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Who are you as a small business? How to give your brand a voice customers want to listen to

It’s vital to establish your brand’s social voice, and to make sure it’s a voice that your customers want to listen to. Find out how businesses can leverage social tools to tell their brand stories in a way that engages customers.

4 min read

Leadership

Who are you as a small business? How to give your brand a voice customers want to listen to

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This post is sponsored by Facebook.

Communicating in a voice that represents your brand is vital for businesses of all sizes in today’s digital world. With social media, it has become easier than ever to hone your approach and reach customers using a voice and tone that represent what your business is all about.

In other words, customers want to be able to interact with brands the same way they interact with family and friends on social media. Today’s consumers have vast social networks of family and friends with voices that make for unique, authentic and interesting interactions via Facebook, Instagram and other platforms, and those consumers want to see that same authenticity and uniqueness from businesses — and businesses are getting the hint.

More than 90 million businesses rely on Facebook’s Pages tool to reach potential customers, the company said. Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of consumers like or follow business pages on Facebook, and almost all (97%) of social marketers use Facebook to interact with customers, according to a report from Sprout Social.

So how do businesses successfully utilize Facebook Pages to connect with customers through a unique brand voice? Facebook’s Product Marketing Manager Karen Lee offered some tips:

  • Share a photo. Photos are a quick and easy way to give your customers insight into your business, products and employees. These days, you don’t need an expensive camera or equipment to create visually stunning images, all business owners need is a mobile phone. Check out Facebook’s tips for getting creative with your phone.
  • Create a video. Video is a great way to bring your product or service to life, and the tactic has been shown to increase sales. It also gives businesses a way to show the personality behind the brand and add depth to your brand voice. People like getting to know the people behind the business, and video is a good forum for that.
  • Share a story. People now share 1 billion stories across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and Whatsapp every day. Stories are made for mobile, and they offer an easy way to humanize your business and engage your customers in an authentic and playful way.

What does this look like in the real world? Let’s examine how one business turned to its Facebook Page to give its brand a voice and grow its customer base:

Case study: Sasa Sushi

In a coastal city in Japan, Sasa Sushi has grown its food business from a local shop to a sushi destination — an achievement helped along by its Facebook Page. The eatery has worked to establish itself as a part of its local community where diners have been able to get fresh, seasonal sushi since 1968. But in 2012, owner Mieko Inada decided to take her brand’s persona outside the local community and broaden its reach via Facebook.

Sasa Sushi’s publishing strategy on its Facebook Page includes a mix of posts that highlight its seasonal and signature items, as well as its staff. Each week, Inada updates the business’s Facebook fans with images of fresh seafood and seasonal ingredients. And her posts include language that emphasizes the limited availability of some of the menu items, giving followers a sense of urgency when it comes to trying Sasa Sushi’s latest offerings. It also gives the brand a voice that conveys its status as a local institution with an exclusive, exciting menu.

Many of Sasa Sushi’s loyal customers engage with its Facebook posts, and diners often visit its Page to do things like make reservations. Today, more than half of new customers find the eatery via Facebook, nearly a third of people who visit Sasa Sushi travel to the area specifically to dine there and the ratio of visitors to local customers has increased by 2.25 times.

By utilizing tools like Facebook Pages, today’s businesses are in position to reach customers where they are already spending time and interacting with others. And by using Pages to share photos, videos and other engaging content, businesses can establish themselves as an extension of their customers’ social networks.