Just like every human being has a voice or a tone they use to connect with people around them, so do businesses. In order to build a strong digital presence, it is very important for a business to build an equally strong brand voice. However, it is also one of the most ignored aspects, especially when it comes to small businesses. They often focus more on visuals and creating an aesthetic feed, but they forget how to personalize their voice.

If you look at some social media statistics, you will know why it is so important to have a social footprint. However, it would all fail if you don't have a consistent brand voice. Hence, in this blog, we will discuss what brand voice is and how you can create a consistent voice to use across all your social media channels.

What is Brand Voice?

Your brand voice is what reflects the entire personality of your brand. It creates a persona for your business, and it is how you interact with your audience when discussing your products or services. It is the perspective that is unique to your brand and reflects the values that you stand for. The tonality, the linguistics and the approach you use for such discussions are what make up your brand voice.

For example, a sports brand like Nike, which stands by always motivating the athletes, has a motivational voice consistent throughout its campaigns. Another example is the century-old brand Coca-Cola, which has always promoted the idea of a happy life, and it is reflected in all its commercials throughout.

Here are a few reasons that make a consistent brand voice so important.

• It creates a unique voice for your brand, making you recognizable and stand out from your competition.
• You become more relatable to your target audience because it feels like an interaction with an actual person and not a business.
• If you have different teams for your business, it gives them all a blueprint to follow. Thus avoiding miscommunications due to the involvement of so many people.

Tips to Maintain Consistent Brand Voice on Social Media

Now that we have established how important it is to have a consistent brand voice, here are a few steps you can take to maintain it throughout.

1. Analyze your brand

The first step in building a consistent brand voice is to first analyze your business persona and identity. It will help you create a voice that is not only unique but also authentic. Ask yourself the following questions.

• What is the mission, vision, values and proposition of your brand?
• Who is your target audience, and what are the pain points you want to address?
• How do you want your audience to perceive you?
• Where do you want to place yourself in the market?
• What sets you apart from your competitors?
• What are the goals of your business except for making profits?

Once you have answers to these questions, you will get a rough idea of what an ideal voice for your brand should be like. For example, if you are a beauty care brand that envisions empowering its customers, you can't use a sarcastic tone to market yourself.

1. Define the Three Components

Your Brand voice is made up of three important components, i.e. the brand personality, brand tone and language.

• Your brand personality is the set of characteristics that sets you apart from others. It should reflect the values of your business and yet be flexible to adapt to changes. It is what helps your audience foster trust in you.
• Brand tonality is the emotional expression of those values and beliefs of your brand. It must remain consistent across all social channels.
• Brand language is the choice of words you incorporate while relaying your message. For example, you can't use causal words and slang if your target audience is professionals. Whereas you can always throw some sass and humor if they are young adults.

You will see your brand voice taking shape once you have identified the three components. If there are multiple people handling communication for your business, make sure they also understand these components in order to keep the parity.

1. Jot Down The Big No's

As important as it is to know what your brand stands by, it is also crucial to know what your brand doesn't resonate with. You must focus on identifying aspects of a brand voice that your brand doesn't want to be associated with. Ask the following questions for a clearer answer.

• Does it align with your values and goals?
• Will it sit well with your target audience?
• Will your target audience be able to relate to it?
• Does it help you set your business apart from your competition?

1. Build a Style Guide For Your Brand

Even if you are a small business with a one-person army handling everything, you should still take this advice. Create a brand style guide that includes the following details.

• Any specific copywriting rules
• The do's and don'ts of your brand
• Permissible and non-permissible categories of graphics
• Fonts and colors that are to be used or ignored.
• The tonality you shall maintain, etc.

Get as detailed as you want with your style guide, but do maintain it. It is sometimes easy to deviate from your set brand personality. Hence, irrespective of whether you have a team or not, create a brand style guide that you can always go back to for reference as and when needed. You can also use a content library tool offered by SocialP
ilot to store your posts and hashtags for easier access.

Takeaway

Building a strong brand voice is the first step towards building a good social media presence. As you start posting more content, your brand voice shall get clearer to your audience. Make sure you are consistent with posting content, or take the help of a social media content scheduler for seamless planning and posting of your content.

Reference Links:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/brand-voice/

https://www.linkedin.com/advice/0/what-best-practices-creating-consistent-authentic

https://buffer.com/resources/brand-voice-on-social-media/

https://www.agilitypr.com/pr-news/public-relations/developing-a-consistent-brand-voice-across-social-media-channels/

https://www.universalcreativesolutions.com/insights/manage-a-consistent-voice-on-social-media

https://www.elegantthemes.com/blog/marketing/brand-voice

https://sproutsocial.com/insights/brand-voice/

https://reverbico.com/blog/brand-tone-of-voice/

https://rockcontent.com/blog/brand-voice-examples/