Our Voice – Our Voice Principles – Our Tone – Tone Range
Our voice expresses Schibsted’s personality. It’s genuine and always stays the same. We use variations in tone to adapt to different moods, audiences and situations. Our tone changes to fit the topic, where the conversation is taking place, and the different phases of a flow.
Our voice
We always stick to our voice in all of Schibsted’s channels and properties, from emails, social media posts, job ads, UX writing, financial reports and other external communications to internal newsletters, presentations, reports and more. Every piece of content should be written with our personality in mind!
Our personality
A pioneer – a confident straight talker who inspires you and makes you feel like you can do anything.
People recognise us as:
A role model – always slightly ahead and eager to give people opportunities to come along
Straight talker – worldly and keen to share knowledge
Contemporary – proud of our legacy but young at heart
Confident – fearless and welcoming of change
Innovative and entrepreneurial – bringing creative perspectives and new opportunities
Our Voice Principles
- We empower people, so our language is encouraging
- We are close to people in their daily lives, so we communicate from a place of love and with a sense of community
- We celebrate diversity and are inclusive
- We are confident and our language is inspiring
Check out how to apply these principles when you write like Schibsted.
Our tone
As a general rule, our tone is much more casual than formal. Formality signals distance. That’s not us. We are a family. People choose to include our products and services in their daily lives. We are respectful of that choice, never ironic or sarcastic.
In our mission to empower people, we are encouraging, so it’s ok for us to show some emotion through our choice of words. At the same time, we are credible and trusted mentors, so we don’t overdo it.
And just like any family member, we know how to be funny when that is appropriate, but when the situation requires seriousness, we absolutely can be.
Our tone should vary depending on:
Who we are communicating with
What we are talking about
Where we are communicating
The mood we want to convey
Tone Range
To clarify our tone range, we use Nielsen Norman Group’s Four Dimensions: humour, formality, respectfulness and enthusiasm. To further specify the nuances within these dimensions, we use the polar opposites of each dimension. For example, on the opposite ends of the “humour” dimension, we’ll centre the discussion around “Serious vs. Funny”.
Below are examples taken from UX writing of the extreme ends of the spectrum. The red dot symbolises where you should strive to be as Schibsted and the larger blue part encompasses the range Schibsted moves within.
Formal vs. Casual
Formal: We apologise, but we are experiencing a technical problem
Casual: We’re sorry, something went wrong.
Respectful vs. Irreverent
Respectful: We apologise, but something went wrong on our end. Please, try again.
Irreverent: What did you do?! You broke it! (Just kidding. Something went wrong on our end.)
Matter-of-fact vs. Enthusiastic
Matter-of-fact: Technical error 4X4. Please, try again.
Enthusiastic: Oops! Something went wrong. Try again 🙂
Serious vs. Funny
Serious: We’re sorry, there was a technical problem. Try again later.
Funny: Oh no! Something’s very, very wrong. Try to fix it using mind control or come back later.