How 5 Top Brands Crafted Their Social Media Voices
Social networks are platforms for personal connection and dialogue, a reality that has proved challenging for many companies that are not used to speaking to their customers in conversational tones. As companies have established profiles on Facebook, Twitter and other social channels, many have had to develop their brand voices anew.
Mashable spoke with the figures behind some of the most compelling voices on Twitter. (Since I primarily follow media and fashion brands and their teams, my sample is a bit skewed — forgive me.) Each has taken a different path to identifying and relaying the brand voice on social networks. Some, like fashion designer and CEO Tory Burch, speak directly on behalf of their brands. Others, like DKNY and Kate Spade, have developed semi-fictional personalities that speak to the best of their brands’ traits, while still others, including Esquire and Lucky magazines, have adapted their existing, “all-encompassing” editorial tones to social channels.
Here’s how they’ve accomplished it.
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- Tory Burch
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Fashion designer Tory Burch is one of the few designers to speak on behalf of her brand on social networks — namely, Twitter. She discovered early on that social networks were not best used as “a conduit to [the brand's] marketing messages,” but rather a place for “of the moment, off-the-cuff comments that are the most compelling … [and] for sharing personal experiences, whether that’s fishing with her three sons or building relationships,” notes Miki Berardelli, chief marketing officer of Tory Burch. It is through Twitter conversations that Burch identified demand for fashionable travel socks, and struck up a friendship with comedian Mindy Kaling, for whom Burch hosted a book signing event at her flagship store earlier this month.
The rest of Burch’s social media efforts are managed by an in-house team of two, says Berardelli. Although the content varies across platforms — “on Tumblr we do one strong image and a letter, and on Facebook we do more behind-the-scenes content,” Berardelli says — the team works carefully to make sure that all content stays true to Burch’s voice and inspired personal vision.
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2. DKNY PR Girl
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Brands who haven’t been able to leverage the voice of their chief creatives have had to develop other tactics.
One of the most unique personalities I’ve encountered online is DKNY PR GIRL, which is run not by a lackey in the PR department — as the account name might first lead one to suspect — but by Donna Karan International’s SVP of global communications, Aliza Licht.
The account is one of the most prolific and responsive I’ve seen, not only on Twitter, but on Tumblr as well. Nary a question, compliment or complaint goes unanswered. It gives real insight into not only the day-to-day workings at Donna Karan headquarters, but also into the PR business itself. Licht is frequently solicited for career advice and resume reviews, a surprising number of which she responds to. It’s also fun and in tune with DKNY’s young, urban-leaning demographic: DKNY PR GIRL (and by proxy, Licht) has gained something of a reputation for live-tweeting episodes of Gossip Girl.
When asked why Licht chose the name “DKNY PR GIRL” and not “DKNY GIRL,” Licht explained that it was best way to give followers broad insight into the brand and its operations. “PR touches every area of the company,” she explains. “Sharing the behind the scenes of public relations makes everyone a fly on the Donna Karan wall.”
“Originally the idea was that DKNY PR GIRL was a ‘character,’ hence the sketch,” Licht adds, referring to her illustrated Twitter avatar. “But as soon as I started tweeting, I realized that Twitter was a conversation and the voice needed to be consistent. Naturally, people started to realize DKNY PR GIRL was in fact, one girl, but yet it never really mattered ‘who’ the person was — it was the personality and content that mattered.”
Because the voice is always Licht’s, she doesn’t encounter any inherent challenges in crossing platforms. “Tumblr is an extension of Twitter … [for] when 140 characters isn’t enough,” she explains. Facebook, however, is run by the company’s marketing team and carries the voice of the DKNY brand, she says. Although it’s very responsive to fans, the voice is far less personal.
Her advice to other brands? “Keep the ‘social’ in media.”
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3. Kate Spade
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Like DKNY, fashion brand Kate Spade developed a persona for the brand on social networks, but one with a more anonymous aspect.
“We took a lot of different approaches [at Kate Spade] in the beginning,” recalls John Jannuzzi, who formerly administered social media for the fashion label, and now manages Lucky magazine’s social channels. At first, tweets from the @katespadeny account were written by visitors who came to the brand’s Fifth Avenue store and wrote short messages on a typewriter, or, as they affectionately called it, “the tweetwriter.”
“It was a great idea and tied in-store to social nicely, but we couldn’t rely on it for 100% of the content,” says Jannuzzi. He and his colleagues began to draft, edit and schedule their tweets, but found that that strategy wasn’t timely enough to be effective.
“It was the day-to-day that customers responded to most,” Jannuzzi discovered, and so he began thinking of the “Kate Spade woman” and how he would bring her — and her New York City agenda — to life. Soon, @katespadeny began checking in to the MoMA in the afternoon and at Mercury Lounge in the evening; on the weekends, “she” snapped Instagram photos of Central Park and the facade of the Plaza Hotel.
She was and remains witty, cheerful and conversational — and her followers on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr have responded. The brand has more than 135,000 followers on Twitter and more than 370,000 on Facebook, and a “true reach” of nearly 20,000 people, according to Klout.
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4. Lucky Magazine
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Lucky required the development of a different voice, Jannuzzi says. “Lucky‘s brand is all about shopping. Our editors are market experts and our writers know everything about where to buy what and at what times … so we position ourselves as an authority on shopping and we try to bring our shopping-obsessive nature through in social as much as possible.”
The result is a feed that balances traffic-driving links to luckymag.com with images and posts about window displays and where editors are shopping for deals. Jannuzzi also posts shopping-focused questions designed to get followers engaged in a dialogue.
“Just like Kate Spade, I’ve seen that the followers really enjoy the day-to-day more than anything else,” Jannuzzi remarks. “It’s not that they don’t appreciate the content that drives to our site, it’s just that people want to feel a connection, they went their authorities to be approachable now. They have no problem sharing their dislikes with us either, which is very valuable when used appropriately.”
Keeping the voice consistent across channels is difficult, Jannuzzi admits. He finds Twitter easier than the other channels because it is “short and conversational,” mimicking the conversational patterns that exist between friends in online and offline environment. Facebook is trickier because the volume of posts has to be moderated, and although a tweet will sometimes work perfectly for Facebook, “you [generally] have to provide a little more information about what you’re saying,” Jannuzzi says. “Still, we speak like a friend would speak. At all times, we want Lucky to be the friend you never knew you had or needed on Facebook.”
On Tumblr, Jannuzzi says the magazine has been most successful reblogging and liking others’ content, and replying with animated GIFs and images. “We don’t do it often, but that’s a common practice among the community so it makes sense,” he says. On Foursquare, where the brand enjoys “most popular fashion magazine” status thanks to its following of more than 100,000, Lucky adapts its monthly city guides into tips and checks into its staff’s favorite shopping destinations daily.
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5. Esquire Magazine
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Like Lucky, Esquire has adapted its existing editorial focus and tone to social media environments. Although web director Matt Sullivan is behind most of Esquire‘s communications on Twitter — some of which is cross-posted to Facebook — he says he aims for an “all-encompassing” voice. “We like to have it speak for all of us,” he says, adding that it’s important to assign a real editor to manage an institution’s voice on social networks, and not an intern or someone in the marketing department.
Esquire‘s voice on Twitter is in perfect keeping with the magazine — it’s intelligent and authoritative, and yet it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Articles aren’t delivered in a “[headline] – [link]” format; they tend to be descriptive and, where appropriate, humorous. One-liners, etiquette “rules” and links to articles from other publications are interspersed with Esquire‘s own web content.
“Traffic is nice, but conversation with the reader is nicer,” says Sullivan. “A glorified RSS feed is a waste of time.”
By Lauren Indvik
Published at: http://mashable.com/2011/11/21/brand-voices-social-media/?WT.mc_id=obinsite