In this noisy social world, it’s difficult to get the chance for people to remember us. To engage, a brand needs to be original, but also learn to speak the language of the platform it’s broadcasting from.
Now that we’ve determined a tone of voice for your brand, let’s explore what personality traits to use in the different social channels.
You can choose to be fun and cheeky (Innocent); diplomatic, engaging, well-informed (BBC); or even sensational, scandalous, fashionable (Jean Paul Gaultier). A social media voice can be hip, communal, playful, educational, sophisticated, fun, irreverent, inspirational, helpful, or a million other things. The same way you communicate differently within different social circles and scenarios.
We use a different language with friends, with family members, with business partners, at a bar, a child playground, in a foreign country. The same goes for your brand. Your audience expects a different style of communication across different platforms. Here are a few tips on how to tailor your message to the different social channels.
Be short, direct, and impactful. Your magical number here is 140 characters. Imperatively use #hashtags to categorize your information. Use URL shortening services like bit.ly, ow.ly or goo.gl to include other websites, links, pictures, or videos in your tweets.
Research what type of content resonates the most with your twitter audience (quotes, news, jokes, song lyrics, trivia, links to entertaining videos, photos, provocative commentary?)
Make sure to connect to influencers and join big conversations to get exposure. Take notice of re-tweets to determine the engagement of your content. Use the 80/20 rule for promotional marketing tweets. Don’t be afraid to tweet great content twice. And don’t be afraid to think aloud. You’d be surprised how many followers love to hear private thoughts. Twitter does not need to be all business all the time.
Twitter in numbers: There are over 100 million active Twitter users per day, sending over 5700 Tweets per second, or 500 million Tweets every single day.
Facebook’s language is all about engagement. Colorful photos, inspired text. Short punch lines.
Facebook is a social channel, so keep it social. That means sticking to the old 80/20 direct marketing rule (80 value content. 20% sales). Contacts connecting with you on Facebook are people who are already engaged in your brand. They don't need a pitch. Through monitoring and proper analysis, you could determine the reasons why they chose to engage with you on this platform.
Ideally, Facebook is the place where you celebrate your customers, get to know them better, express appreciation for their business, and get some feedback. Your audience is expecting personal information: pictures of your staff, private anecdotes, company events, inside jokes.
Facebook in numbers: There are over 1.26 billion registered users (1/7th of Earth’s population) who send over 20 billion minutes on Facebook a day (this equals to 38,000 years or 483 human lifespans)
LinkedIn is an opportunity to connect and communicate with industry peers, partners, and clients. It’s the best place to post interesting articles, feature your work, catalog accomplishments, write case studies, and appeal to a professional audience. LinkedIn is also a great place for HR and PR activities. No place for inspirational quotes or funny jokes. The tone here is competent all the way. Besides featuring your brand, make also sure to create robust profiles for your key executives. Interact with business groups.
LinkedIn in numbers: There are over 249 million registered users, 3 million business pages, and 2.1 million LinkedIn groups. 40% of users say they check the site daily.
Post photos showing your product or services in action. Use engaging images. The key ingredient to capture Instagram’s audience is to post beautiful, original, artsy pictures. Besides sharing image marketing, use Instragam to comment and like influential users, particularly people in your industry.
Instagram in Numbers: There are 150 million active users. 55 million photos are uploaded per day. Unlike other social media networks, Instagram users comment, on average, 1,000 times per second.
Pinterest is probably the most interesting platform to showcase products. Unlike the other “social” channels, Pinterest wants to be known for NOT being a social platform. Pinterest is “for discovery”, says Tim Kendal, Monetization Manager.
Pin your products, but most importantly pin ways your product can be used. Keep it interesting and fun. It’s about selling a lifestyle full of ideas. Aim your pictures to fit your typical client’s desires.
Find influential pinners in your area or industry. Re-pin their boards to get noticed.
Pinterest in numbers: There 70 million people using Pinterest and 80% of users are women. Pinterest shoppers spend twice the amount at online retailers versus other social media referrals. About 5 million products are pined per day.
Here’s Tim Kendal of Pinterest speaking about the future of advertising.
Looking to update your visual branding? For advice, just say hello@edesigninteractive.com.
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