
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me…
Or can they?
If you’re a business, brand or sole trader it’s a completely different story!
Words can and will hurt your brand and they might not even be your own words! In fact, customers words are more powerful than yours, especially in a world of social media. One person’s content can be shared by ten of thousands in minutes, reaching millions, either taking your brand to new heights or becoming the next topic of controversy and gossip. That’s why we’re serious when we say that you have to nail your brand voice. Your brand’s tone of voice is essential. Pair this with knowing your target audience, how to talk to them, what drives them and how your business could add value or fix their problem and you’re on to a winner!
Now, let’s look at what you’re currently posting. Is it resonating with your audience? More importantly, are you happy with the audience that you have built? You may be a social media manager, marketing manager, entrepreneur or a business owner. All of you have one thing in common. You’re looking for effective solutions to get products or services in front of more people and you wish you had a larger budget to do so!
What if we told you that you can do it without the huge budget and by utilising your brand voice effectively. A carefully crafted cheeky or controversial social post can reach a huge audience gaining “headline exposure” for your brand ORGANICALLY!
Over the past couple of years, we have seen more and more brands lean into the cheeky and controversial style of content in their posts, comments and general brand tone.
You may instantly cast your minds to that certain airline brand that seemed to be all over the internet and the newspapers multiple times. Some headlines even included the Royal Family.
You may not agree with the airline’s comments or posts but that might be the point; they grew exponentially through very cost effective campaigns that divided many.
This has allowed the social media team to get their brand name shared by the thousands via these cheeky and controversial posts on social media platforms, with millions of shares and thousands of users loving the content and even following the company for more content.
Even if the user does not like the post and shares it with their feed/ network with a bad comment about the brand, their friends and followers will also see the post. This means that even if there is a negative comment attached, the airline is still putting itself in front of more and more people, generating one of their all-important touch points to buy.
In some cases, this could create brand loyalty with customers who love the posts and regularly follow and share them, only choosing to fly with this airline where possible. But is this worth the controversy of the posts, comments, requests for public apologies, Tweet removals and newspaper headlines?
Some think this worked for them, some don't. We can all agree that getting your brand voice nailed is essential to getting your business out there, but getting involved in controversy can backfire and get you and your business into some serious bother.
In the case of the airline, they got more reach on social media, getting their brand voice out there, but every business is different, and this approach may not work for all businesses.
We must consider what we post and how it portrays our business. The ultimate rule to live by is: If you are unsure, don't post it, park it. We promote this approach as sometimes content and post ideas mature over time, and most times when you park a content or post idea for a later date, you end up having a shower thought that takes the concept to the next level.
One other tip for social posts and brand voice is to;
Don’t Overreact to Negative Comments - Getting emotional is not the way to react to these messages; staying calm and level-headed is a must when responding to negative comments.
How you handle negative comments can make or break your reputation on social media. Many people misunderstand how to deal with this situation and resort to deleting negative comments, ignoring them, or arguing with the comment's author. These are by far the best solutions and are arguably the worst thing you can do.
The first step in responding to negative comments is acknowledging them, apologising if necessary, offering a solution, or directing them to your customer service contact.
We must remember that this is a public arena, and others will see how we handle these situations, and it will influence their buying decisions. Staying calm and professional and avoiding escalating the situation is essential.
We recommend recording how your reply to the comment resolved the issue and implementing what you learned from their feedback to improve future social posts.
We would love to hear how you implement this into your brand or if you’re steering clear!
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