Social Media: How To Master A Brand’s Voice
Imagine you are tasked with drafting social media content for a client, but you are just beginning to learn and understand their brand voice. This task then becomes more than just social media drafting, but rather, mastering their brand voice as well. How do you do this quickly and effectively? There are a few ways to get acclimated with their brand voice and speak as if you are working in-house for them.
Review Existing Content
Chances are the client you are drafting for already has existing content that you can review. Read some of their blogs, social media captions, and promotional materials so you can familiarize yourself with how they speak. Pay attention to the personality of the content, like how Wendy’s personality is humorous and “sassy” on Twitter.
It is helpful to take notes of things that stick out to you while reviewing their content, such as “quirky tone” or “use of exclamation points.” You can even pay attention to their usage of emojis or frequency of certain words and phrases.
Familiarize Yourself with Industry Vocabulary
Place your client in their designated industry and research other companies and organizations that fall underneath it. Make sure they have a similar following and geographical location if that is relevant. Read through their content and understand the industry buzzwords.
For example, if you are writing content for a health-related client, you may see the phrases “improve health outcomes” or “genomics and genetics” used often. You can most likely use these terms for your specific client as long as it flows well and makes sense.
Understand Brand Values
Knowing what your client stands for can also assist you while you master their voice. If they are passionate about environmental activism, you can target your written content to touch on environmental-related topics.
To continue on with the health-related industry example, you can say something like, “As advocates for a safe planet, one of our goals is to educate the public about the negative health impacts of air pollution.” This is just mentioning their value for positive environmental impact, but connecting it to their industry and overall goal of providing better health outcomes for their patients.
Know Their Audience
You probably speak differently to Millennials than you do to Gen X-ers. The same thing goes for social media drafting. Who is their target audience? Are you speaking in a tone that they will find appealing and be able to understand? Make sure you receive this information from the client before you start drafting social media content aimed towards the wrong target audience.
Transparency and Honesty
People connect with people, not brands. While drafting content, pretend you are speaking to a room full of people that align with their target audience. This will help you sound more personable and comfortable, and this will likely make your audience more inclined to connect with you as well.
Practice, Practice, Practice
After drafting your social media content for the first time, you may feel more comfortable with their brand voice and tone. However, there are likely more improvements that you will need to work on. In this case, practice is key. Continue reviewing, drafting, and editing in order to perfect your voice for future social media drafting tasks.
Consistency is also important while you are drafting social media so you do not confuse your audience. This will come with practice, because you will eventually be able to place yourself in the mindset of someone who works in-house for that specific client.
Over time, you will become better at drafting social media content for your clients. You may start out feeling overwhelmed when you are first assigned your social media drafting tasks, but with practice comes perfect, and eventually it will become second nature.
Clare Quirin is a senior with a double major in Advertising & Public Relations and Film & Video. She will be starting her fourth semester with GrandPR, where she has previously served as an Account Executive and Account Associate. This year she will be taking on the role of Chief Executive Officer. Clare currently works as a Marketing Associate for Senior Living Experts Chicagoland, Multimedia Journalist for Grand Rapids Public Schools, and Student Coordinator for Piper & Gold Public Relations. Clare hopes to work for an environmentally-friendly or outdoors-associated company after graduation, where she can hopefully find a position that integrates her film editing and PR skills. Clare loves to ski, camp, hike, rock climb, and trail bike.