We made the journey down to Brighton last week for the second BrightonSEO conference of the year, and we left feeling motivated and inspired!

Now don’t let the name throw you; BrightonSEO might have started off as a small SEO conference but it has soon become one of Europe’s biggest digital marketing meet-ups. With around 3500 in attendance, there are a number of detailed, informative seminars on throughout the day covering topics including social media, email marketing and, of course, search marketing.

Whilst we like to keep on top of the latest SEO news, we decided to take this as an opportunity to learn more about the things we do at Red Marlin on a daily basis – PR and social media. We’re producing a series of blogs highlighting what we learned in Brighton – the first one was about the rise of influencer marketing. Here’s the next one…

• You have to connect with consumers on an emotional level

Brands can be annoying on social media:

Think that’s bad? Look away now…

According to i-com, only 33% of consumers actually like brands jumping in on trending #hashtags. 64% of people dislike brands using slang. It’s “too obvious”, “blatant” and reeks of “trying too hard”. So why do marketers do it? Because they want to connect with their audience. And that’s not to say they shouldn’t jump on hashtags and use slang – but the question they need to ask is does it fit our brand voice and personality?

When i-com asked people why they follow brands, the biggest response (47% of responses) was useful content. Essentially, if you give people something useful they will follow you.

What do we class as useful content? Well, 26% of people follow brands on social media because they share the same ethics and values. Consumers who you connect with emotionally will end up being more valuable to your company. According to Psychology Today, positive emotions towards a brand have more impact than trust and other attributes.

People project their own personality traits onto brands – and these influence their attraction to a brand. When a brand’s personality and narrative appeals to a consumer emotionally, this convinces him/her to care. Need some stats to back this up? When faced with a choice, 63% would choose the company they considered ‘authentic’.

So how do you find your brand voice? First things first, you need to know your brand story. What makes your brand unique? What personality traits describe your brand?

And then, how well do you know your customers? What topics interest them? What do they read and share? Who do they follow?!

The key to finding your brand voice is by knowing what your audience expects and likes, and knowing your brand story. Your brand voice should sit somewhere in the middle of that:

A big thanks to Mindy Gofton for her talk at BrightonSEO, providing the inspiration for this blog post! You can find her full presentation here.