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

A well-defined brand voice
helps make content sticky
PERSONALITY TONE LANGUAGE CONTENT
You’ll want to make sure Tone may change based on Personality and tone can be It’s not just what you say
you’re authentic – but by content or audience, but interpreted differently. and how you say it, but
outlining personality traits those changes should be Setting linguistic guidelines what you share. Defining
and acting more like a person nuance – An overarching will help all content creators your brand’s social tone of
and less like a corporation, tone will set the stage of
have specific rules they can voice will help set
you’re giving your community how you behave.
check themselves against. standards for content
a reason to engage
creation and curation
Snarky Bold Irreverent Your Cooler, Funnier Wingman Style Guru Perky Down To Earth
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
2

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.
IS IS NOT
An attitude Fractured
A filter Fake
Flexible Complicated
Personal style All-encompassing
Unique, but natural A set of words
Semantics Pre-approved responses
A point of view A Britney medley at a Phish concert
One part of a bigger picture Forced
Capitalization & punctuation Rigid
Accessible Complete
The secret sauce
Representative
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
3

Start with inspiration
Have your core team identify inspiration from other brands, but also from within.
1. A social tone of voice shouldn’t be 2. Look externally and identify 3. In social media, it’s important to
a complete 180. Ask employees and other brands that you feel have act like a person instead of a
people working with the brand to share nailed it.
corporation. Identify a muse for your
their favorite pieces of existing
brand – someone you can look to for
• What elements do you like?
communication & those that they inspiration for both personality traits &
• How is it received by their audience?
feel are most representative of the linguistic cues.
• How does their voice change by
brand – from status updates and platform?
tweets to brochures to internal • How do they showcase their brand
employee communication. personality through language?
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
4

Workshop the solution
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.
BRAND 101 How would employees describe your brand? How would competitors
describe your brand? What’s your brand truth?
AUDIENCE Who are you talking to? How does this differ based on platforms? How do
they perceive your brand?
PERSONALITY What personality traits does your muse have that your brand should aspire
TRAITS to? How do they change their personality based on who they’re talking to?
LINGUISTIC If your muse is a celebrity, consider printing out scripts from a movie/show
CUES 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?
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.
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
5

Creating a guide
Keep it short and sweet.
1 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.
Make it pretty.
2 You’ll want something that community and content managers, and even brand
managers, will want to keep on their desks.
Designate a leader – and empower them.
3 While many people should participate in the workshop, you’ll want a core team of 2 to
3 people who will lead the development of the voice and the output document.
Include examples.
4 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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