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Writing for User eXperience: Imposter Alert!

 2 years ago
source link: https://uxplanet.org/writing-for-user-experience-imposter-alert-a13a7d2b6f9c
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Writing for User eXperience: Imposter Alert!

The importance of a consistent brand voice.

A photo of a man holding a megaphone
Photo by Pressmaster from Pexels

It was a normal evening with me scrolling, double-clicking, and texting, making the most out of the social media space, and letting out giggles, and forced air through my nostrils to acknowledge the comedy that comes with most posts.

But then I saw something…

Michael’s phone was stolen…

…kindly discard any messages from his number…

…someone is using his number to message people, asking them for money urgently.

Hmmm, concerning! But this message helped raise alarm early enough, and the phone is back with Michael.

Now let’s take things back, and talk about a very significant factor that’s helped Michael here; his voice.

Voice isn’t just restricted to how sounds come out from our mouths. It also entails every aspect of our communication, and how people perceive it.

There’s a way people you chat, talk, post, or relate with perceive your communication style; the things you would say and the things you wouldn’t normally say. And that’s a very significant part of how they see you, and how open they are to relate with you further.

This is why it is very important that you are consistent with your communication.

Consistency helps give people scope of what to expect from you. And when they know what to expect, it helps

  • filter out those who don’t agree with your values.
  • improve the confidence of like-minded people when communicating with you.
  • build trust, because trust comes from the certainty that you’d get something you expect.

Consistency in communication is what makes people see a tweet and say “She’s been hacked.” Because that tweet deviates from the regular line of the person’s interactions.

Michael’s consistency in communication is what raised an alarm when several people got messages from his number asking them for money urgently. That’s because normally, Michael would not message many people asking them for money urgently.

On the other, inconsistency in communication makes people clueless about what to expect, so they’re not particularly surprised about what they get. Honestly, nobody likes an inconsistent person, in communication and beyond. Nobody likes an inconsistent relative, friend, or lover. We always want to be able to say “This isn’t you.” when the person is acting differently, and not hold our breaths clueless about whatever act the person would pull with the rise of a new day.

Now let’s relate consistency to brand voice to highlight its significance. When a brand has an inconsistent or undefined voice, users would never know what to expect. That’s bad because it could make impersonation very easy.

Let’s say a bank is inconsistent with its communication. It would be very easy for a random person to send something like

Hey, I’m a representative to XYZ Bank and we’re doing a routine check of cards. Send your card details to this number for verification.

and recipients of this message would not be alarmed by it.

But if there is consistency with the brand voice, the customers would be very familiar with the bank’s communication style and know when to say

No, this isn’t XYZ Bank. I need to report this.

Consistency builds and confirms trust, while inconsistency is the ultimate killer of trust. Trust is a major positive driving force for any brand, and it was discovered that 81% of consumers cite trust as a necessary prerequisite for making a purchase.

I hope I’ve been able to make you see the importance of consistency in communication, whether as a person or as a brand. You know what? Consistency is great! Don’t just be consistent in communication, be consistent all-round, and positively. It makes you a good person or brand.


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