How to build a consistent brand voice on social
As every consumer is faced with an increasing amount of content daily, the challenge to businesses lies in breaking through the resulting ‘content fatigue’ and standing out as a brand. The best way to do this is through brand voice, and maintaining consistency is a key driver in building this voice. Why is consistency important? Put simply, it’s important so that people can recognise you. Any difficulty on the part of the customer in reconciling voice with brand means a muddled message and a lack of affinity with your product.
A recognisable, consistent tone will humanise your social channels, ensuring that people connect with your business. Here are some tips on building and maintaining that crucial consistency.
Write your brand’s story
Every distinctive voice has an origin story, and likewise a journey, and people will want to know where your business came from and where it’s going. Your brand’s story is the basis for its voice, so begin there. This foundational step will work wonders for future consistency, and will help to ensure you don’t lose sight of your aims.
Personify your brand
Consider the characteristics your brand might have if it was a person. To make sure your brand voice isn’t that of an automaton, it’s worth setting aside time to think about questions such as: Who are they? What do they sound like? What are their values? The answers will develop a fuller, more rounded representation of your company on social. Every post doesn’t need to be selling or promoting something – personality and engagement will organically grow your business too.
Perform content audits
Make full use of analytics tools to gauge your audience. You need to know whether you’re being voice-appropriate for your existing customer base. You can also identify gaps in your reach – was there a particular demographic you hoped to engage but failed to? See how you might scale your output to reach them. You can also identify high-performing content to see what elements you should continue to incorporate going forward. Check out PC Mag UK’s list of the best social media management and analytics tools.
Be original
Don’t be a copycat. In your research, you might come across some companies with successful tones of voice, but what works for them may not work for you. Craft a strong voice around your particular mission, strengths and brand identity; this will help you to stand out from the crowd and remain consistent.
“A recognisable, consistent tone will humanise your social channels, ensuring that people connect with your business. Here are some tips on building and maintaining that crucial consistency.”
Develop brand voice guidelines
It’s not enough to simply discuss brand voice with your team in meetings; formal documents need to be drawn up. Guidelines, which can be referred back to, will keep employees on-brand and be useful in efficiently training new employees.
Don’t leave too much open to interpretation. Rather than vague tips such as ‘we enjoy light humour’, give concrete examples of how the brand voice should work in specific situations, along with how it can maintain consistency across different social platforms. For more on creating social guidelines, the Hootsuite blog has some handy tips.
Remember that as your company evolves, so too can its voice. Regular reviews will ensure that your strategy is still meeting your business needs. At ALHAUS, we are experts at using social to deliver the unique messages of brands – contact us today to find out how we can successfully deliver yours.