I harp on this a lot. Honestly, I do.
Before you ever start posting on social, it’s important to have your brand voice nailed down.
Just as you would plan out your brand standards including color, logo, font, tagline, you must make sure the voice you will use behind the keyboard on your social media platforms is set, agreed to and put in place. There are so many reasons this is important. Here are just a few on the top of my list:
- When you outsource to a team like ours, defining the online voice helps to be sure the internal team and the external team are on the same page. When we are serving as an extension of your marketing team, it’s important the social voice and the social branding match all other areas of marketing.
- Having your brand voice in place allows new external teammates to keep your social channels flowing seamlessly. It’s surprising to me how many of our clients who have worked with other agencies do not have this type of document ready for us. We develop the voice together, with the client, and it is theirs to use.
- Sometimes an internal person changes. When a new hire comes on and their job is to collaborate with an agency like ours, having those guidelines already set up helps to be sure no huge changes are made in the online persona or voice.
Remember, the online voice isn’t YOUR voice. It’s not necessarily the owner’s voice. It’s the brand voice. And it’s important it’s set clearly and strategically for the reasons above, among others.
We work with our full-service clients to develop the voice, but we also work with our consulting client. Part of our three-hour workshop is to define the important aspects of your brand voice including:
- The demographic of the person behind the keyboard
- The objectives and KPIs of the social media strategy
- The content buckets for the brand
- The words we use and the taboo words for the brand
When we develop the persona and brand voice, we think back to that old movie from the eighties, Weird Science. We literally create a person out of thin air. It’s a fun practice that we enjoy doing with our clients, and it really does help the brand have that foundational voice to use as we implement into our social media tactics.
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