A new phrase has entered the vocabulary of internal communicators over the past few years – Tone of Voice (ToV). It may be a buzz phrase, but ignore it at your peril. If your organisation doesn't have one, it soon will.

But what exactly is ToV? Steve Nichols takes a look at what it is and how you should use it.

Put simply, as far as internal communicators are concerned, a ToV document is a writing guide that helps you reflect the core values of your company or its brand.

It outlines how you write, what you write, where you place your emphasis and even how you use grammatical tools like contractions and pronouns.

Some may feel that a ToV document is a straightjacket for their writing, but if your company has one you have to appreciate that it is there to promote consistency and to uphold a company's core values.

As one ToV says: “Our tone of voice should be informal, personal, revealing and concise—like one traveller talking to another traveller. It should sound as though you are telling a good friend about your unique experience with the company.”

Defining what exactly ToV is can be quite hard, but a few examples might help. Take TV chefs for example. Jamie Oliver is fun, laddish, Cockney, likely to use phrases like “pukka” and the cheeky boy next door.

Delia Smith is equally well-known for her culinary delights, but more aloof, more reserved, respected and knowledgeable, but not really, well, fun!

Both do a similar job, but have a completely different “brand”. Now think of Virgin Airlines and compare it with British Airways. Or perhaps Orange compared with O2, BBC2 compared with Channel 4 – do you see the difference?

Inextricably linked to a company's brand promise, a good ToV document guides you to uphold brand values.

In fact, most ToVs are very similar – they invariably contain three of four key words that “define” your writing style. In fact, many of these key words turn up over and over again, in many different companies' ToV documents.

Common words include: “personal”, “friendly”, “trustworthy”, “objective”, “expert”, “dynamic”, “energetic”. In fact, study a few ToV documents and you realise that they all have a lot in common.

What we are now seeing are big-name brands looking at the success of their neighbours and taking a “me too” attitude. They too want to be seen as fun, thoughtful and friendly – hence the rise in ToV documents.

Some ToV guidelines may go against your traditional writing training. For example, we were always told that corporations are singular. So it is “Virgin is” not “Virgin are”. But many ToVs push for the latter as they say it is more friendly and inclusive.

Likewise contractions - “we are” gives way to “we're”, “they are” becomes “they're”.

The rest of a ToV document is about common sense. Make your writing as simple as possible. Leave out big words that leave people reaching for the dictionaries, cut your sentence length down and write as if the person you are “talking to” is sitting in front of you.

Push the positive, attenuate the negative and always find a positive way to put things. So point out what a company is doing, not what it isn't. What are the company's successes, not its failures.

To better understand ToV take a look at these examples:

NHS Tone of Voice guidelines

Edinburgh - Inspiring Capital

Corporate Canada

Manchester University

The Isle of Wight Partnership

Steve Nichols runs InfoTech Communications (www.infotechcomms.co.uk) and is editor of this web site. InfoTech specialises in online communications and Steve has acted as consultant and trainer for many blue-chip companies including Aviva, AWG, Shell, BT, Standard Life, HBOS, BNFL, Accenture and Australia New Zealand Bank.