Watch Your Tone

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The Wall Street Journal recently published an article describing how the tone and sound of a person’s voice can affect peoples’ opinion of that person in a variety of different ways. The scary part of this pre-judgement is that speakers usually have no idea how others feel because it is so difficult to hear your own voice. It can take a great deal of training and attention to make sure you’re speaking in a tone that allows you to present yourself in the way you’d like.

Similar dynamics are at play when you’re representing your company/brand/self online. So often we simply say/type/post the first thing that comes to mind. The important thing is to get yourself out there, right? This is only partly true. In fact, if you’re engaging your audience with the wrong tone and presentation, you can do a lot to harm your online presence. Here are some quick tips to make sure you’re engaging with tone in mind.

 

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  1. Know your audience. Who is your primary customer? How do they talk, both in real life and online? Answering these questions will help you figure out if you need to be more casual or more formal with your audience. Is it ok to use slang or abbreviations? Do my customers prefer proper grammar over short statements?
  2. Give your brand personality. If my brand were a movie star, who would it be? If it were a car? A historical figure? These questions will give you some examples to follow when acting as your brand online. Define these personifications and keep them in mind whenever you’re engaging with your audience.

  3. Be consistent. Once you have defined the elements above, do your best not to stray, or slip into your own personal style. Consistency is important when developing rapport with customers and will help you to engage in more lasting and meaningful conversations. Too much fluctuation in your tone may cause your audience to lose interest and look elsewhere.

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If you have multiple people writing on behalf of your brand we’d recommend a Tone & Voice Guide.  It gives each of your writers the details they need to stay consistent with the tone of your organization and includes a special statement they can read aloud to help get in character for writing as your business.

Do you think you need an App?

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At least once a week someone tells me that building an app is on their list of things to do in 2013. I love it because my passion for mobile is notable.  The thing is I also cringe because: PLEASE do not do this.

Why?  Apps are expensive, they are limiting (build an app for an iPhone? great! want it for Android too? start over.), just because you’re in the app store does not mean people will find it, but the biggest one is:

you don’t need an app

Most of the companies that mention their desire for an app really just want to look better on mobile devices. In that case what you need is a Web App.

What’s the difference?

A web app works on an internet browser on any mobile device (yes, any) and you can save that web location to your mobiles home screen with a custom icon (so it looks just like an app) – the web app can (and probably should) be completely different than your website. Marketers like to use the words: Device Agnostic (it’s a good thing).

A native app is designed specifically for the operating system of the device – you can check out your site metrics to determine what native apps you should develop but to cover your bases you need to have at least an iOS (Apple) and an Android app.

Is it more complicated than that?  Yes.  Does that matter to you?  Probably not.

What is your next step?

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  • Start to really determine what content your mobile user wants and what interaction you want to encourage.
  • Determine your objectives. How can this extend an existing revenue stream or create a new one? What pain point is this solving?
  • Look at your site metrics – if 90% of your mobile traffic is really coming from iPhones maybe a native app is the right fit.
  • Think about how you’d promote this new online location.

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5 Businesses that MUST have a Mobile Site

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So this happened the other day:

I’m at a local coffee shop – a business associate introduces me to another business associate. That associate upon hearing what my specialty is says “We barely even have a website – why do we have to be on peoples phones?” To which I asked him to look around. Out of the  twenty-three people there only three people lacked a visible mobile device and two of those people were working behind the counter.  I asked “Are these people your target customers?”  To which he replied “they sure are”.  THAT is why you need to have a mobile friendly site.

Does everyone need a mobile site?  No. If you’re in one of these five businesses it’s only going to become MORE important…

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  1. Restaurant – When the question comes up of ‘What should we have for dinner’ you want your business to be accessible and flattering on their mobile device.
  2. Any Retailer – If you have a destination that people need to find you need to have a mobile site so people actively trying to get to you can and easily.  Start your brand engagement from their first left turn.
  3. Realtor – Your signage is all over town, and while that’s great, trends show a decline in people picking up the phone and calling – how can you be accessible 24/7 and right in front of your clients dream house?  On their mobile device, that’s how.
  4. Health Providers – Research from Forbes at the close of 2012 showed that 31% of people are looking for Health & Medical Information from their mobile device.
  5. Artist – Someone sees a piece of your art out in the world.  They want to find you.  They want to share it’s beauty with all of the people they’ve ever met and friended on Facebook. Let them.  And make it easy.

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5 Reasons to be Careful When Scheduling Your Social Media Updates

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Tools that aid in the scheduling of posts on social media networks have been a godsend to marketers and social media mavens worldwide. Often, the best time for a business to post that tweet or update that Facebook page coincide with the busiest time of that business’ work day (or night). Scheduling those posts can help ensure maximum impact and engagement without cramping the schedule of an already overworked employee.

Scheduling posts is not a cure-all, however. If you’re not careful with scheduling your posts all that pre-scheduling could be more trouble than it’s worth.

Five (5) reasons to be careful when scheduling your social media updates:

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  1. Social media is about a lot of things.  It’s about promotion, it’s about links. That is true.  The thing that it’s really about, though, is engagement.  It’s about making geographic proximity LESS important and real connection MORE important.  When you are doing all of your talking from a scheduler, you are not doing the thing that matters most – listening.  That means talking with people and not at them.  That means being in the moment, being relevant and being you (or your brand) online.  Social media has more power as a two way communication channel then it does as a blow horn.  Use both.  Life is about connection.  Business is a part of life.  Value connection and give it what you can (and not more – we’ll talk more about this).
  2. Social Networks don’t really like it. They want you to use their service- not some third party and they reward your activity on their own platform. This is sometimes explicitly stated and sometimes it’s just our experience.  It makes sense though.
  3. You can’t predict what will happen within your own company. From the biggest corporation to the smallest mom-and-pop business, you can never know what exactly to expect. If your company finds itself in the news, or your restaurant has to close because of a faulty appliance in the kitchen, you’ll look awfully silly if your automated accounts are posting in a business-as-usual fashion. Schedule your posts out a responsible amount and be mindful in instances when you need to turn it off.
  4. You may develop a false sense of complacency. Scheduling your social media posts might lead to a “set it and forget it” mentality. Your posts are set for the week, why should you bother checking? This is dangerous! Remember that social media is a conversation. If your followers are talking about you, you need to be paying attention and engaging in the conversation. Don’t let it happen without you.
  5. You can’t predict what will happen in the world. As recent tragic events have shown, the attention of the world can be drawn away from the normal day-to-day in a matter of minutes. In the hyper-current environment of Facebook and Twitter, if your account keeps posting all your thought leadership, recipes & cute outfits in the wake of tragedy, you may appear to be unconnected and crass.

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Rochester Brainery: Leveraging LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter for Businesses

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We are teaching at the Rochester Brainery on May 2nd from 7-9pm EST

[highlight]Details on the class[/highlight]If you own a business, development of online content can help grow your business- and we don’t mean just having a website. LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter are all great, free tools for your business. These tools be used to recruit new employees and interns, spread information, post deals, seek out new clients and more. But how? We’ll answer that question as well as discuss time management, integration and more in Leveraging LinkedIn, Facebook & Twitter for Businesses.

The class is normally $15 and you can purchase directly at Rochester Brainery OR for at least the rest of today you can pick up this deal on Living Social for 50% off.