Tone Deaf?

Does the tone of your, or your company’s, writing on social media reflect who you are? How about who your customers are? Make sure that what you or your representatives write to connect with your clients isn’t making you look tone deaf. 

Are You Tone Deaf?

You’ve started your company, you’ve got customers, your website is up and running, and now it’s time to get on social media. If you’ve done your research, you’ve discovered that Facebook and Twitter are the Big Two when it comes to connecting with your customers. Both companies are making it easier for the average entrepreneur to do their own marketing, but what you write in a moment of inspiration could cause customers, current or potential, to raise an eyebrow and rethink if they want to do business with you.

What you say impacts your bottom line, and therefore you want to say things that bring your target customers to your door. Earlier this year I started managing the social media accounts of a massage therapist who also happens to be a competitive athlete. Up to this point, they’d rarely posted anything beyond the link to book appointments, which isn’t bad, but people get bored with that and stop paying attention.

So, we chatted about being tone deaf. What did they want to put out in the world to entice people to have more engagement with their page and book appointments? Who did they want to attract as customers? Since they are an athlete with a great sense of humor who does massage, that was our tone! Some fun, some education about massage therapy, and a focus on being active and athleticism.

While that was an easy example, it also illustrates that you don’t have to spend hours thinking about the voice of your business, but you do need to give it some thought.

Keep Your Eye On The Target

Your target audience that is. As in the last two posts on this blog (Part 1 and Part 2), don’t focus on trying to sell your product or services to every person in existence. If you attempt to appeal to everyone, you’ll water down your message, appear inconsistent, and ultimately turn away those who would be your top customers.

These same potential clients, as well as your current ones, don’t want to be sold to all the time. They want to feel good about their picking you to do business with because they feel a connection. They get value from your Facebook page or Twitter account; or, if you have a store front, they are greeted by the same person they have connected with online.

In other words, be human; have opinions, show your customers who you are on a person-to-person level. Also, take into account that expressing strong views on current hot topics may affect your bottom line for better or for worse (think Uber vs. Lyft over the 2017 executive order on travel restrictions). Your tone creates a level of expectation in your customers – meet and exceed it!

Keep Practicing

I’ve told people that trying to “win” at social media is like shooting at a moving target in the dark. This isn’t because people aren’t putting in the work, but because algorithms from the big platforms are always changing. This week’s post that was barely seen and had zero interaction might be similar to last week’s post that got a ton of views and shares. Don’t panic over it.

Social Media has a learning curve and every time a platform changes their algorithms, there is a new curve to learn. You’ll get better over time at figuring out what your customers like and what they don’t. You’ll know if you can state your opinion on a current event or if you’re better off keeping that to yourself.

Just keep trying, checking your tone, and practicing.

Sarah Wilde is a freelance Social Media Manager in the greater Madison, Wisconsin area. She focuses on social media strategy, content curation, and some creation, for entrepreneurs and solopreneurs who want to focus more on their clients, products, or services.