Your Voice is Your Brand.

I was posting some tweets the other day and I realized I had diverged from the path of voice and value a little bit. It’s easy to do, we all do it. Become accustomed to the same device for so long and after a while it becomes a habit forming to post things that are relative, but not necessarily of value to the brand. Needless to say, that had to stop right away.

While managing our social media devices and portals, we must remain constantly vigilant of our initial goals and voice. This is what sets us apart from bots and spammers and constant retweeters. A personal voice is what people respond to. No one likes interacting or listening to a robot, unless we’re in the future and that is what we have to do. A message that carries a personal voice, no matter what brand you are or representing, will go much further than simply “linking it up.”

In the world of social media, everyone is the audience. There is no real demographic that you can target, everyone is up for grabs and the only constant that we have in social media is, “everyone is listening.” This is not to say that it’s necessary to dumb down your message, far from it. Your message must speak to what your brand represents, while maintaining a personal voice across multiple platforms. Your audience is following your brand for reasons that are already established, they usually know already who you are. Since they know you already, give them more insight and more personality. It is also easy to post the same information exactly on all your represented platforms. This is foolish. I mean, would you enjoy going from Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn of a certain brand only to find the same information? This seems like a waste of time to me. Customization is key, people respond to that too.

So how do you articulate the personal voice? This is the easy part. Think of your brand’s social extension as not “the client’s brand” or “my company’s brand,” but as “my brand.” Take ownership and be passionate in what you post. It is okay, if not encouraged, to post in the first person. It’s also essential to encourage conversation in the media world as well. Followers are excited to interact with the wizard behind the curtain. Once you start interacting on a personal level with your followers, you will notice that they become believers. Not believers in you, but in the brand you represent and that adds value. Make them believe.