So, you’ve got an ad agency and you’ve got a few in-house copywriters. Each of these finely polished wordsmiths have been banging on keys for various brands to develop branded copy that sounds “curiously effervescent” or “approachably sexy.” I know, I started in this business as a copywriter myself. I’ve also seen first hand how dangerous it can be to set your brochure monkey lose on your social communications.
Think of your Dad if you ever accompanied him on “take your kid to work day” or if you caught him on a work-related phone call during the weekend. Even as kids, we could all sense the change in his tone and voice. The somewhat fake sincerity combined with a quarter octave lowering of the voice made him sound more official and authoritative. Likewise, after my mother started her own business, her voice would take on a smoother and butterier tone than when she was asking my brother or me about our teachers.
The point is you can’t use your brochure or even web copy style when communicating with customers and prospects via social media. We’re all trained to expect marketing speak. We all tense up a bit when we pick up that brochure, knowing full well that the words we read have been spun to draw us into a branded web. This is your dad ad work type copy.
When engaged with a social outlet like Facebook, people generally have their guard down. Messages are short, informal and likeable without being too flowery or obviously engineered. This is your dad on the porch, bouncing you on his knee. Now, imagine if he started talking to you in his work voice, attempting to convince you to do the dishes. You wouldn’t like it, would you?
There’s no quicker way to raise someone’s guard than to try to sell to him or her when in a comfortable environment. The backlash can be dangerous to your long-term prospects of forming relationships. I recommend undergoing a copy voice exercise prior to any major social media engagement. It’s ok to pull copy points from existing collateral, but do NOT regurgitate existing copy. It just looks lazy.
I grabbed this clip from my favorite childhood show to illustrate the point.
