Cerebra

I’m not married and I don’t have kids. The closest I have ever come to being a mom is looking after my two ageing cats. Yet this information became completely irrelevant when I started working at Cerebra, and one of my clients was an FMCG product that was targeted at mothers trying to make better choices for their families. I had to make sure that the brand voice was that of a mother, speaking to other mothers.

The first thing when creating great content is understanding the brand as a whole. Who is the brand? Who are they speaking to? What are their objectives? I have dealt with brands that wanted a following and others that didn’t care about the numbers, but more about the engagement. The content you put together needs to align with the brand’s objective and end goal, and be informative and relevant. Sourcing content in the right places is imperative and an in depth look into the company is essential when managing their online communities. Family, friends and especially are great places to source content that is relevant and insightful.

The content you create and share is the incentive that draws in and holds your audience. It is this incentive to join a community that dictates the behaviour of the community, how they engage and where the community goes. Its importance cannot be overlooked.

Content must be exciting and draw the attention of the consumers. The question you should ask yourself is, “what does the audience want to know?” And “how can I achieve this?”. I also always ask myself “what would make me want to like this page, if it wasn’t my client?’ I would want the content to give me the information that I actually need. With regard to the FMCG brand that I managed, it meant helping mom’s with lunchbox suggestions, recipes, children’s activities and healthy tips.

Although the updates were meant to be informative, I also tried to increase engagement from them, through call-to-action posts and by asking for the mom’s views and opinions. Fans and followers like to be included in the pages, because it makes them feel like part of the community. We don't want to speak at them; we want to speak with them. This makes the brand voice more personable, as though you are having a conversation with the audience. The interaction and engagement of fans and followers is integral in building the brand and growing the communities.

Another important rule in understanding the brand’s voice is to know whether it’s formal or informal. It is very important to speak in the appropriate language. The voice of a financial institution is very different to that of a household product. However, informal does not mean slang and formal should not be condescending or un-engaging.

So this brings me to the most important rules we should all follow when creating content. Make sure your work is original and fresh. Get your community involved with the page and hopefully get it to self-regulate, where the fans interact with one another. That is one of the greatest achievements a brand can have. Do what’s best for the brand that you are representing. Your client’s objectives are what you should be trying to achieve, and with the right content you too can be a great content and community manager!