Check Your Tone

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By: Drew McManus

Given that we’re all using written communication more than usual, it’s a good idea to take a step back and consider tone. Unless you’re all-in on injecting emojis into everyday business communication, you should consider spot checking using a tone analyzer.

To that end, visit IBM’s tone analyzer demo.

Since the onset of COVID-19 shutdowns, I’ve been testing a cross-section of my email messages through the analyzer to make sure I’m not falling into any bad habits, such as injecting too much “anger,” “fear,” “sadness,” or “tentative” tones into my messages. I’ve also been running some excerpts from my blog posts, email marketing copy, slack messages, and social media posts.

I have to admit, it’s helped me catch and correct a few bad habits.

Using the analyzer is super straightforward:

  1. Select the type of communication. Current options include Tweets, Online Review, Email message, Product Review in French, and Your own text.
  2. Paste the copy into the analyzer field.
  3. Select the Analyze

Your results are displayed below with a dynamic filter showing you which elements helped produce specific tones.

Use the results to tweak your copy and re-test.

Visit The IBM Online Tone Analyzer

Drew McManus
Author
Drew McManus
In addition to my consulting business, I'm also the Principal of Venture Industries Online but don’t let that title fool you into thinking I'm just a tech geek. I bring 20+ years of global broad-based arts consulting experience to the table to help clients break the cycle of choosing one-size-fits-none solutions and instead, deliver options allowing them to get ahead of the tech curve instead of trying to catch up by going slower. With the vision of legacy support strategy and the delights of creative insights, my mission is to deliver a sophisticated next generation technology designed especially for the field of performing arts. The first step in that journey began in 2010 when The Venture Platform was released, a purpose-designed managed website development solution designed especially for arts organizations and artists. For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, lead a team of intrepid arts pros to hack the arts, lead an arts business incubator, and love a good coffee drink.
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