Style guides are something more commonly associated with magazines and other publishers. However as every company under the trend-setting sun leap on to social media to interact with their audience, issues start to present themselves.
The first major point to realise is quite obvious, but all too often over looked. When posting on behalf of your company, be it a minor 140 characters or a full blog post, you are writing for the company, not yourself. It's not always easy to separate your own opinions from that of your organisation but it is absolutely vital that you do.
Social media does provide great, fun, exciting platforms on which to interact directly with your customers and audience but don't get carried away, draw the line between informal business talking like a person, and the overly-friendly approach that borders on unprofessional.
Typical style guides revolve around what typography to use, font size and colour palettes, although these do help to distinguish your company and brand they are less pressing when it comes to social media. It’s more about the tone you want your company to adopt. There are so many questions when talking directly to potential or existing clients; one of these might be what level of language do you use? Slang and colloquialisms can give the conversation a relaxed and informal tone but too much and you risk sounding amateur. Too professional and you may come across as rigid and wooden, which negates the whole point of using social media for interaction anyway. The way I see it; you want to put the 'pro' in approachable.
It is unlikely that your company has political leanings (unless a charity or NGO) but there are grey areas. Many organisations now have ethical guide lines such as "We don’t do business with arms traders’ affiliates." Or "We shall not take on any clients in the, or related to, the tobacco industry." So make sure you're well up to scratch with your organisation’s positions on ethics as they can positively reflect your company’s corporate social responsibility.
This is a relatively new arena for many, so let us know your thoughts in the comments below. And for a good style guide on Twitter, hit that link for Sherry Main's post on Social Media Today.
