know that has value to our clients. BUT… one thing they must understand is that collaboration is at the heart of what we do.
Way back when I started this business I had a small security agency contract for our services. We got all the applicable accounts and pages set up.. profile sections, cover images, photos, it was all ready to go. But when I reached out to the client set a meeting, he couldn’t find time. Over the next week or so I tried to scrape together a voice and some content but I had almost nothing to share. There were no stories, no connections to customers for testimonials, no case studies, nothing. After a few more weeks of this, I finally got the client on the phone.
“I thought you were just going to do what you do and drop our brand in with all the other brands out there,” he said. Um… what?
He thought we were going to do what we do? What we do is communicate with clients and speak in their voice. And drop your brand.. .what? Where? Huh?
Needless to say, that was the end of that very short contract. So now, when we take on a client, I always make sure we have a few things in order:
- A complete list of brand standards (colors, logos, font). We can have this created if needed.
- A look at the library they have. I can’t tell you how many clients have said “we have so much content.” Yeah. No. We need to see quantity and quality of photos and videos and we need to know if we need to make a plan to shoot that kind of footage, or if what they have can be edited and used.
- We ask for a list of words that best represent the brand and also a list of taboo words. What do you want to be known for? Think about it. This must tie in to your SEO efforts. What words/phrases do you want people to use to find your business?
- We need a list of other social channels you follow and like – and why.
- We have a clear conversation about why engagement is more important than follower numbers and we’re going to ask you to not ask us why your competitor has so many more followers than you do. There could be a number of reasons for that and hiring a team to manage your voice won’t shrink that gap overnight.
- Most importantly, we’ll set a regular meeting to be sure not only are we sharing analytics with our clients to let them know how things are going, we are also in-the-know on upcoming events, sales, product rollouts, etc. And the bottomline is, meeting with our clients regularly helps us to better understand their voice, their cadence, their intonation and their company’s mission.
So be prepared that when you get social media off your desk and onto mine, it doesn’t mean all the work is done for you, it just means the daily, time-consuming, tactical work is off your plate and because we are meeting regularly, you can feel confident that what’s being shared online makes sense for your brand.
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