‘Finding your voice’ can sound like the chorus to your very own Disney power ballad and heck, if you wanna sing the rest of this post out loud and proud… then be our guest! But when your business decides to wade into the wild west of social media, you’ve gotta make sure you do a few things first.
One of them is to buckle up and grow a thick skin. And we mean rhinoceros-style. Because you’ll encounter a boatload of new ways for people to tell you that your product is both great and awful, all at the same time. So be sure to strap your big-girl pants on :-).
Then, it’s all about how you communicate your voice – whether you’re more Elsa or Gene Autry or, in our opinion, the biggest star of all – you. If you can nail how to do this while informing AND entertaining your army of social media BFFs at the same time, then you’ll be laughing/singing all the way to the bank.
But (cue music) how do you find your voice?
Start by pulling up the data you’ve collected about your audience and flesh out some personas, so you can get to know them on a more human level.
The technical terms for said data are demographics and psychographics – info that helps you to find out what makes your tribe tick. Look at both and try to detect patterns that allow you to make reasonable deductions. Maybe you discover 40% of audience are over 50; chances are they might not be interested in your vast array of Anime memes (dagnabit) and are more likely to enjoy classic rock metaphors. #allhailkeithrichards
Even better… ASK THEM. Quizzes and surveys are a great way to learn exactly what your audience does and doesn’t like. Because it might just turn out that there’s a huge Gundam contingent right under your nose.
Most importantly, knowing what your audience likes with the help of analytics, focus groups, surveys, your magical psychic powers, etc. will help you to craft the messages they want to hear and are most likely to engage with and share.
Next, it’s time to get Oprah on yourself with a “brand” soul search.
Ask your team to come up with words and phrases they associate with your brand. Anything goes; brainstorm. Ask friends and family who are more removed how they describe what you do – the answers will likely surprise you.
Then weight the feedback on ‘we are’ vs. ‘what we are not.’ This anti-brand identification exercise can help narrow the focus even more. For example: ‘we are funny’ vs. ‘we are not sarcastic.’ Or ‘we are opinionated’ vs. ‘we are not belligerent.’ You could therefore say humor and confidence should be key emotions your voice needs to communicate.
Then go further. What kind of ‘not sarcastic’ humor? Dark? Goofy? How does ‘confidence’ manifest? Do you avoid words like ‘might’ and ‘think’ and replace them with words like ‘does’ and ‘know?’ The more specific you can get, the easier it will be to create boundaries for your team to follow.
Next, map out your grammatical identity. Will you use emojis, slang or contractions? Or strict, Pedagogical grammar? Jargon or plain speak? Acronyms or spelled-out? Each of these choices add up, contributing to the overall sound and look of your brand voice, otherwise known as Key Messaging and Brand Guidelines.
Most of all, puff your chest out and have some guts. Become a shining beacon for potential customers when they look at all the other samey-same brands. Be brave with your voice and most importantly, be yourself. Nothing’s more unique than you! If that means dropping some truth bombs and being opinionated, well then embrace it.
Bottle a bit of inspiration by examining other social media voices you admire, too. It could be a celebrity or another big brand, but take a look around, see what other people are doing, how they’re doing it and practice work bits n bobs that you like into your own voice. Remember the words of Picasso: good artists copy, great artists steal :-).
Bonus: Look at your competition. What messaging works for them? Where are the gaps? Is there room for content and tone that makes you stand out from the rest of your industry?
No-one likes a fake and your audience will be able to sniff out any inauthenticity in an instant.
Capitalize off those new found guts and celebrate and amplify who you are. What feels right? What feels wrong? Pay attention to your instinct and pave the way for natural brand values and tones to come to the forefront when developing your social voice.
After all, when your social voice doesn’t match up to the rest of your brand identity and product, it looks mismatched and clumsy. And that kills customer trust.
Authenticity is everything. Customers relate to real people with real emotions. Be real. Be human. Be awesome.
At Lately, we’re biiiig believers in being human and helping our customers identify the voice that works best for them with our built-in Key Messaging Cheatsheet and Checker – which automatically organizes and stores all of your most important Keywords, taglines, elevator pitches, team bios, hashtags and more in one place, to help keep your entire team on message. We even automatically check what you write for consistency as you write it and help you see which keywords are working best, so your brand voice can evolve and have greater impact.
PLUS, Lately also takes any long form content you’ve written (like blogs, press releases, newsletters and more) and automatically parses them into dozens of social posts that instantly align with your messaging to amplify your voice in seconds.
Start your free trial today and see what all the hype is about.
