Is your business taking advantage of voice and tone on social media? There’s no doubt that 2020 and 2021 have been a couple of wild years. With a global pandemic, climate crisis, and civil justice issues all coming to the forefront, more and more people are spending time on their phones: specifically social media. And with that rise in traffic on social media comes the opportunity for brands and businesses to get their message in front of millions of content-hungry individuals.
However, it’s not enough to just post to social media, pretend as if everyone is going to land on that content, and go about your day. You probably already know that content is king, and you probably know that you should be making as much of it as you can. What you do with that content though can have a profound effect on your overall progress. Not every platform is going to be primed for the type of content you create, and not every person on that platform will be willing to listen to your message. This is where your brand voice and tone on social media come in to play.
What is your Brand Voice?
Brand voice can be attributed to the personality of your brand. At Tortuga, we describe ourselves as “The Feel Good Marketing Company”. Because of this, every blog we write, every email we send, every video we create should give you the impression that we want you to feel good. This is our voice. Your voice shouldn’t change. It’s a way for people to identify your brand, it’s a way for you to resonate with your audience through personality.
You might liken it to a parent and child relationship. The voice of a parent is a loving one. The parent always wants what’s best for their child. If the child does something wrong, the tone of which that parent speaks to their child will change. It’s still demonstrated with love (the voice), but in that scenario the way they show that love will differ. Similarly, your voice won’t change or waver but the tone in which you share your message should.
The Importance of Tone on Social Media
As mentioned earlier, not everyone on social media is ready or even willing to listen to your message. Platforms and the type of content on them vary drastically. TikTok is full of 15-second clips of Gen Z kids dancing, while Twitter is rife with sarcasm and satire and brands roasting followers for fun. You can imagine that a video in front of a whiteboard of someone explaining why it’s important to optimize your sales funnel for SEO probably won’t do so well on TikTok whereas it might be perfect for a post on LinkedIn.
As a business, it’s important for you to establish the tone you want to use on each social platform. If you’re a B2B business, chances are your content could do well on LinkedIn. Bringing that same content over to Snapchat or Instagram in the same exact tone probably will result in you alienating your audience completely on those platforms.
Now, I get it. Creating content is hard and takes time. You obviously want to maximize the efficiency of your content by using it in as many places as possible. We even encourage you to do so. In fact, our entire content model is built around the concept of using your content as much and as efficiently as possible. And, that’s okay. It’s all about context, and how you use that content.
Efficiency and Your Tone
One individual who’s really good at mastering platform-specific tone on social media is Gary Vaynerchuk. Gary practically invented the content model that hundreds of thousands of businesses use today. Gary might post a 3-hour long video to YouTube of him giving a speech at a conference. Gary’s media team will take that same 3-hour long video, find one funny 10-20 second clip that relates to kids on TikTok, and then share it there. It’s a great example of how to use the content you already have across different platforms in a specific tone.
Not everything you create will do well on every platform, however there might be a small piece in one of your already existing content libraries that could do very well in the right context. It’s up to you to find that context and execute it. A great rule to follow is to stick to the type of content that does well on the platform you’re looking to post to. If comical, sarcastic content does well on Twitter, try to find comical content that you have in your own content library. If you don’t have anything, you know where you need to focus your attention on growing your Twitter audience.
Think About The Audience
Your tone on social media and across your accounts can really affect the way your audience absorbs your message, or if they absorb it at all. Study the platforms you plan on being active on, and see what audiences like yours are gravitating towards. Then determine how your own brand or business, through a specific tone, can share your message while sticking to that overall voice.
