Dec/110
Want to Find Your Brand Voice In Social Media? You Already Have.
This post was originally published on the Dachis Group blog, Collaboratory.
Transforming your brand’s tone of voice, for the sake of achieving relevance in social, is a fool’s errand. You don’t have to find your brand voice in social, because you’ve already created it.
Brands commonly homogenize their voice when dealing in social – a common mistake. True, a conversational tone is best used when engaging fans and followers; but that universal rule can be equally destructive if it means soft-pedaling your brand’s personality.
Your brand guidelines probably look something like this...
Most companies have brand guidelines, or some kind of fluff piece that goes over tone of voice. One client of mine, in particular, comes to mind. Their tone was crisply defined in a slick-looking and thoroughly thought-out document that was given to us as a reference point when defining their social media content strategy. It’s probably only ever dug out when a new agency partner is hired, which was the case here. But when it comes to engaging in social, it should be your Bible.
In most cases, they’re filled with loquacious, and oftentimes unnatural, language. But it’s meant to be a starting point, not a set of rigid statutes. Your brand guidelines should act as a guiding post for your tone of voice in social; because, if nothing else, they embody what it is you stand for. And in social, you have to stand for something, because it’s that which defines you as a “person” in the space. It dictates how you talk, and what you talk about.
As individuals, we have different personalities — the same should be true of brands in social. Whether your brand’s voice is friendly and conversational, or confident and haughty, your tone should shine through. Anything less, and you’re simply faking who you are; and no one wants to be friends with a fake.
The earlier mentioned brand’s voice in social, as we determined, is a direct lift from its brand’s guidelines. It has an edgy, somewhat self-serving, “I’m who you want to be,” attitude. While speaking with such a voice goes against everything most social marketers tell you, it’s a tone that’s reflective of what the brand stands for; and it’s working. Even as a brand tip-toeing into social, it has already seen significant organic growth on Twitter — rocketing past 1,000 followers in a month and half, and gaining the respect of influential bloggers along the way.
But it’s not just working because of how the brand sounds. A large part has to do with what the brand is talking about. If you’re an authority on a subject, and want people to know, don’t hesitate to express it. It comes down to a delicate balance of talking the talk, and walking the walk. Too much of either, and you become a lot of talk and no action, or simply boring to talk to.
The guy who tells amazing stories, but has never done anything himself, is just as bad as the guy who’s lived the stories, but is a terrible narrator.
That said, talk about interesting things, interestingly. Stick to your values. And be yourself.
Your brand already has a voice. You’ve defined your personality in the form of brand guidelines. Use them to tell charming stories that touch and inspire people. For all of its over-the-top language, if you read between the lines, the key to your voice in social is there. So, dig it up from the bowels of your hard drive. Don’t abandon it. Adapt it. And if your brand doesn’t have a defined personality…well then, maybe you shouldn’t be in social. Because who wants to talk to that guy?
Aug/110
The Semantic Web and Its Limitations on New Human Experiences
If it were up to the semantic web, I would have never discovered Coldplay.
I was having a conversation with a co-worker about what was going to be my next blog post, and something she said inspired me to switch gears and take a slight detour.
Not that I’m an expert on the subject, but I find the semantic web, and its theorized possibilities, absolutely fascinating. Imagine a world where everything is meticulously tailored to you. Not just the advertising. But search results; music and films; and even new friends. THAT is what I think social is here to do. It’s not just a breakthrough in communication. That’s far too limiting, and honestly, I think a bit shortsighted.
We’ve been seeing it for years in targeted ads, Amazon recommendations, and Netflix suggestions. The internet has made enormous strides in personalizing its recommendations based on our connections and experiences. But that’s exactly what scares my colleague about the semantic web. When is the internet no longer connecting us with the things it believes we will enjoy, but instead shielding us from wildly different experiences that we may in fact love?
My co-worker is a Groupon junkie, and prides herself on having no niche. The deals she buys vary far and wide, and if the semantic web were to try to tailor experiences to her it would brilliantly fail.
For most, the semantic web isn’t a problem. But for those who don’t want to be put in a box; for those who never want to do the same thing twice; the semantic web has an ugly side. For all the relevance it promises to bring, an argument can be made that it also threatens to bring an insular view of the world.
I pretty much exclusively listen to Hip-Hop and R&B. And if it weren’t for a conversation between two co-workers I overheard years ago, I would have never downloaded Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida”. An album I love, and which led me to buy all of their previous works, as well as discover John Mayer, Jason Mraz, and Jack Johnson. Don’t judge me.
There’s a fine line between what’s junk, and what could be a new, and interesting experience. Where is that line drawn? The more you submit yourself to the wonders of this new way of the web, the more custom-fit your experience becomes. But at what cost?
Apr/101
Thinking Small Is All The Rage
The idea of agencies and companies thinking small is no new notion. People have been saying it for years, including Greg, who’s gong to push the point further in his upcoming book, microMarketing. The problem is, very few have actually been practicing it. At the PSFK Conference in New York last week, Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti of Partners & Spade gave a “Think Small” presentation highlighting the work they did for J.Crew.
Prefacing their lecture, they shared their passion for film, publishing, and product development, which helped guide the work they did for J.Crew. The brand’s menswear had little equity. Partners & Spade felt that regardless of how they tackled the problem, going in waving the J.Crew banner would make their plan fall flat. It was a big brand that everyone already knew, and expressly didn’t care about. They had to develop a strategy that shrunk J.Crew. Something that made the brand more intimate and approachable. Because, like the partners said on stage, “no one likes big.”
An interior shot of the J.Crew Liquor Store in TriBeCa.
To answer the call, the partners decided to open a liquor store. But not your average slipshod speakeasy. It was an abandoned TriBeCa tavern restored and restocked with J.Crew’s menswear instead of booze. The boutique is affectionately named “Liquor Store“. The shop is adorned in a way that gives it a lot of classic male character and makes is very distinctive from a typical J.Crew outlet; to the point that you wouldn’t know it’s a J.Crew store. The partners went so far as to staff the store with their own people, including Tremaine Romeo, the “Storetender”; sell some exclusive clothing and accessories; create specialized products, such as throwing darts and shot glasses; and even published a book, “What A Man Should Know”.
The Liquor Store was deemed a great success by the partners, and was written up in dozens of blogs and magazines who they said wouldn’t have written about the store otherwise if it had been branded as a typical J.Crew location. It was the small, cozy and personalized nature of the boutique that made people especially interested in it. In other words, a big brand acting small made it that much more compelling. The partners believe that the bigger a brand gets, the smaller it needs to act. An idea defended by a quote Spade likes to use: “For every accountant you hire, hire an artist” to maintain the delicate balance of big and small.
Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of software development company, 37Signals, spoke at the AdAge Digital Conference this week and blasted “full-service” ad agencies, using the same grounds as those used by Partners & Spade: think small. He made the point that agencies are trying to do everything for everyone, instead of focusing on a small number of things that they do very well, championing specialization over full-service end-to-end.
“Companies end up hiring people to do these things they don’t know how to do, they get really big and then they slow down. That’s how you get big and slow and expensive. What’s wrong with doing just a few things really well?,” Fried said. He recently co-authored Rework which reiterated this point.
It’s easy for agencies to think too big. Oftentimes they assume they have to in order to stay competitive, or successfully launch a project. But the Liquor Store, and the story of 37Signals for that matter, act as as testaments that bigger isn’t always better. “Think small” is often looked upon as an idealistic buzz phrase, hardly ever applicable in real world situations. But there are numerous examples where thinking and acting small paid off. It’s about sticking to your guns when you have a good idea, big or small. Big Bang Theory sized strategies are not the best solution most of the time, and tend to be filled with elements that underperform.
Years ago, before giving up “the noble profession of journalism,” as my father puts it, I remember going to the CSPA convention and listening to a New York Times writer who said something that stuck with me to this day, and something I think applies here: It’s not about using big words. It’s about using the right words.