Once you have your brand voice set up and strategically planned, your next step is to develop the brand’s persona. These two are tightly related. Your brand voice puts into a plan what your brand speaks about or doesn’t speak about. It makes it easy for anyone on the team to serve as the brand online and have the voice sound almost the same each time it communicates with someone. This is the business part of your social media plan.
But what’s also important is to determine and plan out the persona of your brand. The persona is what makes your brand human. Remember, the important part about social media is not the media part – it’s the social part.
Two-way conversation is what is critical in social. It was created for people to converse back and forth with each other. Social media should allow people the opportunity to speak directly with someone online – a real person, not something created by AI, and not just a “brand voice.” The person behind the keyboard should be a real, authentic, approachable person. It should not be someone who consistently just sells and pushes.
When we develop personas for clients, there is a process for it. It’s not rocket science, but it is important to put some thought and strategy into it. Think about who the current client is, as well as the potential client: who is this person? What do they like to do? What kind of people use your product or service and how can you make yourself relatable as a person, within that standard brand voice you already created? We go so far as to ask questions like those listed below when determining the persona of the person behind the keyboard:
- What is the gender and age of this person? Or do they not have a gender or age? Are they relatable to a wider market than one demographic?
- Do they live in a metropolitan area or out in the suburbs?
- Do they exercise?
- Do they drink?
- Coffee or tea?
- Bottled water or tap?
- Coke or Pepsi? Or some Diet version of one of those?
- Where do they shop?
- What kind of food do they have in their fridge?
- Are they more a Costco shopper or Trader Joe’s?
These kind of questions help to develop a person. Even if we never use details listed here in the content (because it doesn’t all fit into the brand), it helps us to imagine we are that person when we are creating content and engaging with our community online.
Do you remember the 1980s movie Weird Science? Think of this process like that movie – creating a person by punching in decisions to your computer.
As you begin to put together your brand voice and persona, make sure to start engaging with me online. Let’s see how it’s sounding!
Want regular tips straight from the strategy we build for clients? Sign up for my e-newsletter here.
by 
