Guide to Developing a Brand Persona Strategy

While working at advertising agencies and in-house departments, I’ve often handled multiple social media accounts, each with a different voice, tone, and persona. In addition, the larger brands I’ve worked with often have a social persona guide detailing every aspect of how that brand interacts with its social media audience.

Defining a Brand Personality and Voice

One exercise that can help you develop your voice is playing pretend. Write a couple of situations and try to find possible answers to each. This works better in a group setting if you have access to a professional copywriter; even better! The grid below exemplifies how to better shape and define your brand personality. Try asking people outside your marketing or communications area, and ask them what your brand would wear to an event, eat for lunch, hang out with and do on a day off. This can help you better visualize and craft your voice.

The following shows an example of Florida International University’s brand voice. The voice will shift depending on the platform. Our captions on Instagram and TikTok are more youth-focused than on other platforms. The Brand Personality Dimensions by Jennifer Aaker goes hand in hand with this exercise. Consider reviewing and using it as a guide to define your voice tone.

FIU Brand Voice

Questions Needing Answers

To help you further shape your brand personality, consider answering the following questions:

Which acronyms do you use, and which ones do you avoid?
Do you vary your tone according to audience or platform? If so, how much?
Will you use generational slang? How much of it? Will using too much Gen Z language make you sound like you are trying too hard or sound authentic?
What are your Top 5 go-to emojis?
Is your tone formal or informal?
Are you open to interacting in other languages?
Will you skirt around confrontation? Or clarify misconceptions quickly?
Do you insert yourself in third-party conversations or keep them in your community?
Will you use hashtags freely or stick to a selection?
Will you answer the same questions once or provide answers individually?

I hope this guide gets you on your way to defining your brand voice. Remember, not everyone can be Wendy’s or Burger King on Twitter. They worked for a long time to get where they were! Share your thoughts and questions in the comments.