How to Find Your Authentic Voice on Social Media How do you engage customers on social media--without sounding like you're marketing to them? Let the Esquire guy be your guide.

Let's assume you're representing your business in some official capacity. Let's assume you're the one in direct control of the messages. Let's also assume you're identifying yourself as "The Company"--that you're "Crazy Pete's," not "Crazy Pete."

Let's also assume that, in general, you market to your customers with some measure of humanity, and that even though it's the company talking, there seems to be a human being driving the message.

It's really about voice. Which used to be something only novelists had to figure out. But now we all need a voice, because we write all the time. We e-mail. We post. When we use social media, we're writing.