Social Media and Brand Consistency: Setting Your Tone
When marketing your company on social media there are a few fundamentals for success. You’re probably familiar with most of them, including to speak to your audience (and know who your audience is), to engage, and to embrace consistency. Consistency plays an intricate role in several aspects of social media. From posting consistently to making sure your message is consistent, you have to make sure everything aligns. The tone is one aspect of consistency that is often overlooked.
What is Tone?
To define “tone” let’s use this eloquent definition from buffer.com,
Voice: Your brand personality described in an adjective. For instance, brands can be lively, positive, cynical, or professional.
Tone: A subset of your brand’s voice. Tone adds a specific flavor to your voice based on factors like audience, situation, and channel.
Essentially, there is one voice for your brand and many tones that refine that voice.
For example: Let’s say that your voice is professional. Your tone on Twitter might be honest and direct. Your voice on LinkedIn might be more clinical and include many data points and facts. So your tone can change depending on your chosen social media channel. But your “voice” – your mission – won’t change regardless of who you’re talking to or where you’re talking to them.
Why is Tone Consistency Important on Social Media?
Each social media channel has a unique audience. For example, the audience on SnapChat is younger than the audience on Instagram, and on SnapChat your tone may be more informal.
One of the reasons consistent tone is important on social media, is it allows you to speak the same language as other uses. For example, you would talk to people differently on Facebook than you would on LinkedIn.
Another reason you want your tone to be consistent on social media is so that your followers know what to expect from you. They need consistency from you both in terms of content as well as tone so they can begin to trust you. We buy from brands and people we trust so this is important for your social media and business success. If you’re sarcastic one day on social media and personal and open the next, you’re going to confuse your followers.
How Do You Create Tone Consistency?
The first step is to determine the social channel you’re focusing on and who your audience is on that channel. Thought social listening and basic research, you can determine the language and tone your audience responds to on that chanel. From that point, you can determine the right tone for your content. Make sure the tone is in line with your voice and mission. Consider writing a paragraph definition for each social media channel you’re creating content for. Identify your voice and mission, and then write down a few adjectives that define your voice. This will help you remain consistent. Finally, track your results and be patient. It can take a bit of time, engagement, and content posting to create the social media and brand results you’re looking for.
Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278
