Finding and Defining Your Brand Voice on Social Media

Often, people think of building a social media presence as merely starting an account and beginning to post. Some go one step further and create a content plan. One often ignored aspect is deciding on the voice for your social media accounts. 

Defining your voice on social media is helpful regardless of whether you're an individual or a brand. It’s especially important if you have multiple people posting to an account. In this article I will explain how to develop and define that voice.

The Key Exercise

Create a character through which you will do all of your social media posting. Write a description of the character, including their age, job, source of inspiration, tone, and more. The goal is to create a character that everyone posting to your social media channels will “slip into” when they’re creating content. When I was Director of Communications and Marketing at Christ School, we defined our character as something similar to this:

We post on social media as a witty, older, long-tenured faculty member who is proud to showcase the achievements and wins of Christ School students and alumni. He is a father figure who intimately knows the students and wants them to succeed.

This description becomes a framework for writing every post, no matter the content type or platform. I’ve worked with clients who went as far as naming their social media voice and writing paragraphs about the character. Take it as far as you want!

Think about what works best for your school or organization. Who is your target audience? Who would connect best with that audience? You may decide on a younger voice that connects more directly with current and prospective students. You may choose an older character who parents will subconsciously relate to.

A Plan for Consistency

The exercise described above helps ensure consistency in voice no matter who is posting on the accounts. That consistent voice helps your followers understand your content, your brand, and it helps build a relationship with them.

Defining the voice in a written document also helps your team be consistent when they’re posting. It doesn’t do anyone good when posts drop in and out of the brand voice.

Voice’s Role in Determining Content

Defining your social media voice also helps in determining what type of content to post. You can ask yourself, “Would our character post content like this? Does it fit within their voice and motivations?” I’ve often had to tell employers and clients that a piece of content doesn’t fit within their brand or voice. Being able to say, “No.” is key in building a brand and voice on social media.

Your Social Voice Isn’t Necessarily the Voice of the School

You don’t need to think of your social media voice as the “voice of your school.” 

At Christ School, we used our social media channels almost exclusively for marketing purposes. For most of the content, the primary audience was prospective families. The social channels were not a place for announcements about weather delays, early dismissals, or schedule changes. Those announcements didn’t fit within our voice, and instead we used email and text systems to share things in those categories. 

In the rare case that a major piece of school news needed to be shared on social media, we posted the content as a text quote or video directly from our head of school. As you’re developing your social voice, think about how you’ll handle those informational posts.

In Conclusion…

Whether you’re starting new social accounts or reviewing your existing content, take the time to complete this exercise in building your social voice. Commit to it and be consistent in your posting. Over time you will see higher engagement, more brand loyalty, and better strategy and content from those posting on your accounts.