This document provides an overview and agenda for a course on finding your social media voice. The course teaches the importance of having a strong organizational voice and communicating an organization's values through social media. Topics covered include voice fundamentals, identifying mission and audience, best practices for social media voice, and examples of social media voices. The document emphasizes authenticity, timeliness, speaking directly to the audience, consistency while being flexible, and managing voice through style guides.
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Agenda!
This course teaches the importance of a strong organizational
voice and how to communicate your organizationʼs value
through social media.!
Topics covered:!
• Voice fundamentals!
• Identifying your mission and audience!
• Identifying your voice!
• Social media voice best practices!
• Examples of social media voices!
• Managing your voice!
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Why social media voice matters!
Social media requires organizations to
communicate more rapidly in conversational
contexts!
Challenges of social media:!
• Rapid communication!
• Constant changes require new processes and
training!
• Multiple formats feature unique benefits and
challenges!
• Blogs!
• Twitter!
• Facebook!
• YouTube!
Barack Obama communicating on Facebook
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Your voice self!
A clear organizational voice requires a deep understanding of your
mission and audience!
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Who are you?!
Your voice must accurately reflect your
organization and its mission!
Answer these questions to ensure that your
voice is authentic and deliberate:!
• Are you representing an agency or program?!
• What is your mission?!
• What unique information do you have to offer?!
• Why are you speaking?!
• Why do you want people to subscribe to your
updates?!
• How long will your organization exist?!
Know thyself!
Japanese woman with mirrors
from George Eastman House on Flickr
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Research!
Perform research to gain a better understanding of your organization and audience!
Internal research methods! Audience research methods!
Stakeholder interviews! Site traffic analysis!
Online surveys! Online surveys!
Competitive analysis! Focus groups!
Content audits! Ethnographies!
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What language do you speak?!
Your language depends upon your audience
and mission !
Consider the following: !
• Does your mission require you to speak a
particular language?!
• Does a significant portion of your audience
speak a particular language?!
• Is your audience diverse and large enough to The White House has a widely varied audience
and communicates in a variety of languages
mix languages?!
• Would you benefit from creating a new
communication channel in a particular
language?!
GobiernoUSA.gov exists specifically to
serve a Spanish speaking population
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Plain language or jargon?!
Use jargon if your audience will benefit from
it, but always write clearly!
• Use language and terminology that is
meaningful to your audience!
• Clear and direct language is always good, but
jargon is not inherently bad! What? This message is not intended for me. That’s OK.
The Argonne National Lab communicates
in plain language about technical topics
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What do you talk about?!
Communicate value by providing useful
information to your audience!
Common types of content:!
• News updates!
• Research findings!
• Public service announcements!
• Emergency notifications!
This was the best I could come up with
Ostrich reads newspaper of caretaker
From Nationaal Archief on Flickr
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Your social media voice!
Adopting social media requires you to communicate faster, more
personably, and more directly with your audience!
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Be authentic!
Stay true to your mission and audience!
• Your audience has certain expectations of
you. Meet them. !
• Using social media should not change your
objectives or core content!
• Do not confuse your audience by sounding
like a different organization on different
channels!
Honest Abe
Abraham Lincoln, January 8, 1864
From The Library of Congress on Flickr
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Be more social!
Social contexts require that you sound more…!
• Casual – Your social media communications will
be mingled with personal messages from usersʼ
friends and family. Try to fit in.!
• Human – Social media are designed primarily to
allow people to socialize with people. !
• Concise – Your content on social media outlets
is forced to compete with countless personal
messages, jokes, and games. Get to the point. !
The White House competes
with baby pictures on Facebook
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Speak directly to your audience!
Use social media to speak directly to your
audience in their language!
• Social media allows you to communicate directly
with your audience, without going through
traditional media organizations!
• Traditional media may gather leads from your
social media communications, but always cater
to your primary audience!
• Posting too many press releases and other self
serving updates may alienate some users and A librarian's assistant telling a story
damage your reputation! from New York Public Library on Flickr
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Be consistent but flexible!
A consistent voice allows your followers and
fans to build a relationship with you over time!
• People typically subscribe to your social media
updates through an RSS feed or by “following”
or becoming a “fan.” Maintaining a consistent
voice over time will foster loyalty from your
subscribers.!
• You cannot anticipate or control the makeup of
your audience. Be prepared to adapt your voice
to your followersʼ needs as you learn more Be like a river, steady but adaptable
Deschutes River horseshoe
about them.! From Oregon State University Archives on Flickr
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Avoid social media jargon!
Social media may require some
abbreviations and new syntax, but being
understood is paramount!
• Always aspire to write clearly within restraints !
• Do not assume that your audience is as savvy
as you are!
• Being understood is paramount!!
Found via Kathy Sierra
This was ironic and embarrassing
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Social media voice best practices!
• Be authentic!
• Be timely and relevant!
• Be more social!
• Speak directly to your audience!
• Be consistent but flexible!
• Being understood is paramount!!
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Blogs!
Blog posts allow for long, rich
communication!
• Long prose provides plenty of room to
demonstrate personality and provide rich
information!
• Conversational prose can lead to inflated and
rambling paragraphs. Avoid this because your
readers are likely distracted by other tasks,
emails, and browser windows.!
• Remember William Strunk, Jr.ʼs axiom:
“Vigorous writing is concise.”!
TSA’s Blogger Bob has a great voice
http://www.tsa.gov/blog
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Blog example
The Globe Program!
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/scientistsblog/
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Blog example
Gov Gab!
http://blog.usa.gov/
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Blog example
The Justice Blog!
http://blogs.usdoj.gov/blog/
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Updates & tweets!
Facebook and Twitter updates require
vigorous writing!
• Character restraints on Twitter and Facebook
require careful editing and precise word choice !
• Each update should be focused on a single
topic!
• Social media updates are forced to compete
with a lot of other information, make yours
clear and valuable!
• Short form communication is here to stay!
• Remember that users are commonly
annoyed by too frequent posting!
Tweets have a hard time standing out
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Facebook example
FCC!
http://www.facebook.com/FCC
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Facebook example
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs!
http://www.facebook.com/VeteransAffairs
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Twitter example
CA.gov on Twitter!
http://twitter.com/CAgovernment
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Twitter example
USA.gov on Twitter!
http://twitter.com/USAgov
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Video, photos & podcasts!
Language used to describe multimedia
content should match your voice!
• Strengthen your multimedia content with clear
and explanatory titles and descriptions!
• Remember your audience when writing titles
and descriptions!
• What do they need to know about your
content?!
• Why does your content matter to them?!
• Seek to use keywords in titles and descriptions
to facilitate discovery through search!
Content titles and descriptions and video scripts
are opportunities to reinforce your voice
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Podcast example
NOAAʼs Making Waves!
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/podcast.html
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Podcast example
Inside the FBI!
http://www.fbi.gov/multimedia/media_main.htm
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Styleguides!
Styleguides and editorial guidelines help
maintain a consistent voice by training and The best journalists appreciate that
unifying staff! writing well is not a tiresome duty but a
necessity. This guide is intended as a
• Styleguides need executive support to be
small contribution to achieving that end.
effective!
It is, though, just what is says it is – a
• Create styleguides that address issues unique guide. It is not a collection of rules and
to your organization!
regulations. It is not a dictionary and it
• Styleguides should not be rule books! is not a list of what is acceptable and
• It is ok to leverage existing 3rd party what is not. The aim is to stimulate
styleguides! thought and to highlight areas of
• USA.gov and GobiernoUSA.gov have created potential difficulty.
guidelines specifically for social media From Why does the BBC need a style guide?
outreach!
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Practice, practice, practice!
Your voice will develop over time with
practice! Clear writing leads to clear thinking. You
don't know what you know until you try
• The relatively high volume of communication to express it. Good writing is partly a
required by social media provides many
matter of character. Instead of doing
opportunities to develop your voice!
what's easy for you, do what's easy for
• Stay focused on your mission and your your reader.
audience!
— Michael A. Covington, Professor of Computer
• Good writing is good social media writing, so Science at The University of Georgia
practice writing!!
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Styleguide resources!
Free styleguides available online!
Email me at jed@capturagroup.com
• The Economist Style Guide! for a copy of the latest USA.gov and
http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/! GobiernoUSA.gov social media editorial
• The BBC News Style Guide! guidelines.!
http://www.bbctraining.com/styleguide.asp!
• Wikipedia Manual of Style!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style!
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Writing resources!
Some of my favorite writing resources!
• WebContent.gov – Writing for the Web!
http://www.usa.gov/webcontent/managing_content/
writing_and_editing.shtml!
• PlainLanguage.gov!
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/!
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr.,
and E. B. White, 1918 !
• Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples,
1932!
• Politics and the English Language by George
Orwell, 1946!
• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy, 1985!
• Copyblogger ! Good writing is timeless
http://www.copyblogger.com/!