Michael Bugarin Content Design // UX Writing

Project Title

RAVL Social Media Style Guide

Role(s)

UX researcher

UX Designer

Content Designer

Elements & Skills

Brand Personas

Voice, Tone, and Style Guidelines

Info Graphics

Tool tips

Software

MS Office Suite

Apple Pages

Adobe Acrobat

Figma

Challenge

Help a small audio company write consistent brand aligned content.

Solution

Develop and implement brand content voice, style, and tone guidelines.

My Process

* Collaborated with shareholders to articulate goals, identify brand voice, and empathize with their unique needs.

* Developed brand personas, voice characteristics, dynamic tone samples.

* Designed info graphics and tooltips for ease of use.

Discovery

I began by conducting qualitative research to better understand the brand, their users, and their existing content.

Shareholder interview

During a video call interview, I discovered a few key insights:

- RAVL's value proposition is it's affordability and accessibility.

- The goal of RAVL social media content is to funnel users to the RAVL portfolio site.

- Though most of RAVL's clients are small businesses and live event managers, they wish to expand to medium-sized businesses and advertising agencies.

- RAVL does not have a dedicated social media team, so the style guide will be used by shareholders with limited copywriting experience.

User research

RAVL did not have quantitative data or analytics to access, but fortunately, they did have qualitative user reviews and feedback. Some terms that consistently appeared across all channels included hard-working, honest, and approachable.

Content Audit

I performed a content audit on RAVL's previous social media content from the last year to glean insights into RAVL's existing social media content and discern any user behavioral patterns. After reviewing their previous content, I determined RAVL social media has an earnest tone with frequent exclamation punctuation.

Define

After reviewing the above materials, I defined the problem.

RAVL wants to attract more users with elevated content, but they lack a dedicated social media team.

Design

I began ideating solutions by splitting the problem statement into two.

RAVL wants to attract more sophisticated users [with] dynamic content.

Solution: Define RAVL’s content style by creating voice, tone, word choice, and narrative structure guidelines.

RAVL lacks experience writing dynamic social media content.

Solution: Create content formats and tooltips to make reading the document as effortless as possible.

Persona & Voice

I personified the RAVL brand as Boomer, the production grip.

Boomer needed to strike a balance between a confident professional capable of completing the most demanding jobs and an excitable film buff.

I wrote Boomer as someone who enjoys talking to others but never during a movie. By fleshing out the brand persona with small character details, I can make it easier for RAVL to imagine and write in Boomer’s voice.

Word Choice

Next, I compiled a list of preferred terms and word choices to reflect RAVL’s brand voice and maintain consistent terminology. I chose simple, unpretentious terms to reflect RAVL’s earnestness and approachability. RAVL avoids inaccessible jargon or buzzwords because they are confident in their craft.

Tone

I chose to keep the tone simple with a three-tier tonal range: neutral, casual, and irrelevant. I chose these tones because their linear escalation makes it easier to switch between them.

Narrative Structure

I wrote goal-oriented narrative structure guideline to help RAVL ideate content. I referenced three-act structure because it’s intuitive, timeless, and easily adaptable.

Content Formats

I designed content format infographics to contextualize the style guidelines. In addition to breaking down each social media format into individual elements, I used negative space, contrasting colors, and visual indicators to clearly identify different elements.

Tool Tips

Finally, I placed tooltips throughout the document to explain complex concepts and break up the content layout for easier readability. Tooltips were written in a casual tone to make advice to increase accessibility.

Delivery

I compiled the above solutions into a single document with four sections: Brand Overview, Voice & Tone, Style & Narrative Structure, and Content Formats.

Conclusion & Next Steps

The Social Media Style Guide was well-received by RAVL shareholders for it’s intuitive design and accessible information.

RAVL continues to use the content guidelines laid out in the style guide, and recent social media posts reflect a significant increase in user engagement compared to 2022. However, it is difficult to determine the guide’s true efficacy without isolating variables.

The next step would be to conduct A/B testing in a controlled environment to better understand how users respond to different content designs and why. Then, I would conduct another round of shareholder interviews to improve upon the document layout.