Quick…when I say “branding,” what’s the first word that pops into your head?
Is it logo? Style? Design?
Probably something visual. Maybe your mind goes to “brand guidelines” for fonts, colors, and artwork.
Have you ever considered your auditory branding?
Now that live streaming, podcasting, and voice commands are pervasive, you need to add audio to your branding checklist.
Here are some key considerations to make sure that you’re up to speed:
- If you are using live streaming tools, what’s your tone of voice? Is your speech clear? Do you use profanity or not? How formal/casual are your words?
- For podcasting, are you using professional audio tools? Do you do leveling or post-production, if you’ve got multiple input sources? Do you have a “voice for radio?” If you don’t have a pleasant cadence or tone, what can you do to improve your speaking voice?
- If your company name or product name is spoken into a natural language voice command system (like Siri or Amazon’s Echo device), is it easy to produce correct results? Do you have hyphens, apostrophes, synonyms or other roadblocks to easy voice entry?
- Think of all possible customer touch points where audio might come into play…from your “on hold” music to the background sounds in your office when you’re on a conference call. Are you projecting the right sensation to your customers or partners? (Do they hear your dog barking and realize you’re working from home, or do they hear Starbucks noise and wonder about your professionalism?) Nothing wrong with either of those scenarios, as long as they match the rest of your branding.
Take some time today to do an “audio audit” to make sure that this important aspect of your branding is supporting your mission.
Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee
Featured image via Flickr CC: Patrick Breitenbach
