Mazzy Snape - Creative PR, Journalism & Events

Ok so I was a bit naughty with the image there, no I’m not about to talk about the BBC talent show, I’m talking about your brand’s voice and tone, particularly the social media voice.

You might wonder why you need a voice? Surely you can just whack out social media posts as you feel suitable at the time? Especially if you’re a small business and want your voice to be well, your voice! But what if you’re away or feeling blue? More importantly, what if your personal voice isn’t right for the brand? Or for the audience?

So why is it SO important? Consider this, when you are on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or whatever your usual social media networks are, you are bombarded with information and advertisements. Which are the posts that engage you? What engages you enough to view the post? Click on it’s contents? Respond? Share!? It’s got to be good. It’s got to speak to you in a way that makes you identify with that page or brand.

Social media is over-saturated with millions of brands wanting to get their audiences to engage. It’s very frustrating when I see a brand or business who just ping out adverts with no soul or thought, and then they wonder why no one engages!?

Don’t be one of those brands who just constantly post:

Tuesday we have this party

Wednesday we have this film

Thursday we have this flavour

Inject some personality for god’s sake!

Also, if you’re having a bad day, or a customer is being particularly rude, do NOT break the voice and tone, remember everyone else is watching and I’ve seen some absolutely awful PR situations emerge out of an offhand annoyed tweet or Facebook post that cost a LOT of money to rectify.

So how do you formulate your voice and tone? A few things to consider, who are your audience or potential audience and how do you want them to view your brand? Think about how you want them to interact with you.

Let’s use a really easy example, take Werther’s Originals, who’s advertising campaign started long before social media:

So they’d already identified that they’re popular with an older audience, but also, the families of that older audience – who doesn’t remember getting a toffee off their nan and grandad? Nailed it.

It’s clear without looking at their social media that their character should be a grandparent or older figure, the voice should be happy but not too perky, the tone affectionate wisdom as though speaking to grandchildren and children, or to a community that look to them for recipe tips and advice. So what is their tone?

Well it’s pretty much there isn’t it? Although for a page with close to 350k followers, I think they could go a bit further with the personality to get more interaction. The voice and tone is happy, wise and so on, but I would like a bit more character as the posts are a bit flat. But then that’s just my preference, what you need to work out, is what’s yours?

So that’s all very well and good but how do you decide on YOUR social media voice and tone? To some people this comes naturally, for others it’s not so easy. If you struggle finding your voice then this competition is for you!

I am offering the winner a FREE consultation on social media voice and tone for your brand or business PLUS social media strategy tips!

All you have to do is like my facebook page Mazzy Snape and share the post with this blog post on it OR RT the post on twitter!