Field Testing Different Voices on Social Media

This is a quick and dirty run down on how to test different tones of voice on your social platforms to find the one that best speaks to your audience. Here it goes:

Step 1: Write a social media post with a call to action that you can measure (link to website, follow request, etc.). You can pick a graphic to go with it too. If you want more ideas about what your voice could sound like, read our post on Finding Your Brand's Voice.

Step 2: Rewrite that post in another tone but with the same intent. For example, if it sounded professional maybe make it more informal or friendly. If it was already playful try more of a businesslike angle.

Step 2.5: (If you want, do this a third and fourth time in yet another tone.)

Step 3: Now go to your ad’s platform of choice (Meta Ads Manager, Twitter Ads, etc.) and create an ad for each of the tones you are wanting to test. This doesn't need to break the budget! It can be as little as $10/per test post spent over 3 to 4 days. Just don’t be too cheap because you might not get enough data to give you accurate insights.

Step 4: Next is the important part: make sure you use EXACTLY THE SAME details for each ad. That means the same run date and time, audience, hashtags, call to action, graphic (if applicable), and link (if applicable). In short, the only thing that should be different is the text you've applied the different tones to.

Step 5: Post the ads and don’t run interference on them. Resist sharing, liking or commenting on any of them so they all have equal opportunity for the same organic pick-up.

Step 6: At the end of the test period, analyze the data! If it’s not clear which tone was the winner, try the experiment again with a different post and change up the call to action, photo or posting time. Or you might need to spend a bit more to get more data.

Now go!

FYI – This method works to test other content as well 😉. Use the same text and test different graphics or videos to see which people interact with more. Or, change up the hashtags to see which ones better hit your target audience.

If you're just starting out, or starting over, on social media, here are a few tips to get the ball rolling.