However, when inducting new staff, it’s good to expand on a document like this, giving plentiful examples of exchanges where tone of voice was appropriate.

Before you accuse me of peddling the barest of advice, I’ve made an effort to fill out this form on behalf of Econsultancy (though I hasten to add, I do not manage Twitter for our brand).

It was challenging (and fun) to narrow down brand values and personality, and I found it a useful activity.

With company cultures changing in the face of digital products and services, an exercise like this could even be a handy tool during recruitment, to see which applicants understand the true nature of a brand.

Let me know if you have any comments or embellishments (it is rather slim), and try to resist making fun of my own answers.

A simple tone-of-voice template (scroll down to see my attempt at completing the form for Econsultancy)

tone of voice template

Mission statement

‘Econsultancy’s mission is to help our customers achieve excellence in digital business, marketing and ecommerce.’

(However, instead of trying to over-simplify what we do and boil it down to a strapline, let’s embrace it, we’re many things.)

Twitter bio

‘Econsultancy publishes independent research, analysis and advice on digital marketing, social media, ecommerce, SEO, mobile and tech for businesses.’

Brand values 

  • Practical.
  • Independent.
  • Passionate.

Brand personality

  • Unpretentious.
  • Helpful.
  • Open.

Audience

  • UK > US > APAC.
  • Client-side > agency-side.
  • C-suite
  • Many different market sectors.

What do we tweet about?

  • Our research and blog content.
  • Our events and training courses.
  • Our employees.
  • Our community.
  • Web and pop culture (on Fridays).
  • GIFs

Banned words?

Write like this…

Here are a number of examples of some recent tweets where our tone of voice was in line with what I expect from our brand.

Not like this…

I thought I would include some tweets by some of Econsultancy’s notional competitors here.

Far from being snarky, I’ve done this to emphasise the difference between our tone of voice and others in slightly different parts of market.

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So, there you go, that’s it. Completely obvious or a valuable exercise? I suppose it depends on how well you already know your brand.

If you’re interested in training, see our course in Online Copywriting.