What you'll leave with
- A one-page voice guide for your business, built from your own answers, your writing, and what your customers say about you
- The voice guide saved inside your tool and in a document you own, so it applies to future conversations and can be shared with anyone who writes for you
- One message written for two different channels and checked to make sure both sound like your business
1. Welcome and setup check
Today is the first of three sessions. This one builds your voice guide, session two uses it to run your social media on a weekly routine, and session three hands more of that routine off to the tools. A tool can only draft or schedule posts well once it knows how your business sounds, so everything that follows starts here.
Before you start, keep client names, addresses, account numbers, and anything covered by a confidentiality agreement out of your chats. Each tool also has a setting that controls whether your conversations are used to improve it, and we'll show you where it is.
Confirm you're logged in on the device you brought, then start a new chat (or a new Project, if your tool offers one). If you need help, find a facilitator or a neighbor who's ready.
2. The interview
Paste this into your AI tool and answer its questions one at a time.
Interview prompt
I'd like you to interview me about my business so you can help me write in my own voice. Ask me the following questions one at a time, and wait for my answer before moving on. If an answer is vague, ask one short follow-up.
- What is my name, and what is my role?
- What is the name of my business, and what do we do?
- What industry do I work in, and who are my typical customers?
- What do I write most often for my business?
- Where do I have a social media presence?
- Does anyone else write or post for my business?
- What kind of marketing do I do, and how far ahead do I plan it?
When we're finished, summarize what you've learned in a short paragraph and ask me to correct anything you got wrong.
If you're on your phone, try answering by voice. It's much faster than typing on a small screen, and the tool will turn what you say into text.
3. Add your writing samples
Paste in or upload the writing you brought, such as your About page, customer emails, bid cover letters, or social posts. Screenshots work fine with the upload button in each tool. If you post on social media, include one post that performed well, because you'll use it again in step 6.
Here are a few things I've written for my business. Don't rewrite them yet. Just read them and keep them in mind for what we're building.
4. Customer research in small groups
On your own: Open the places customers leave feedback, such as Google reviews, Facebook comments, Houzz, or Nextdoor, and copy 5 to 10 reviews or comments into your chat. Copying and pasting or a screenshot both work fine, and there's no need to be logged in to any of these if you'd rather not be.
In groups of 3 or 4: Read a few of each other's reviews and point out the words and qualities that come up more than once. An outside reader often catches patterns you've stopped noticing. Each person adds those observations to their own chat.
Remove reviewers' names before pasting reviews into the tool.
5. Build your voice guide
Ask the tool to pull everything together, then read the result and correct anything that doesn't sound like you.
Voice guide prompt
Using everything I've shared in this conversation, including my interview answers, my writing samples, and the customer reviews and comments, write a one-page voice guide for my business. Describe how I sound when I write, the words and phrases I tend to use, and what customers consistently praise about working with me. Give extra weight to the positive things customers say, since those are the qualities I want my marketing to reflect. Make it work for every kind of writing I do, including emails, bids, social posts, and my website.
Once you're happy with it, save the guide using the "teach it your business once" setting from the tool picker on the main page (Profile, Custom instructions, or Saved info), or add it to a Project. Then copy it into a Google Doc or Word file so you have your own copy for session two.
6. Check your voice across channels
Pick one real message, such as a seasonal promotion, a scheduling update, or an announcement, and ask for it two ways.
Using my voice guide, write this message two ways: as a social media post and as an email to my customers. [Describe the message.]
Read the two versions side by side and check whether both sound like the same business. Then compare the post with the one that performed well from step 3, or with a strong email or your About page if you rarely post. Tell the tool what feels off so it can tighten your voice guide.
If you finish early, try one of these.
Review my About page and these recent posts against my voice guide. Point out anything that doesn't sound like the rest, and suggest how to bring it in line.
I'm never sure what to post. Using my voice guide, give me 10 post ideas for the next month that would show customers what working with us is like.
Swap with a partner and read each other's two versions. If they sound like the same business, your voice guide is doing its job.
7. Stretch goal and wrap-up
Stretch goal. If you've finished everything above, ask your tool to turn your voice guide into a one-page visual overview of your business. A few volunteers will share theirs on screen for quick feedback from the group, and nobody is expected to publish the result.
Using my voice guide and everything I've shared in this conversation, build a one-page visual overview of my business that I could show a new customer, a lender or a sponsor. Use my brand colors (listed below), open with what customers value most about working with us, and keep the language in my voice.
Quick survey. Scan the QR code on screen, or open the survey here if you're on a laptop. It's three short questions about today, and your answers help shape the rest of the series.
Before you go. If someone on your team or an outside agency writes or posts for you, share your voice guide with them this week. Session two is Tuesday, November 17, where your voice guide becomes a social media assistant with a weekly routine, and the details will post here once they're confirmed. Everything you'll want afterward, including the options for having a tool schedule your posts, is on the follow-up page.