You have a social media profile, cool. You keep posting messages and information related to your company, however, the response seems dull.

You do not see much engagement. This is in spite of perfect content. You wonder where it you are lacking is.

There is no wonder about it all. You are not engaging enough, it seems!

Content is not enough. If you want to be heard, you have to have a terrific brand voice.

It is not just enough to have a social media presence and to pump loads of money into your social media strategy. Unless and until, what you are communicating through your social media is able to engage with the audience, it won’t be really affective. And on Facebook you have to get to be as real as possible. If well used, Facebook can be an effective voice motivating tool for many, including students.

Why is a brand voice important on Facebook?

To get more response and engagement from your target audience, you need to connect with them. Customers need to develop a sense of connection with the brand being promoted. It must be found to relate with them, their needs and wishes, their lives. Without building a relationship with present and future customers, brands cannot hope to get customers to take interest in what they are offering. And for this, a genuine brand voice on Facebook is essential. Facebook is the most widely used social networking site and is the premium social site used by most companies for their marketing efforts and promotion strategies.

How can your brand’s voice be recognized and enhanced?

Brand voices need to be recognized, identified, managed and modulated according to your specifics. It should be a complete testimony to what your organization stands for – from its message, vision, values to the culture and practices which define your company.

Be genuine

When you speak on Facebook, be genuine, interested and talk to the customer not at the customer. And certainly not talk in a way which makes it clear that all you want to do is just get into the pockets of a customer. Whatever you talk should be customer centered. And being genuine and from the heart, while at the same time representing the company’s culture, takes a lot of time and practice. Unlike other things which can be measured or changed, voice cannot be measured or analysed by any obvious way. The only way is to do it and check the feedback ( as in engagement)

Understand why people use Facebook

Use your voice to build a community online by engaging with the customers and finding out their impressions and what they want. Engage in active listening to determine the needs and wishes. Respond appropriately. Display warmth in your responses. Show the genuine interest in the thoughts, impressions and feelings of customers. Show the real personality of the faces behind your company and show how you relate to the people; build trust and faith; this leads to a long lasting community. Understand what the customers use Facebook for, their behaviour and motivations.

Tone of the voice

The voice should be consistent and the kind that has consistently won response from customers. It should not appear confused, unsure, lost, ignorant, ill at ease. Just like real life behaviors such as these can lead to a negative impression in our interpersonal interactions, brand voices which do not sound confident, authoritative, knowledgeable, unaware, unprepared can put of f their target audience.

The brand voice should be order, pacing, style of words in tune with the effect which you want to generate. The brand should reflect the people who are behind the company, their attitudes, and their values. This helps the brand to bridge with the audience. It is unique and helps to differentiate the brand from other brands. Making the difference really makes a difference in customer engagement.

Storytelling

Your brand voice can better engage and draw in the audience by telling stories revolving around the audience, the company and the world. The purpose is to build emotional connections which would help the customers relate to the brand more. Your face book page should invite your customers to share and be a part of the stories you create and tell by inviting their own input. Make sure that your brand voice is communicating the kind of stories which your brand wants to be associated with .

Reflect the correct persona

Your brand voice should reflect the brand if it were alive or to be met in person and the brand persona had to engage in real with the customers.. If your brand is something for the young, then the brand voice needs to engage with youth using vocabulary, language, images which would resonate with the youth. If your brand is something which is very much in demand, than show the appreciation for that by being responsive, engaging and commitment. If your brand is representation a social cause, then your voice should be accordingly so- passionate, earnest, serious. In short, match the voice according to the character.