©2012 360 i LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Your Brand’s Social Tone of VoiceHow to Create a Unified Voice in Social Media

Rosie Siman, Senior Strategist & Cultural Curator

Read the blog post here: http://blog.360i.com/social-marketing/brand-social-voice

@rosiesiman / rosiesiman.com / thetuesdayten.com

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A well-defined brand voice helps make content sticky

TONE LANGUAGEPERSONALITY CONTENTYou’ll want to make sure

you’re authentic – but by

outlining personality traits

and acting more like a person

and less like a corporation,

you’re giving your community

a reason to engage.

It’s not just what you say

and how you say it, but

what you share. Defining

your brand’s social tone of

voice will help set

standards for content

creation and curation.

Snarky Bold Irreverent Your Cooler, Funnier Wingman Style Guru Perky Down To Earth

Tone may change based on

content or audience, but

those changes should be

nuance – An overarching

tone will set the stage of how

you behave.

Personality and tone can be

interpreted differently.

Setting linguistic guidelines

will help all content creators

have specific rules they can

check themselves against.

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How does a brand voice manifest socially?Brands, like people, should adjust their voice depending on who you’re talking to and where the conversations are taking place.

An attitude

A filter

Flexible

Personal style

Unique, but natural

Semantics

A point of view

One part of a bigger picture

Capitalization & punctuation

Accessible

The secret sauce

Representative

Fractured

Fake

Complicated

All-encompassing

A set of words

Pre-approved responses

A Britney medley at a Phish concert

Forced

Rigid

Complete

IS IS NOT

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Start with inspiration

1. A social tone of voice shouldn’t be

a complete 180. Ask employees and

people working with the brand to share

their favorite pieces of existing

communication & those that they

feel are most representative of the

brand – from status updates and

tweets to brochures to internal

employee communication.

2. Look externally and identify other

brands that you feel have nailed it.

• What elements do you like?

• How is it received by their audience?

• How does their voice change by

platform?

• How do they showcase their brand

personality through language?

3. In social media, it’s important to

act like a person instead of a

corporation. Identify a muse for your

brand – someone you can look to for

inspiration for both personality traits &

linguistic cues.

Have your core team identify inspiration from other brands, but also from within.

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Workshop the solution

How would employees describe your brand? How would competitors

describe your brand? What’s your brand truth?

BRAND 101

Who are you talking to? How does this differ based on platforms? How do

they perceive your brand?

AUDIENCE

What personality traits does your muse have that your brand should

aspire to? How do they change their personality based on who they’re

talking to?

PERSONALITY

TRAITS

If your muse is a celebrity, consider printing out scripts from a movie/show they’ve

been in so that people can identify linguistic cues. How does your muse speak?

Does he/she have a catch phrase? Do they use slang or are they a bit more formal?

LINGUISTIC

CUES

You’ll want at least 3 people and no more than 40. If you have more than 10 people, split into groups of no more than 10. Guide participation through questions that will provide inputs for a guide.

TIP: Know where you’re going before you get there. Work with your community manager(s) and strategist(s) to set a tone for the day and to have an idea of the direction you want to go in.

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Creating a guide

Make it pretty.You’ll want something that community & content managers, and even brand managers, will

want to keep on their desks.

Designate a leader – and empower them.While many people should participate in the workshop, you’ll want a core team of 2-3 who

will lead the development of the voice and the output document.

1

2

3

Keep it short and sweet. Give just enough detail for people to feel like they have something to follow, but don’t

overwhelm as too many guidelines can limit creativity.

Include examples.Develop sample content that’s written within the new social tone of voice.

Point out which personality traits were used and linguistic cues referenced for

easy understanding.

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360i is an award-winning digital marketing agency that drives results for

Fortune 500 marketers through insights, ideas and technologies. 360i

helps its clients think differently about their online presence and evolve

their strategies to take advantage of the new world of marking

communications – one where brands and consumers engage in interactive

and multi-directional conversations. In 2010, AdAge named 360i to its

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Coca-Cola, NBC Universal and Diageo, among others. For more

information, please visit www.360i.com or follow us on Twitter @360i.

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