From my experience, there are two things business owners struggle to define: Their ideal customer - and their brand voice. It is no coincidence that both are interlinked.

Look at it this way: When meeting new people, you will talk to them in different ways, depending on their relationship to you, their age, their background and many other factors. You might lower your voice in a more formal setting, relax the atmosphere with a joke in a tense situation or use an analogy to explain your work to an acquaintance. You adapt, yet you are not acting- these are all parts of your personality. You just choose which one you show at different times.

When choosing your brand voice, it is important to keep both your own personality and that of your ideal client in mind. You are entering a dialogue here - and you want it to be an authentic one. Let's head over to your social media accounts to begin.

Are you worried about the amount of followers you have on social media or the lack of visitors to your website? Alana from the Mac twins (look them up, two incredible entrepreneurs) said it best: " I love the idea of starting small. You get to choose your niche!"

Having a small audience makes it so much easier to get in touch with each one of them. Start a conversation to find out what they need from your brand. More tips? More products? What kind of products? The way you chat to them is part of your brand voice - and a powerful one at that. We all long to be heard. This is your chance to get to know your followers and create the very niche they want.

I am always amazed at the astonished looks I get from clients when I suggest to start a conversation with their followers. What, just chatting to them? What if I mess it up? What if...?

And what if you succeed? What if, by talking to them and following their account, you start to form your brand voice organically? Note the words they use, how they address others, what interests them. That way you also get to decide another important point, maybe the all important point: Who you target audience actually is.

Slowly a pattern will emerge- you might be driven to eco conscious entrepreneurs or hip graphic design companies, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you start to define both your audience and the way you want to address them. Your tone of voice will eventually be a mix of your own personality and that of your customers - and if you put in the work, it will be totally yours.

What about copying the tonality of companies you admire? After all, they are successful, so why not learn from them?

Someone is always going to be better and more successful than you - but no one can replace your passion. For your service or product and the way it can help people. For the clients you want to serve. This passion has to shine through in your brand voice. Can you imagine how powerful this is? Wouldn't you love to work with someone who loves what they do and are amazing at it?

Yes, feel free to learn from others- read a lot and write down what you like about the tone of voice or the writing style. Keep a folder handy to show it to your copywriter (if you hire one). But don't think you can only succeed if you refer to others. Remember, every company, every service and every person at one point started with zero - zero followers, zero income, zero strategy. They just did it. And so should you.

Have your written someone on social media today?