You brand voice is how your company communicates with the world. You need to have a strong personality and point of view and you have to own it. Confidence is key; this is how you get it.

Establish your character
You can't define your voice until you define who you are. Choose three words as the pillars of your brand and continue to build from there. Decide what you stand for, what you're best at and what kind of people you are talking to. Once you establish your values, your passion will do the talking for you.

Decide what makes you authentic
Most brands/products/services are created with the core desire to solve a specific problem. Figure out what you're solving for and why your solution is better than anything else available. Zappo's made a name for themselves not just by selling shoes, but by showcasing their incredible customer service as a differentiator. That's the kind of story you want to tell.

Make yourself an authority
Don't just sell hats, be a hat expert. Blog about the newest innovations in hat making. Send your customers an email with a guide for which hats to wear in what season. Instagram cute pictures of dogs wearing hats. Compliment what you sell with valuable information that makes you a resource for your customers that builds trust and establishes credibility.

There are hundreds of tools to measure social media and even more opinions about which metrics are the most important. The fact of the matter is that Social Media, though growing at an alarming rate, is still struggling to define standard KPI's across industries and measure them accurately. Not to mention, it's all rather subjective.

Not all companies value the same things
The social media analytics a company pays attention to has less to do with industry standards and more to do with the values of the individual company. Are you driven by sales? You are going to be tracking social conversions. Do you pride yourself on strong customer service? You'll be focused on response rates. Trying to grow a community of supports? Follower counts will be your main driver. It's all about deciding what's important to you.

We still can't put an accurate $ value on social media
Social conversions only measure people that have directly followed the path from one of your social media links to your website and then engaged (either via a purchase, newsletter sign-up or contact form). This leaves a lot of information unaccounted for. Social media sites like Instagram don't direct back to your website seamlessly and it's still not possible to calculate the impact social media has on creating brand awareness and desire to a specific dollar amount. It's frustrating for marketing departments everywhere, but that doesn't mean you should give up on social media. Focus on building your social community and the sales will follow suit, even if you can't quantify them as well as you'd like.

Analytics are only as valuable as what you do with them
The information you get from your analytics should be a huge part of your social listening strategy. Collecting numbers and figures should not just be to appease the C-Suite and show follower counts and conversion. A good social media manager pays attention to things like sentiment and engagement so you can figure out which content is most successful with your audience. And then they make more of it!

Companies and branding agencies spend a lot of time thinking about strategic design concepts, messaging and advertising, but on a more subtle level, brand identity is defined by elements as simple as color. Different colors evoke different reactions and emotional connections from customers even when they aren't cognizant of it. What message is your color scheme sending?

Red is a bold color choice with a strong point of view.
People tend to have a strong reaction to this color.
Traits: aggressive, energetic, provocative, attention-grabbing

Purple evokes a sense luxury and quality.
Traits: royalty, sophistication, nostalgia, mystery, spirituality.

Blue is the most popular color choice amongst brands overall.
Traits: trustworthy, dependable, secure, responsible.

Green, depending on the shade, can evoke peace, nature or affluence.
Traits: wealth, health, prestige, serenity.

Yellow, plain and simple, makes people happy.
It reminds people of sunshine and hope, not to mention it's eye-catching.
Traits: positivity, light, warmth, motivation, creativity.

Orange is the happy medium between yellow and red.
Orange is an energetic and exciting color choice.
Traits: vitality, fun, playful, exuberant.

Brown, though it can remind people of some of the grittier things in life,
evokes a sense of stability and simplicity.
Traits: earthlike, natural, simplistic, durable.

Black is always in style and always works. Black is classic.
Traits: prestige, value, timelessness, sophistication.