In the ever-changing world of social media, one thing that businesses should establish is a clear tone of voice – particularly if they want to maximise impact and engagement.

However, as social media continues to become an increasingly competitive and saturated environment, there is a lot for businesses to consider – particularly if they want to engage target audiences, build community, and generate new sales and/or business enquiries.

In this blog, we discuss the importance of establishing a clear and effective tone of voice and how this will help create a winning social media strategy:

Brand Identity

 In today’s landscape, a tweet or an Instagram post may be the first thing a potential customer will see and engage with from your company – so developing a specific tone of voice and getting it right is vital for positive communication.

For example, if you run a clothing company, your tone of voice can have a huge impact on brand identity, the way your products are perceived, and customer expectations. Choosing a more clinical and to-the-point tone can express that your products are functional and designed with a specific use case in mind [see The North Face’s Instagram]. On the other hand, a more informal and relaxed tone of voice can emphasise that your products are more fun and designed for stylish, colourful looks [see Pretty Little Thing’s Twitter].

Sometimes imagery alone isn’t enough to put the idea across, and tone of voice is the next deciding factor in how you want your brand identity to be portrayed and perceived.

Audience

As the infinite scroll feature has established itself in major social media apps, people are finding their content reaches larger audiences. However, this can often be in vain as a wide audience isn’t useful if there is no interest or engagement. That’s where tone of voice comes in.

When browsing a social media feed, the thing that will first stand out next to visuals is how your content reads. As you often only have seconds to make an impression, your tone of voice is hugely influential for driving engagement. When combined with the right hashtags, your tone can be the perfect bridge between the audience and the profile.

Your tone can also be the foundation for building a trusting relationship with audiences. For example, a more serious social media profile that requires a certain level of trust [such as finance, luxury goods, or legal services] can benefit from a more straightforward and direct tone of voice to reflect the severity in which they take the products or services. This goes a long way to allowing your audience to trust your brand and products.

Integrate with wider comms

While it might at first seem menial, your tone of voice on your social media accounts can set the mood for the entire company – especially if it’s tied to wider copy such as your website, email marketing, and any other comms activity. A connected, unified tone neatly ties together your online presence to ensure that your identity is clear and that you share the same goal, no matter where you’re reaching out to people.

Unity across all platforms also adds a professional touch to your comms that while not immediately obvious, adds credibility to your online presence.

Conclusion

 In an increasingly digital landscape, your tone of voice is the first thing people come into contact with when searching for your products, services, or business, and that’s why it’s key to nail your tone and own it.

While you can tailor it slightly per platform, you should establish key rules and brand guidelines for use of emojis, slang, jargon, phraseology, and grammar. This will help you to successfully carve a niche, establish your audience, and build that all important brand identity.