How to Determine Your Brand’s Social Media Persona

Many people think writing social content is simple: with only 140 characters in a tweet, there may be little room for excessive prose, but there’s also little room for error. Unfortunately, what happens often is that each brand tweet sounds eerily similar to the next one:

“Overarching statement or fact, check out/ learn more/ see how, and a link to the resource.”

Sound like an account you want to follow? Didn’t think so.

As marketing becomes more sophisticated and individualized, users follow brands because they like what the brand represents, not necessarily the deals or offers they post. Think of some of the brands you love - why is that so? Likely they come across more as a person than a brand and have a unique point of view on the world. They are human, just like you.

Establishing a written persona on social positively impacts three things:

1. Aligns the overall brand with how the brand is on social media
2. Makes writing content easier
3. Helps you stand out in the clutter of the Feed

Here’s how you can determine what your brand persona should sound like on social:

Look at Other Brands

Every brand sounds a little bit different (they may not, but they should). Explore the feeds of brands from mild to wild and see which ones seem similar to your brand and which ones seem different. Don’t just look at other brands in your field, we’re looking at writing and communications styles, and not the content itself.

A few of my favorite examples:

• Mild: Buffer App
• Mild: Hubspot
• Middle: JetBlue
• Middle: DiGiorno Pizza
• Wild: Taco Bell
• Wild: Old Spice

This.. but not That

After you’ve taken a look at what other people are doing, try to describe what it is you want to be. I usually do this in an exercise called This… but not that. By associating words you want to be similar to and words you don’t want to be associated with at all, you can form what it is you want to be more fully.

One example:

• The tone on social should be professional, but approachable. Social content’s tone should be straightforward and friendly. It shouldn’t sound robotic, chauvinistic or fluffy.

Do a Writing Exercise

After you’ve established an overarching tone, it’s time to put it into practice. Often times I take real tweets that were written in the past, and try to put them in the new tone I’m trying to describe. This helps both the person writing social content and the person approving social content to understand what the tone looks like in practice.

Often times, many people agree on what the overarching feel should be, but don’t connect when it comes to the actual wording.

Get Stakeholders to Agree

Make sure everyone who has to write or review content on social understands what your brand is trying to say and talk like. It helps make communicating about it even easier later on and makes writing and editing social content much easier.