9 minute read
Social Media Style Guide
Social media channels
Tone of voice
Advertisement
Written voice
Emoji usage
Hashtags
LinkedIn content guide
Facebook content guide
Twitter content guide
Instagram content guide
YouTube content guide
How we engage with our customers
Imagery
Tone of voice
What is the purpose of social media platforms? They are used to educate, engage, and to sell. Therefore, we need to make our posts interesting, informative, and compelling.
We can do this by using snappy sentences, creating content for all user types (novice to expert) and being unique to stand out from other brands.
Caring
Home emergencies can often be frustrating, we want to give our customers peace of mind.
Engaging
We want people to be actively communicating with us, and we will create content to please all users.
Warm
Fun
Friendly
We aim to respond to all comments in a kind manner.
We aim to be approachable, kind and genuine in every interaction with our customers.
Although we provide home emergency services, we want to amuse, excite, and inspire our customers.
Written voice
Spelling: Text speak may be used on the appropriate platforms (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram but not Linkedin). Make sure your posts are readable.
Abbreviations: (OMG, IDK) This should be platform-appropriate (used onTwitter, Facebook and Instagram, TikTok but not LinkedIn). Don’t overuse these!
Try to make sure your post is within the style of the platform you are using, with LinkedIn being the most professional and TikTok being the most informal.
Have fun, but remember you are representing SES Home Services, so avoid negativity, rudeness and abruptness.
Examples of positive emojis
Emoji usage
Emoticons have become an integral part of our day to day communication! They have evolved to become a universal language of their own.
Please note that the connotations behind emojis frequently change, so be careful how you use them.
Do not allow emojis to interfere with clear communication.
Don’t over-use them!
Smiling Happiness, agreement,
Examples of negative emojis
Laughing
Enjoyment.
Winking
Friendly, playful.
Swearing
Abuse or profanity.
Angry Bad tempered, cross.
Angelic
Angelic, trustworthy.
Sunglasses Cool, it’s all good.
Vomiting
Something is making you sick.
Yawning Bored.
Blushing
Accepting a compliment.
Snorting
Derision, annoyance.
Snoring
Very bored.
Hashtags (#)
We use Hashtags to gain visibility and boost social media engagement. Hashtags should always be one word with no spaces, however we can use hashtags that are spaced-out, only if they are already trending and are relevant to the business. Try to avoid using all uppercase when Hashtagging (all-caps is generally considered to be shouting).
General Hashtags that SES HomeServices should use:
#SEShomeservices
This should always appear with SES in capitals as per the printed and online material.
#Insurancecover #Drainage
#Engineer #Heating
#Electricalappliance #Radiator
#Plumbing #Boilers #Eco-friendly
#Emergency #Surrey #Career
Rules
Don’t just hashtag everything and anything it is important to only use hashtags that are relevant to the business.
Keep hashtags simple and relevant
Don’t overuse hashtag, use a variety based on the content that is being uploaded.
Try and use a variety of different hashtags when creating posts and don’t overuse the same hashtag over and over again.
LinkedIn content guide
LinkedIn is a professional platform for businesses to showcase and promote their acheivements to other businesses and professionals.
LinkedIn has an unlimited word count, so businesses are able to upload longer content. Language should be more formal, avoiding abbreviations, emoticons and text-speak.
The types of content which can be found on LinkedIn are:
• Job adverts
• Reshare industry news
• National Awareness days
• Videos of staff
Content: Interaction between team members and the business is encouraged.
Facebook content guide
Businesses use Facebook to engage with customers, promoting products and services. Facebook allows posts of up to 60,000 characters, which is perfect for sharing longer content. Be experimental, energise your writing style using abbreviations, emoticons and text-speak, but remember you are representing SES Home Services. The types of content which can be found on Facebook are:
• Blog posts
• Top tips
• Videos - Staff
• Statistics and facts
• Infographics
• How to guides
• Did you know
• Competitions
• Product/Service awareness
• Reshare industry news
• Customer reviews
• Fill in the blanks
• Q&A thread
• National Awareness days
Content: Pinned post promoting SES Home Services.
Twitter content guide
Twitter is a social networking and news site for people to share their thoughts to a mass audience.
Twitter has a very limited word count of 280 characters. Be engaging, use abbreviations, emoticons and text-speak, but remember this will depend on the content you are tweeting.
The types of content which can be found on Twitter are:
• National Awareness days
• Videos of staff
• Blog posts
• Top tips
• Videos - Staff
• Statistics and facts
• Infographics
• How to guides
• Did you know
• Competitions
• Product/Service awareness
• Reshare industry news
• Customer reviews
• Fill in the blanks
• Q&A thread
• National Awareness days
Content: Poll used to ask the audience questions or opinions.
Instagram content guide
We use Instagram to demonstrate our products and services.
The types of content which can be found on Instagram are:
• How to guides
• Photos
Content: Photos of products and candid staff or events shots.
YouTube content guide
SES Home Services use YouTube to educate and inform our users. Uploads to YouTube with be video based with the opportunity to livestream events to the public.
The types of content which can be found on YouTube are:
• Top tips
• Videos
• How to guides
How We Engage With Our Customers
Imagery
SES Home Services uses a range of photographic images for both printed and online communications. Here are some fundamentals to bear in mind when choosing your image:
If an image of a home is required, it should be:
• Indoors, cosy, relaxing
If an image of an appliance is required, it should be:
• Professional, up-to-date
If an image of a person is required, it should be:
• Inclusive, friendly, trustworthy
• Looking directly into the camera or
• A member of the SES staff (if applicable).
If an image of tools/pipes is required, it should be:
• Professional, use interesting angles, and close depth of field.
List of suggested websites (both stock and supplier): https://www.worcester-bosch.co.uk/professional/support/image-library https://www.viessmann.family/en/newsroom/multimedia www.shutterstock.com (login details available if applicable).
General voice
Values and tone
Delivery
Channel considerations
Written voice
Consistency
Plain English
Internal imagery
General voice
Our internal tone of voice shapes who we are with our colleagues and teams. It is how we speak to each other, from within teams to how the business communicates with all employees. The internal tone of voice differs from how we speak to customers. It can be more informal and familiar depending on context.
It is important as it builds consistency, trust and camaraderie between all levels of the company, and supports us and our teams to deliver important messages in the most appropriate way.
Conveying tone
This can be with spoken words, writing, and even internal imagery and branding.
Adapting tone
We can adapt tone depending on the message and the audience e.g. the difference between small news pieces to your team as opposed to a formal briefing from the leadership.
Values and tone
It is important to remain consistent in our communication style across our teams, and that our company values inform how we talk to each other, so we live and breathe these as we also convey them outwards. There are certain principles that we should embody when communicating with each other.
Respect
As colleagues, we must always talk to each other in a respectful manner.
Compassion
We are all one team, so must talk to each other in an understanding way.
Honest
We owe it to each other to be open and honest. This does not mean being rude though!
Inclusive:
We must always consider all colleagues and needs. This also applies to location, whether in the office or in the field.
Challenge
We should feel comfortable to provide suitable challenge to each other, provided it is in a respectful and empathetic way.
Delivery
Within the working environment (across both field and office), we should consider the delivery of a message, depending on the content being communicated, by whom and the optimum channel.
Speaking to your team in a small meeting requires a less formal tone than a member of the leadership team addressing the company. Make sure to adopt a level of formality appropriate to each situation, audience and the nature of the communication.
Choose your channel
Consider that the personal approach is often better than the written one. Why send an email when you can have a chat?
Examples of channels
Conversation, colleague briefing, meeting, email, presentation, written content/intranet post.
Channel considerations
Is a message most effectively delivered by email, instant message or presentation? Can it be delivered by a simple conversation instead? People naturally skim digital writing, so keep content brief and razor-sharp. Use short paragraphs. If there’s a lot to impart, break your message up by using subheadings, lists, bullets etc.
Briefings and presentations are a great way to convey important messages to a group of people and allows for necessary interaction. Use our branded template for a presentation and try to keep slides as clean as possible. Less is more!
Key phrases
Drive these home by highlighting them in bold. Think, if this message was to boil down to one or two takeaway sentences, what would they be?
Referring to colleagues: Give their full name and title in the first instance, and highlight in bold. Use their first name for all additional references.
Written voice
Our full name is SES Home Services. It is acceptable to abbreviate this to Home Services, SES HS or just HS for internal communications. It is important to remember tone, delivery and channel with our written voice, as described in the previous sections.
Focus your message
Think like a newspaper editor - you need to get the most important message across first and foremost. You can achieve this by creating a hierarchy of information.
Lead with the main point or the most important content, in sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages.
Abbreviations and acronyms
Spell it out the first time you mention it, then use the short version for all other references. If the abbreviation isn’t clearly related to the full version, specify in parentheses.
Capitalisation
We use different forms of capitalisation. Title case capitalises the first letter of every word except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. Sentence case capitalises the first letter of the first word. When writing an email address or URL, use lowercase.
bob.the.builder@seshomeservices.co.uk
Don’t capitalise random words in the middle of sentences.
Write for all readers
Some people read every word you write, others just skim. By grouping related ideas together and using descriptive headers and sub-headers, you can ensure everyone understands what you are telling them.
Consistency
When writing, it is good to keep consistency with how we write dates, numerals, and punctuation. Here are some tips to remember: Contractions - they’re great! They give your writing an approachable and friendly tone. Percentages - use the % symbol instead of spelling out “percent”.
Dates - use the format ‘Day Date Year’. There is no need to use superscript after the date e.g. Wednesday 08 June, not Weds 8th June.
& - please use ‘and’ instead of ‘&’.
Exclamation marks
Use exclamation marks sparingly and never more than one at a time. They’re like highfives: A well-timed one is great but too many can be annoying. If you are using them to make your writing sound exciting, go back and change the language to be more exciting not the punctuation.
Never use exclamation marks in failure messages or alerts. When in doubt, avoid.
Numbers
Spell out a number when it begins a sentence. Otherwise, use the numeral. “Ten new employees started on Monday and 12 start next week.”
If it’s an expression that typically uses spelled-out numbers, leave them that way.
Ranges and spans
Use a hyphen (-) to indicate a range or span of numbers. It takes 20-30 days.
Time
Use numerals and am or pm, with a space in between. Don’t use minutes for on-the hour time. Use a hyphen between times to indicate a time period.
Plain English
The Plain English Campaign was set up in 1979 and believes that everyone should have access to clear and concise information.
At every moment you should take the opportunity to write for everyone, simply and to the point. This is how we will build trust with our customers.
We follow the principles of the Plain English Campaign, outlined on the right.
Americanisms: All our spelling should be in UK English, not American English. Some word processing software can default to the incorrect proofing language.
‘organise’ not ‘organize’
‘colour’ not ‘color’
‘centre’ not ‘center’
Be aware! We use both ‘metre’ (as a measurement of distance) and ‘meter’ (a measuring instrument, as in ‘water meter’).
Grammar
We value good grammar but don’t get caught up in the myths. You can start a sentence with: and, but, because, so or however. You can split infinitives. So you can say “to boldly go.” You can end a sentence with a preposition. In fact, it is something we should stand up for.
And you can use the same word twice in a sentence if you can’t find a better word.
Remember: Use short sentences. Use active verbs. Clear use of ‘you’ and ‘we’. Use the simplest words that are fit for purpose. Give instructions when needed.
Keep it concise
Get to the heart of your message as efficiently as possible. For if you use too many words and unnecessarily extended words in a long sentence then there is absolutely every chance you’ll confuse your audience and the essence of you well-laboured message will be forever lost.
Internal imagery
The imagery used in our social media communications incorporates a flat illustration style, depicting engineers and office staff. These are to use our brand colour swatches, and can be adapted to reflect the context.
