{"id":70341,"date":"2014-03-05T17:54:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T17:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/insight\/blue-sky-thinking\/"},"modified":"2014-03-05T17:54:20","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T17:54:20","slug":"blue-sky-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.strattoncraig.com\/us\/insight\/blue-sky-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"A bit of blue sky thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m going to put a stake in the ground here<\/strong>\u2026 I\u2019m a big fan of the Twitter hashtag #thingsyouhearinagencies<\/a>. It provides me with a constant stream of remarkably accurate phrases that I too-often find I\u2019m guilty of dabbling in myself. Not to mention that it\u2019s a great feed of ironic hilarity too.
\nI\u2019ve come to use feeds like this as my verbal blacklist. It\u2019s important to me that I try to steer away from these overused phrases for many reasons. Ultimately, for the sake of the business I work in. I\u2019d guess that a good 95% of the brand bibles out there will tell you that differentiation is the equivalent of brand heaven. Companies really do need to make sure they don\u2019t sound \u2018just like everyone else\u2019 if they want to get ahead of the curve<\/strong> \u2013 and that extends to each of the individuals in the team too. It\u2019s time to think outside the box<\/strong>.
\nTaking care of the nuts and bolts<\/strong>
\nSo what should I sound like when I write on behalf of the company? That\u2019s where your linguistic game plan comes into play<\/strong> – a clearly defined tone of voice<\/a> and easy-to-use practical guidelines. I\u2019ve seen some seriously impressive tone of voice guidance in the past few years, and I\u2019ve seen some quite nonsensical stuff too.
\nGuidelines are just that \u2013 guidance. Tone of voice is fluid, and to some extent I think each person should be able to adapt things slightly \u2013 especially with so many brands guiding their employees to write in a \u2018natural\u2019 way. But I also think that some steadfast values and clear communications principles are a must in order to keep your ducks in a row<\/strong>. You might want to consider including:<\/p>\n