Years of school have programmed us to write and speak using a stiff robotic formal english in such a way that we would never use to talk to others in real life. For example, we would never dream to use Singlish when marketing to people in Singapore in the 1980s as it would take away the formality that a business would normally be associated with. Marketers would never have imagined that ending our sentences in a “lah” or “lor” in businesses would be considered a good thing.
However, due to the rise of social media, marketers now have a dilemma between writing formally to be recognized as a legitimate business or writing informally (or unprofessionally) to be relatable to the consumers of the business. This is supported by Kaplan and Haenlin’s paper supporting un-professionalism when doing Digital Marketing (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010).
I oppose to Kaplan and Haenlin’s paper as I feel that ultimately it really depends on what kind of business you have and the kind of business that you envision it to be, that determines if formal or informal language is appropriate. There are several considerations that need to be made before determining if using formal or informal languages are appropriate.
Below are a list of considerations you have to take into account before using informal language when marketing using social media.
1. The brand personality of the business
Imagine the brand Patek Philippe, Rolex or any other sophisticated brand replying a customer in an unprofessional way. Imagine if they used inappropriate words like “lah” and “Lor” even if it’s to a Singaporean audience. Can’t imagine it right? This is simply because if the use of unprofessional language was used to reply to a customer of a sophisticated brand, it would ruin the brand image and personality of the brand.
According to Aaker’s Brand personalities, there are essentially 5 different kinds of personalities that a brand can take on. Namely, Sincerity, Excitement, Competence, Sophistication and Ruggedness.
Depending on what kind of business personality your business portrays, it can have vastly different writing styles. In my own personal opinion, if you are going for the personality of sincerity, excitement and ruggedness, it can be extremely helpful to use informal language as it gives consumers of your brand a type of interaction that they can relate to. An example, would be how Wendy’s interact with their customers on twitter.
However, if you are going for competence and sophistication for your brand personality, it would be better to use formal language as consumers view your brand as sophisticated and would not expect you to use informal language.
2. Type of Social Media Platform Used
Imagine if you start using the word “legit” to people of the older demographic. They will most likely give you a very confused look in real life. In the same way, different social media sites appeals to different demographics and therefore would impact the way you use formal or informal languages in marketing.
Each social media platforms carries their own brand image and reaches out to different demographics. Facebook even though started out as a college website for teens to vote on each other’s looks, have now become a place for businesses to do more formal businesses due to the fact that there are more Baby-boomers using Facebook actively. Tik Tok on the other hand, is currently a place for businesses to advertise creatively using short videos to entertain people with humor as the demographic it appeals to are mainly from Gen Z and the millennials. Depending on, how old the business is, what it is used for, and how the social media website markets itself; can make a difference on whether businesses use formal language or not. When marketers think of a social media platform, they should already think of whether the social media fits the brand image of the company and use that particular social media platform.
Simply put, it’s more appropriate to use informal language when the social media website appeals to the younger demographic and it is not very appropriate to use when the social media site is appealing to the older demographic.
3. Lifestyle and image of the target consumer
What kind of words do your target consumers use? Ultimately as a business you would want a consumer to relate to you as much as possible. So when you market to them use language that your consumers would be able to understand but also use language that would not leave out potential customers. For example, when talking to someone with a very active lifestyle, you would use informal words like “outdoorsy” and both people living the active lifestyle and not living the active lifestyle would be able to get it. Don’t use too much informal language that you’ll turn people off though. It depends on how sophisticated and formal your target consumers are as well. Another example would be if you are marketing to a business woman vs a housewife. You’ll tend to use more formal language to a business woman than a housewife which could only potentially speak informal simple english.
No matter the type of language, it is most important for marketers to ask themselves what the business needs to remain relevant in the eyes of consumers. Informal language could better or worst depending on the context and the situation but the 3 pointers I gave above are my views on what businesses should take into consideration when replying or even advertising to a customer.
Sources:
Kaplan, A. and Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53(1), pp.59-68.
Marketing in the Digital Age 
Great and interesting content! I really enjoyed how you managed to deconstruct Kaplan and Healin’s paper and bring forth a counter argument that is still applicable for marketers! Great job!!
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Hi Henry! Thank you for commenting! As much I respect them and what they have done for the digital marketing community, I feel I have some rights to disagree with them. It may because we are based in different regions and the social setting or study setting is different therefore there is a disparity in conclusions! Thank you for your comments!
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Interesting post! I like how you provide several considerations for the topic of whether using informal language is appropriate, and I also appreciate the in-depth analysis of the various factors. Keep up the good work!
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Hi Esther! Thank you for commenting! Yes, I do try to keep my analysis in-depth for all my posts! Thank you and God bless!
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Dear Marvin
I was impressed that you could go in such great depth on a simple topic such as whether or not to use informal language in marketing content. When I see advertisements or video pop ups on any social media platform I usually don’t pay much attention to the tone of the language used in the marketing content. However after reading your post, I will be more aware of the tone and language used in marketing content.
I cannot imagine a “Sincere” brand such as Disney use an overly stiff or formal tone in their marketing nor can I imagine a “Sophisticated” brand such as Rolex using comedic language in their marketing and advertisements!
However i feel that one should not entirely omit Facebook as a platform to market for Millennials and Gen Z! There is a healthy number of Millennials on Facebook that read and share short news pages, motivational quotes and lets not forget, Memes.
Overall the idea is there and I do see that language used in marketing content is vital to help the advertisement achieve optimum results!
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Thank you Bryan for your thoughtful comment! I’m glad I have made you aware! Yes I agree that there are many Millienials and Gen Z using Facebook! The point I was trying to make was simply that the more active ones using the platform are currently the baby boomer generation. But thank you for your amazing reply! I hope you have a wonderful day!
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Thank you for such a relatively in-depth analysis of how language affects the way we market. As a full-time marketing consultant, I can really see how the language would affect the business image and personality. Amazing and quality content! Cheers!
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Hi Thomas! Glad to have a fellow marketer commenting! Yes, in the business world I do believe that the pen is mightier than the sword so our words do have a lot of power! Thank you for your kind comments! Cheers!
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WOW! As a Millennial, I totally agree with your post!! I used to think, why aren’t more brands trying to write in an informal manner and be more relatable. But after reading your post I finally understand why brands do that. Thank you so much for the eye-opening post! Look forward to seeing more material from you!
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Hi Alicia! I try to make this blog as relatable to both Millennial and other generations! I’m a Millennial myself but from studying behaviours of other generations I try to use concepts in traditional marketing so that they would be able to understand as well! God bless!
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Dear Marvin
Thank you for the post, I am impressed by the depths you go into analyzing languages in marketing and how we can use it appropriately in Social Media. The post made me think of a bus advertisement where the whole post is written in broken and misspelled English, which was used to market language course, it was brilliant! I feel language really make an impact and capture audience if used correctly, thank you for this insights which I can look out for in future! Can’t wait for more intriguing post from you in future!
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Hi Dian Tian! Yes! It’s appropriate in some situations but imagine if a brand like Rolex doing that! It would be horrific and destroy their brand name! Thank you for your kind comments! God bless!
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Hi, insightful post! Totally agree with your points. I believe in a broader scope, generations plays a huge part when it comes to using language in social media marketing. Informal languages such as lingos spread very quickly however not everyone knows them, especially like you’ve mentioned the older generation. Hence, informal language or not, the key is still identifying the correct language to use when picking the specific target group.
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Hi Vincent! Thank you for your comments! Yes! It is very important to make sure that our customers understand us. The target group is so very important when doing marketing! Cheers!
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I think it really does depend on your target demo, age group, and of course what you are marketing, there isnt a one sized fits all approach to this, stay dynamic!
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Hi Fabian! Yes, the demographics are really important! If I reply to a comment to a boomer vs a gen z it would be a totally different type of lingo. Staying dynamic is key for a marketer! Cheers!
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