Tone of Voice (TOV) is an old concept for Brands. PR releases, marketing and advertising campaigns follow strict brand and communication guidelines to ensure consistent presentation to the public. Additionally, with social media, TOV has taken on a higher level of importance. The luxury of pre-conceived topics spoon fed to journalists who are expected to reply days, weeks or months later are gone. Fans now voice their opinion on whatever topic they choose and expect Brands to respond in real time. This is an odd concept for me as I have always rejected the diffusion of responsibility within a faceless company in favour of having one person respond. But today’s social media, like Dr. Frankenstein gave to his monster, has given life to the Brand.  


Important guidelines for TOV:

• Corporate culture and brand story should be clearly reflected in TOV
• Fans’ and customers’ way of communicating (use of language, education level, local phrasing) must be considered so the TOV “fits in” with the conversation
• Be consistent -- TOV must be documented with guidelines. Inconsistent responses make fans uncomfortable, much like having an acquaintance with mood swings is not fun
• Multiple TOV’s for a brand are acceptable provided they follow guidelines and have purpose. Example:
• Daily engagement - follow language use of fans, be friendly and engaging
• Corporate B2B - formal and structured, response is concise using the grown up voice
• Customer service - empathy and informative, provide direction for solutions

Note for SME’s

Most businesses in the world are small businesses. The TOV on social media usually reflects the business owner and is often managed by them. Please note that we all have good days and bad days, but the message that you post on social media must always reflect your “good days”. When you post on social media, all the world can see and there is no taking it back.

Much success,

Doug



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The art and science of social media writing: Overview

Writing for social media is one of the most demanding of skills. Many assume it is a simple task of writing something clever or funny. If done well it is a complex combination of skills that must come together with concise precision to capture the attention of a reader, communicate value to hold attention and direction to motivate a call to action. This blog is a first in series that will cover important facts about being a good social media writer that will likely touch on:

• Brand story and TOV
• Key word optimisation - SEM and semantic search
• Formatting and length appropriate for different channels
• Psychology of anterior and posterior memory
• Psychology of pattern recognition
• Visuals and their impact on engagement
• Message consistency (write once post many)

First lesson in social media writing is the most difficult for most to embrace: You are not writing for yourself. So simple yet for most an impossible hurdle to overcome. It is important to separate yourself from the Brand. The Brand, next to your fans, is the most important asset. The messages should be consistent with the Tone of Voice (TOV) of the brand and adhere to the Brand story. If you write to please yourself -- get a diary! Success is when a Brand communicates well with its fans and the fans respond positively.

Second lesson is that the message writing is not the objective of social media. Most assume that writing clever messages is the primary objective of good social media. It is not. The goal is to target increase brand visibility, provide positive information, reputation management, building fan loyalty, increasing Brand value and converting to sales. Social media messages play a role in accomplishing this, but it is far from the end game.

PRDA has managed hundreds Brands on social media. We have used this experience to develop a proven strategy for social media management.  

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