12 Ways to Cultivate a Memorable Brand Voice on Social Media
What is one thing a brand should do to create a unique voice on social media that speaks to the target audience?
To help companies establish and maintain a brand voice on social media, we asked small business owners and marketing experts this question for their best insights. From creating customer personas to incorporating video content, there are several ideas that may help you create and cultivate a memorable brand voice across social platforms.
12 Ways to Cultivate a Memorable Brand Voice on Social Media
Do yourself a favor and create customer personas, since the more information you have about your customers, the better you can market your products to them! Customer personas are customer archetypes, and include knowledge about their demographics, interests, and behaviors. Observe and talk to your current customers, and also consult employees who interact with customers every day. This can help you create helpful customer personas to provide a clear understanding of your target customer.
Creating a unique brand voice is all about interacting with your audience like a real person – speaking like a human is what builds authenticity and how you truly impact your target audience in a way that builds strong relationships via social media. There are many examples of brands going the route of clickbait, offering sensationalist captions and headlines in hopes of grabbing their audience’s attention. While they might boost clicks in the short term, clickbait is inauthentic and does little to form long-term connections with an audience. Jargon can alienate an audience, too – the last thing you want is for them to feel unintelligent. The best thing you can do is to prioritize humanity and authenticity.
The best thing a brand can do before they start posting on social media is define their mission, vision and values. While these things might sound unrelated at first, they actually define the brand: what it stands for, the customers it serves, and why it exists … which, in turn, drives its voice. Put another way, when a brand is trying to establish its voice on social media, it should look to its mission, vision and values for cues about the subjects it wants to talk about and both who and how it wants to engage. This will ensure the brand is creating an authentic voice that will resonate with its customers vs executing a social strategy that looks and sounds just like their competition!
There are too many people claiming to be thought leaders or subject matter experts. Keep it fun, lighthearted, and speak to what you know. Over the years, I’ve found my voice on social media, especially on LinkedIn, sharing fun cyber security tips and memes. It’s so rewarding to get messages from people saying how much they love the content we’re putting out there.
Advertising on social media has become essential, and many small businesses are using it to build their brand. How do they achieve success? They’re consistent with their messaging regardless of platform. Emulate their success by creating a social media style guide for your brand, and then stick to it. This will help you keep your brand messaging consistent across all platforms and reach your target audience.
Look closely at your target audience, as well as the efforts both you and your competitors are making to reach them on social media. Where is your target audience and how are they engaging online? From Instagram and Facebook Insights to Shopify, you can explore the data and use that information to make sure you’re meeting your audience where they are and speaking in a way that makes sense to them. Take your time, and then use the data you gather from this social media market research to help craft a strategy to better reach your intended audience.
Just like a person, a brand’s character and personality develops from core values. Defining your unique core values and understanding why they are important to your business will help you develop a brand character which in turn has a unique voice. Combining these traits with an understanding of who you are speaking to will create a foundation for your unique voice and tone on social media and for all your content.
Prospective customers often read reviews before finalizing any decision and trust sellers with testimonials more than those without. Reviews and verified testimonials can help customers get a better idea of your product’s credibility and quality, so you should celebrate every review you receive. Since they can sway customers one way or the other about making a purchase, put reviews and testimonials to good use on your website.
At every opportunity, you should actively engage with your customers online. Respond to reviews and mentions on social media, quickly address any concerns or issues in posts or comments, and hold live Q&A sessions. You’re more likely to keep the customers you have happy this way, and you’ll also give reassurance to any prospective customers. Make the best possible use of your online presence to build customer loyalty and reach new audiences!
How does your social media strategy fit into the buyer’s journey? Do you want to reach your target audience at the Awareness stage, or later on at Consideration? By the time they’re at the Decision stage, is it too late? While social media can be used throughout all stages of the buyer’s journey, it’s important to consider whether you’re reaching your customers at the right stage, and adjust or tailor your social media strategy accordingly. Some strategies include posting tips and quotes for the awareness stage and reviews, testimonials, and behind-the-scenes demonstrations for the consideration stage. These are great ways to create a unique voice that aligns with your buyers’ journey.
One of our most successful engagement tactics on social media is asking questions on stories of what the consumer would like to see and creating content around that. We also take the comments on posts and create content around that too. We’ve answered questions such as “what do you do with the extra ink after screen printing?” With a video response that shows the process, “Can you make a Euphoria themed t-shirt?”, “ What happens if you print twice on the same t-shirt?” And many more. Our responses are always a video showing the process and helps us not only engage with our consumers, but also promote our different printing techniques.
People increasingly see social media platforms as their central hub for the Internet. Many use social media to find and research companies, services, products, and customer reviews before making a purchase. Incorporate creative video content to add a more personal touch and bring your unique brand voice to life. This can help prospective and current customers gain trust in your brand from seeing who is behind the products or services.
Ready To Cultivate a Memorable Brand Voice on Social Media?
You’ve heard what the experts had to say, now it’s your turn.
How do you plan to cultivate a memorable brand voice on social media? Drop a comment below to let us know.
