How you say something is just important as what you say. But how do you develop your writing tone?
What if I told you that tone isn’t all about lifting weights and eating healthy? You may be expecting some clickbait-y weight-loss diet scam right about now, but don’t fret—we’re talking about a different kind of tone. (Sorry to disappoint if you were hoping for some quick tips on how to get a hot bod!)
Writing tone is one of the number one tools a writer or editor can employ to draw in their audience. And this tool becomes all the more important as a self-employed writer or editor. So what’s the best writing tone to use in your self-promoting posts both on social platforms and your own website?
Would you ever go up to your CEO and say, “Hey dude, what’s good?” Or would you call up your best friend and say, “Hello, it’s nice to hear from you. I hope you are doing well”? Of course not! You adjust your speech based on things like who you’re talking with, what you’re talking about, and where you’re talking.
Importance of Writing Tone
Just as you don’t use the same tone in your day-to-day speech, you shouldn’t use the same tone on every platform. For instance, while your posts on Instagram can be casual and fun, your posts on LinkedIn should be a bit more professional.
People interpret tone differently, so while you might think that nifty fact you posted on your company’s Instagram story is interesting, your audience might see it as overly stuffy—especially for an Instagram story. In my own research, I gathered 20 samples of posts from two different editors: five posts from each editor's Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and website. I then separated these posts into four different tones: professional self-promotional, casual self-promotional, professional neutral, and casual neutral.
After coding my data, I asked an independent coder to also code the data. I found that we were unable to interpret the 40 excerpts of posts (both self-promoting and non-self-promoting) in the same way (the Cohen’s kappa being .57 out of 1). Although the results might also suggest that the codebook did not provide enough data for the coders to determine the tone reliably, they might also suggest that tone can be interpreted in many different ways, making it crucial for a company to be as distinct as possible in their tone choice on different platforms.
Tips for Creating Your Writing Tone
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when deciding what writing tone to use for your business posts and how to make your tone distinct between platforms:
Audience
Perhaps the most important factor to keep in mind as you’re writing any content for your company is the audience. Each platform you post on will have a slightly different audience, so be aware of who you’re trying to target on Instagram, versus LinkedIn, versus your company blog.
When deciding who your audience is, MailChimp recommends looking at the following:
- Your audience’s demographics
- Your audience’s location
- Your audience’s interests
- Your audience’s typical communication channels
As you answer these questions, you’ll have a better idea of what writing tone to choose to reach that audience. For instance, if your audience is largely upper-class, middle-aged, white males who live in suburban areas, have an interest in business and finance, and communicate in a professional way with one another, you know that you likely won’t reach them through a humorous Instagram post. Instead, you would make a post on LinkedIn or Facebook using a more professional, matter-of-fact tone.
Content
Content can also make or break the success of your promotional posts. If your content isn’t relevant to your target audience, your post won’t generate interaction. As you determine who your audience is, be sure your content aligns with their demographics, interests, and views. The type of tone you use to discuss this content is also important.
For instance, if your target audience is the middle-aged white man from the example used above, you shouldn’t make a joke about how middle-aged people bought their now $4 million dollar homes for $100k in 1999 while Millennials can hardly afford rent. Instead, you could post something humorous about annoying coworkers or micromanaging bosses. What content you choose to post and the tone you use to convey that content will make or break your post’s success.
Word Choice
As Purdue University discusses, word choice can contribute greatly to the tone of your posts. Regardless of which platform you're posting on, you want your tone to be accessible, and word choice can help facilitate this. If you use overly stuffy jargon, for instance, your audience (unless the audience is composed solely of academic professionals) will lose interest quickly in what you have to say.
Just like going to the gym, building your writing tone takes good form (good foundation) and exercise (practice). Tone can be a tricky thing to develop as a self-promoting writer and editor, but as you focus on these three tips, you’ll have a good foundation upon which to build. Just remember to always keep in mind your audience, their attitudes toward certain topics, and the platform you use and you’ll have a refined, distinct tone in no time!