NI_StyleGuide_Final 2019

NI Style Guide and Brand Manual | 69
Social Brand and Tone
Brand Tone and Channel-Level Tone
On our social media channels and company blog, we always:
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Use informal, conversational tone (“don’t” instead of “do not”; words like
“thrilled” instead of “pleased”)
Speak in the first person (“We’re excited to release” instead of “NI is excited
to release”; “Our team” instead of “The NI team”)
Ensure our tone matches our “four Hs”: helpful, honest, humble, human
Our channel strategy may also impact the tone we use on each channel. The way
we craft copy for a Facebook post will probably sound slightly different than one for
LinkedIn, even if the CTA is the same.
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Facebook—Tone should be warm, inviting, and friendly. We want our posts
to inspire conversation within and among our community members
Twitter—As the primary channel for real-time trends, live events, and media
coverage, the tone of tweets should be concise and include a clear call to action
LinkedIn—Tone should clearly establish NI as an industry thought leader and
position the content we’re sharing in a professional manner
When we write for the NI Blog, we:
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Use a conversational tone - meaning we write like we’d talk and we want
readers to feel like they’re talking to a human.
Write in “chunks,” avoiding large blocks of text and enhancing content with
images, videos, and subheads.
Avoid getting too technical, instead using CTAs that encourage the reader to
dive deeper into the topic
Page/Account Naming
All of our brand’s social media channels should follow this naming convention:
National Instruments [LOCATION] [Optional: SUBJECT].
Examples: National Instruments UK & Ireland, National Instruments Careers,
National Instruments Japan
Twitter handles/usernames should follow this naming convention when possible:
@NI[location/subject].
Examples: @NIFrance, @NICareers, @NIglobal
Facebook and LinkedIn vanity URLs should follow this naming convention when
possible: .com/NI[location/subject].
Examples: Facebook.com/NIFrance, Facebook.com/NICareers
Charter and Policy
All our brand’s social media channels should follow our Global Social Media
Charter and Global Social Media Policy, which are posted on the Social Media NI
Talk Group at https://nitalk.jiveon.com/groups/social-media.
For more on blogging for the brand, visit the Social Media NI Talk Group, at
https://nitalk.jiveon.com/groups/social-media.