Guide to Building a Strong Brand Voice On Social Media

Introduction:

There are people you identify with. Not logos. Building a genuine brand voice on social is the initial step to building credibility and genuine online relationships. As you appear to speak the truth, you will create your followers who will tend to trust you, plug in, and recollect you.

Social media is like rush-hour traffic, yet a proper voice helps you stand out and even catch in your customers’ minds when they need to connect with their audience.

Follow this guide to go through some hassle-free steps to create a brand voice that you feel and that the audience will feel, and that is the same across all your posts. In the end, you will end up with a tone that is human-like, fosters trust, and makes people want to come back.

What A Brand Voice Really Means (And Why It Matters)?

Brand voice is the character of your brand in writing. It is how you sound whenever you make a post, leave comments, or respond to a comment in an online stream. In the same way, people give you a certain vibe when you speak to them; brands do as well. Finding a defining brand voice helps you have a distinguished voice that stands out in the crowd of copycat accounts, gain the required trust, and your followers will believe they are talking to a friend. The first meaningful step towards becoming memorable on social media is a good brand voice.

What Is Brand Voice?

Consider brand voice as the style of speaking your brand has. Flirty? Advice-giving? No-nonsense? Friendly? The voice of your brand is defined by what position you choose to place your brand and what values you want people to associate with when they are interacting with the work that you render. Your voice is not something that you can switch off and on, so it will remain as it is from one day to another, although the content may differ depending on what you want to communicate, but it will still be according to your personality.

Here’s what brand voice is not:

Not only your logo and colours.
Neither is it a technical style guide.
It is not something different for each post.
Your brand voice will assist you to:
Make a brand that people can identify in a few seconds.
Create a tone for your social profile.

Facilitate writing the text since you will never be surprised by the way you sound.

Voice Vs Tone: Spotting The Difference

Voice and tone share the same problem, being mistaken, and they are not identical, although they contrast with each other. Your brand voice is a constant personality that will be persistent. It should be thought of as your main character energy. Your tone is the way that you alter your voice to fit the occasion of your feelings you are trying to express.

Picture this:

Voice: Simple, relaxed, genuine
Tone: Whimsical, light-hearted in a giveaway, compassionate in an unfortunate experience, and full of energy in an opening.

The difference is that the tone is making it just as when you either talk loudly or softly, depending on the environment, and still, one does not change the voice tone..

Laying The Foundation: Finding Your Unique Voice

You should understand the voice and sound of your brand before you begin to gain likes and shares, like you! Your followers will no doubt see a fake or a poser a mile off. It is your voice that proves to your followers that you indeed are terrific. The magic is achieved when you post what you comply with and what your brand is all about, carefully listen to your followers, and take lessons from how it is done by other brands with success.

Reflecting On Brand Values And Mission:

All brands have a reason as to why they do it. When you ignore this section, you could end up empty in your words. Your vision, mission, and values ground you and make you honest.

Take a moment to reflect:

What is it that your brand is most concerned about?
What impression do you desire people to have after they have an exchange with you (including a computer screen)?
Which issues do you need to solve or improve?

Then pass your societal posts through these filters. As your value is community, converse with a neighbour rather than with a boss. Words are supposed to exude excitement and curiosity, in case being at the forefront of innovation drives you.

Pro tip: Make an easy list with words. List out five edited values (such as helpful, audacious, truthful, entertaining, trustworthy). Thereafter, list a few brief statements that describe your mission. In everything you write, check whether your post includes these words. And when it does not, keep rewriting it until it sounds right.

Utilise Short-Form Videos To Build A Conversation:

Short-form videos are not only entertaining but also those that are designed to attract discussion and grow on any platform. The potential of TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Facebook Reels is that each can be used as a source of creating a dialogue out of the short clips.

TikTok Videos:

TikTok is all about community. Use duets, stitches, and questions in captions. The TikTok algorithm rewards creators who interact directly with their audience in comments or as video replies. Every comment is a chance to create loyalty and leverage the algorithm.

Instagram Reels:

Instagram Reels are the ideal space for disasters and hype. Keep a close eye on Instagram Reel comments; they usually tell you what your audience wants more of or what they didn’t quite understand, and you can then update the next Reel or address their query in your next video. When your Reels receive genuine comments on Instagram, it also indicates a stronger connection with your audience, which means you have a better chance of being featured on the Explore page.

If you consistently engage with these comments, they will lead to more shares and saves. If you want to encourage even more Instagram Reel comments, end your video with a solid question or call to action.

YouTube Shorts:

The interaction may happen at a much slower pace on YouTube Shorts, but it can still be effective. Whether through questions or expressing opinions, ask your audience to respond to your content thoughtfully. You can throw up interesting comments from previous shorts in your new video, which helps to encourage commenting while showing viewers that their voice matters.

Facebook Reels:

Facebook Reels are meant for community-based content. Targeting groups or a mass audience, you can inspire engagement by asking your audience to check in with their experience and share ideas. Comments often lead to shares between personal networks, which creates more longevity and reach for your Reel.

Tips For Everyday Authentic Engagement:

Creating shortcomings, and being around real people, not popular products. If you do this well, you will go from “yeah, just another brand” to “ohhh… that’s one of my favourite follows.” So, this is how to unlock your real self with every post, reply, and DM.

Writing Posts That Sound Human, Not Corporate:

When your posts sound less human or appear as a press release, you’ll undoubtedly lose your audience. Social media is a two-way conversation with the community, versus a press release.

Try to keep your posts authentic with these ideas:

Write how you talk: you do not write like an agency or consultancy, showcase your personality! Writing posts should be like you casually chat with a friend, not like you present a PowerPoint presentation to your board of directors.
Be real: Share a behind-the-scenes photo, acknowledge you’re having a case of the Mondays, and share the latest exciting news from your team. Real, raw moments are ALWAYS more entertaining than a cleaned-up ad.
Use easy wording and keep sentences short: People’s thumbs will still be scrolling. If you write long posts or reply with a thesis, you will lose them.
Share an image that includes emojis or a little humour: HOPEFULLY, you have realised you take yourself way too seriously if you did not add some humour.
Share short stories: Instead of sharing a promotional advertisement, share why something was important to you or your team. “We’ve just tried a new coffee in the office – it feels a little bit like the jury is still out!” is sooo much more authentic than just saying “Exciting office update.”

Some common errors to avoid:

Copy / Paste your website content into your post.
Using some biz buzzword that a good portion of your followers would have no idea about.
Sounding like you are reading a script.

Evolving While Staying Consistent: Monitoring And Adjusting Your Brand Voice

If you wouldn’t say it to a friend over lunch, consider saying it differently. Sometimes modifications need to be made to your brand voice. You have worked hard to develop and refine your brand voice, and as much as you pay attention to keeping your voice fresh, it is equally important to check in on your voice for several reasons.

The social media landscape changes quickly, and what may have drawn engagement from your audience yesterday can lead to crickets by this time next month. As a result, it is important to check in on your voice, solicit feedback, and adjust as you go. A good analogy is to consider it like a favourite plant: you will keep watering it and moving it to different spots to get the optimum light, but you will always remember what kind of plant it is!

Checking In On Your Voice Regularly:

Every so often (approximately every 3 months), stop and review your recent posts and take a holistic view; ask, “Do these still sound like us?” or “Are we fulfilling our promises in terms of how we articulate ourselves online?” It’s completely normal to have small shifts occur along the way as you try new content and approaches, but if you change too much, your followers could start to feel confused.

To maintain clarity and focus on the voice:

Review your last month of posts; see if anything comes to mind that felt too ‘off’, too ‘dry’, or simply didn’t feel right. Do your replies still sound warm and personal? Are you unconsciously shifting into the use of platitudes?
Observe your follower counts and engagement levels. If you are suddenly noticing a count of followers/popularity of engagement dropping off or climbing, you will need to look back to see if the tone of your posts shifted right before the count changed.
Listen for the echo effect. Are fans using your words back at you in replies or comments? When you hear your key phrases reflected to you, it means your voice is taking hold.
Conduct a gut-check with your team. Sometimes, having a different set of eyes can show you whether or not your posts feel different. Short team meetings can help everyone catch any quirky or incorrect brand words in your posts ahead of time.
Checking in breezy does not require fancy tools. It is about being honest and reflective, so you don’t get lost as trends shift and change.

Gathering Feedback From Your Community:

You do not have to guess how people feel, just ask. Your followers can provide you with a lot of insight about your voice. They are the ones listening, so just let them share how it feels.

A few easy ways to collect honest feedback:

Post a quick poll or question sticker on your stories. Ask fans if what you are posting feels like you. You might try something like, “Does our stuff sound like it always has? Is there anything you wish were different?”
Invite comments in your posts. You can do this with a simple CTA like, “What posts do you look forward to?” This will help you see what is compelling you to post about, and also what ways of saying things resonate with your audience.
Run a quick survey in your stories or DMs. Include fun questions along with simple ratings. Ask followers to pick the post that sounded “most like us” — with a rating.
Always consider your inbox and replies. Listen for the common words that people use when they talk about your posts and even your brand. Are they calling you funny, are they calling you helpful, or something else? It can give you a clue on what is resonating.
Look beyond your page.

Especially with your customer tagging or mentioning, or calling out in their stories, sometimes customer feedback is the greatest, and not direct feedback. Push for research by using your rewards program to give shout-outs, and if it is appropriate for your brand discount code. No one likes to be told what to think, but people love to feel like they are being heard.

Making Small Changes While Staying True To Your Roots:

If you find something that needs changing, you do not need to throw away everything and start over! The strongest brands change their voice very slowly and elegantly so that the changes feel organic and are never forced. Here are the ways to get some fresh blood in your voice, without limiting the “main personality” your fans have come to expect.

Only one thing at a time! Change a post-up style, leave close to the same beverage (if that is what you sell), see how your audience reacts first, before changing more.
Try different formats and content styles. If your content has only been photos with captions, try video updates – and/or audio notes. Just keep the same tone and feeling, but repackaged into a more native context.
You can borrow ideas only if filtered through your values. Have you seen a trend that you like? That is ok to steal, just remix it until it resembles your brand’s heartbeat. If it is way off from who you are, let it go.
Write a “Voice Charter”. This should be a single document with 1 page of things your brand says and does not say, your most common and illicit words, your eventual “hills,” along with your non-negotiables as a brand. This can be used as a gut factor to think of for every change.
Give the “why” behind the change. You have taken a person-centred strategy, which can perfectly match (and could be helpful) to let your audience know you have made changes. It is worth talking about as it builds trust, and is the quickest way to share that you are trying to provide more helpful or even fun posts.

Remember that being consistent does not always mean being constricted. If you find good and easy changes that your brand voice will always appear to be changing steadily, so long as it isn’t dated, even if it is familiar.

Keeping your brand voice relevant takes a regular commitment to ongoing, open, honest feedback, and behaviour to adapt, without abandoning what has made you, you. If you relinquish the right amount of change, you loosen up your brand voice so that it is both trustworthy and alive.

Conclusion:

What a great time for you to develop your brand voice. Authenticity comes from being brave, sounding human, and showing up (honesty) every day. When you openly share your true voice, making noise in chaotic feeds, you develop trust with your audience; let them decide for themselves if being a follower in your community is worth it.

The world at large is dying to hear the unique things only you can say. Go on and get started; be original, and let your community grow; thank you for reading – share your wins, and let your brand voice live!

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