Page 115 - Social Media Marketing for Dummies

Distinguishing Between SMM

Voices and Brand Voices

At this point, you’re probably thinking that your SMM voice is similar to your
brand voice or personality. You’re probably already thinking of people — maybe
representatives from public relations or corporate marketing in your
organization — who can be your SMM voice. Before you jump into this decision
too quickly, check out Table 5-1, which compares brand and SMM voices. Use this
table to explain to team members why the two voices are different and why this
effort may not be best relegated to the public relations department.

TABLE 5-1 Brand versus SMM Voice
Brand Voice SMM Voice

Singular, anonymous company voice Multiple, authentic individual voices
Reflects the brand personality and attributes Transparent, easy to identify online, and only loosely on
perfectly brand

Strictly followed by everybody Engaging, conversational, and responsive
Designed to appear across all brand touchpoints Mostly relevant only where the conversations are
Usually unique to the company Usually unique to the person
Sometimes manifested in a person, but not Always manifested in a real person or many people
always
Used everywhere from signage to ad copy Used only in real conversations by real people

An SMM voice is very different from a brand voice. Someone who’s spent a life-
time representing your brand and keeping everyone else around on brand mes-
sage is probably not the best person to be the SMM voice.

As you compare the two voices, ask yourself whether you have an SMM voice and,
if so, how it relates to your brand voice. It can be closely associated with your
brand voice, but it doesn’t have to be. In some cases, the SMM voice may be closer
to the product brand than the corporate brand. That doesn’t matter as long as it’s
driven by an individual or several individuals and is truly authentic.

Establishing an SMM voice may appear in conflict with brand and public relations
objectives. The best way to avoid this conflict is to include your brand marketers
and your PR team in the early conversations about your SMM voices. It will pre-
vent an adversarial relationship from developing because they will truly under-
stand why you’re creating it. They will also have a lot of valuable advice for you
based on their experiences in dealing with the mainstream press and customers
CHAPTER 5 Developing Your SMM Voice 99