Professional Documents
Culture Documents
TONE
Tone may change based on content or audience, but those changes should be nuance An overarching tone will set the stage of how you behave.
LANGUAGE
Personality and tone can be interpreted differently. Setting linguistic guidelines will help all content creators have specific rules they can check themselves against.
CONTENT
Its not just what you say and how you say it, but what you share. Defining your brands social tone of voice will help set standards for content creation and curation
Snarky
Bold
Irreverent
IS
An attitude A filter Flexible Personal style Unique, but natural Semantics A point of view One part of a bigger picture Capitalization & punctuation Accessible The secret sauce Representative
IS NOT
Fractured Fake Complicated All-encompassing A set of words Pre-approved responses A Britney medley at a Phish concert Forced Rigid Complete
What elements do you like? How is it received by their audience? How does their voice change by
platform?
AUDIENCE
Who are you talking to? How does this differ based on platforms? How do they perceive your brand?
PERSONALITY TRAITS
What personality traits does your muse have that your brand should aspire to? How do they change their personality based on who theyre talking to?
LINGUISTIC CUES
If your muse is a celebrity, consider printing out scripts from a movie/show theyve been in so that people can identify linguistic cues. How does your muse speak? Does he/she have a catch phrase? Do they use slang or are they a bit more formal?
TIP: Know where youre going before you get there. Work with your community manager(s) and strategist(s) to set a tone for the day and to have an idea of the direction you want to go in.
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Creating a guide
1 2 3 4
Keep it short and sweet.
Give just enough detail for people to feel like they have something to follow, but dont overwhelm as too many guidelines can limit creativity.
Make it pretty.
Youll want something that community and content managers, and even brand managers, will want to keep on their desks.
Include examples.
Develop sample content thats written within the new social tone of voice. Point out which personality traits were used and linguistic cues referenced for easy understanding.
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