No, this blog is not the synopsis of a Hilary Duff movie, nor is it an inspirational post about sticking up to your boss. This post is about writing a real, relatable story and creating a character that’s likable, believable, and dynamic.

Social media has fundamentally changed the way that businesses and consumers interact. Corporations are no longer the faceless, stagnant operations that they once were. They are fluid and engaging entities that respond and adapt to customers in real time. Because of the importance of these interactions, 78% of CEO’s said better customer engagement was a social media business objective, according to an IBM survey of more than 1700 global CEOs.

The most fundamental way to connect to your fans is by creating a believable and likable voice. Through marketing efforts – especially social media marketing — companies can create a character for themselves that gives their brand a personality. This “personality” allows brands to interact with customers not as an organization trying to get their money, but more like a friend. This “friendship” between brands and fans is critical to establishing both trust and loyalty.

While it can be tempting to add a few peppy exclamation points to the end of your tweets and call it a success, a truly engaging brand voice requires a fair deal of thought and commitment. After spending an extensive amount of my workday on TrackMaven looking at how the best brands interact across various marketing channels, I’ve boiled their successes down to a simple strategy: emulate the ideal best friend of your average customer. To illustrate this strategy and its effectiveness, here are a few standout examples of brands with unique brand voices.

The Class Clowns: Comedic Brand Characters

If I learned anything in high school, it is that everyone loves a class clown. And if your brand can pull off being legitimately funny, then that’s a great way to “make friends” with your fans. Brands like Old Spice and Hot Pockets know their audiences, which are fairly split between fratty 20-year-olds and middle-aged men with beards, who would no doubt appreciate humorous tweets and interact in kind.

However, both of these brands also understand that “funny” is not a voice. They could have a team of 5 hilarious people running their Twitter account, but if the personality isn’t cohesive, it won’t work. Old Spice is one of the best brands at creating a character. They ask, who does the average Old Spice user want to be friends with? The answer is easy: someone who is a little bit macho, but still humble and funny about it. Old Spice takes on these characteristics and adds a distinct, slightly bizarre personality to their tweets, which is in line with their TV commercials.

Hot Pockets has a similar audience to Old Spice, though instead of creating an irreverent, macho character, they’ve taken on the personality of the funny but uncomfortably sexual friend. You know, that guy who used to throw hot pockets at people out of his college dorm window. (Yes, I’ve know people to do that.)

These might seem like weird things for a company to tweet, but they get results; Old Spice has 222,000 followers compared to Gillette’s 52,200, Degree Men’s 18,100, and even Axe’s 128,000 followers.

A Strong, Independent Woman: Inspirational Campaigns

Having a funny voice doesn’t work for every brand. For products that are more serious or even just less ridiculous, constant humor can seem unnatural. However, without blatant humor as the goal, it can be difficult to form a distinct personality. Pantene and Dove are good examples of companies that have formed more complex personas.

According to TrackMaven data, Pantene’s average followers on social media are women spread out across all ages. On Twitter, Pantene has taken the girly girl approach to their brand’s character. In fact, Pantene’s twitter sounds like it is the kind of friend you would expect your favorite shampoo to be if it were to magically come alive.

This may make the brand relatable to a lot of its audience, but doesn’t make me take it seriously on its own. After all, the average woman doesn’t want a best friend who is entirely superficial: she wants someone she can respect, and relate to on a deeper level. To accommodate this, Pantene has created a much more complex personality through its Facebook and media campaigns.

One of my favorite ads of the year was Pantene’s #shinestrong campaign, which it originally released in the Philippines before it went viral in the U.S. The campaign, which beautifully addresses double standards women face in the workforce, got praise from many influential women across the U.S., including Sheryl Sandberg.

The first time I reached the end of the ad and saw that it was made by Pantene, I was a little skeptical. The obvious question that I and many others asked was, what do hair products have to do with women’s equality? However, it seems I was looking at the ad in the completely wrong way; the ad isn’t about making you want to have shiny hair, or even showing that the company is dedicated to important issues. This ad is about redefining the character of Pantene; it’s about Pantene standing up for itself as a strong, independent woman in a hypocritical world.

If you are shaking your head right now, it’s probably because you know that Pantene is, in fact, a corporation, and not a strong, independent woman. Pantene realized that brands can only be fully humanized when they take on not just human humor, but human struggles as well.

In the modern world, Pantene is not just a company but a friend; a woman who, like most women in the United States, faces issues with gender equality. The fact that some watchers may subconsciously associate shiny hair with strength and perseverance is a bonus. Pantene has carried this image into their Facebook presence.

Below are two of Pantene’s most recent posts on their Facebook page. The post on the left was the third most engaging post this month. The post on the right was the 14th most engaging post of the entire year. In fact, of all the Facebook posts that Pantene makes in a given year, the one that got the most engagement featured a quote by Sheryl Sandberg; “I’m not telling women to be like men. I’m telling us to evaluate what men and women do in the workforce and at home without the gender bias.”

This adoption of causes has extended beyond Pantene. Dove recently released its “True Beauty” campaign, in which it used a forensic artist to show women how they saw themselves versus how others described them. Likewise, Aerie recently released its #aeriereal campaign in which it stopped using Photoshop on its underwear models to encourage girls to have a healthy body image.

The beauty in these campaigns is the subtlety. Even though Dove’s character is also inspirational for women, it is inspirational in a different way. While Pantene is a fashion-savvy, high-power woman with confidence, Dove is the best friend or maternal figure, telling you that you’re beautiful no matter what you think. They have done an excellent job carrying this voice to their Twitter.

These ads reframe beauty products not as a tool of vanity, or of trying to attract men, but as a tool of empowerment. They create brands that women around the world not only trust but respect, because the brands are fighting alongside them.

Takeaways:

I don’t want you to leave this blog post feeling like you have to start an inspirational campaign or hire a comedian to run your Twitter account. Each successful brand has a different voice to encompass its company, and there is no “right” style to use. Oreo is playfully funny, while Chanel is suave and to the point. (I didn’t see a single exclamation point in any of their tweets.) Nike operates in short, active sentences, while Starbucks is all about being artsy and creative. Each of these brands has decided “who” it is and what it stands for.

The common thread is that all these brands expand beyond overtly promoting their product in their social media. They comment on things their fans might be interested in, use snappy one-liners (funny or inspirational), and they express themselves as people, not just as another platform for ads. Here are some simple questions to help guide the process of establishing an effective brand voice:

• Who is your audience, and how does it differ across platforms?

  It is important to consider your target audience, and refer back to the buyer personas that I’m sure your company has spent time developing. One thing to remember is that your average user on Twitter (or Facebook, or Instagram) is not necessarily your average user in general. Make sure you understand the varying demographics across social networks, and how each relates to your buyer personas.

• Who does your user want to be their best friend?

  Contrary to what one might think, you don’t want to talk to your users as themselves. You want to create the persona of someone who your fans would love to hang out with, and in some cases, would love to be.

• How can you make your brand voice unique and complex?

  It’s easy to hire a comedian to run your social media marketing and call it a day, but truly great brand characters extend beyond the vague adjectives of “funny” or “upbeat!” The best characters are like people: they have their own unique manor of speaking, and care about things beyond just the product.

For more tips on forming a brand voice visit our blog post “Branding Strategy: 3 Steps to Identify Your Brand Voice”.

Trying to find even more ways to find your brand voice and the most effective strategies behind it? TrackMaven makes it easy to identify the most effective strategies for branding your content. Begin the process today!