Social media has entered our lives at a rapid pace, and at times it can feel like there is always a new platform with a new target audience and strategy entering the market. Nowadays some companies can find themselves managing upwards of 4 platforms at a time.
Although you may have developed the perfect message or selling point to push out to your audience on social media, it’s important to note that each platform differentiates from one another and will not only have different users, but different expectations.
Knowing how to differentiate your tone of voice and amplify your message on each platform is essential.
The benefit of being visible on different platforms is so you can reach a wider range of people and show off different aspects of your business. Also, it’s good to note that not every piece of content you have needs to be shared everywhere, it’s not always suitable for every platform.
Below we have displayed how you should vary your tone of voice to suit the top 3 social media platforms, as well as what’s expected for each one.
LinkedIn is best used for professional networking. A lot of its shared content is about company news, jobs and professional content.
LinkedIn is great to show off some professional achievements, company culture and can also focus on articles and events happening within your business.
As LinkedIn is a professional networking site, the tone of voice used should be predominately professional and informative, rather than casual, one worded posts.
LinkedIn is great for sharing big company updates, or a story about company culture, but it’s also very welcoming for people to post personal updates on their career and/or personal life, as long as the element of professionalism is still there.
Tagging colleagues and using hashtags is effective on LinkedIn as it is a platform where people follow hashtag trends. Tagging is essential for impressions as it can increase the amount of engagement and shared posts from other people/businesses. The more engagement/shares, the more your business is in users’ newsfeeds.
According to a report from Kinsta, of the 740 million members using LinkedIn, 57% of users are men, and interestingly, millennials make up over 60% of LinkedIn’s user base.
In regards to the best time to post on LinkedIn, there are a few studies that have reported on this, but overall, we can see that it depends on your industry and audience. Here are a few recommendations of the best times to post:
- Wednesday’s between 10am -12pm, according to HubSpot.
- Wednesday’s from 8am – 10am and at 12pm; Thursdays at 9am and between 1pm – 2pm and Fridays at 9am, according to Sprout Social.
- Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays between 7 am–8:30 am and 5 pm–6 pm, according to Buffer.
- 7am – 8am, 12pm, and 5pm – 6pm, according to Quintly.
Facebook is a more informal platform where you may be able to reach those who aren’t on LinkedIn but still need your goods/services.
With Facebook being the largest used social media platform, it’s a great place to share your business, but it’s important to do this right. As Facebook is more relaxed, the tone of voice should be informal, casual, and engaging.
Facebook is extremely dependent on engaging, visually appealing content, with videos being widely popular on the platform. If you’re posting an article or blog, make sure it’s paired with a nice image.
A great way to keep your audience engaged with your videos, is to allow caption generation. Captions not only make it easier to catch and keep your audience’s attention, but it’s reported by Facebook for Business, that videos with captions have a longer viewing time by an average of 12%.
Instagram is mainly a visual platform, before you think about your tone of voice, you must ensure that the content you’re posting is presentable and aesthetic.
Regarding the tone of voice, Instagram is extremely fast paced and casual, so short and sharp, lighthearted captions are best. Emoji’s and hashtags are also welcomed and effective.
If you want to push out more information, it would be most effective to have the caption short and lead them to an external link, such as a link in bio, to get more information.
Instagram is used more for the imagery with a snippet caption, so make sure your tone of voice is casual, yet engaging, enough so that people want to click on your bio to read more.
Shed Connect has a social media team that regularly advices and strategies how clients should approach each social media platform to best meet their objectives.
If you would like to discuss your company’s social media, please contact Kristen Assaad via emailing Kristen.assaad@shedconnect.com.
