HANDSHAKE BRAND GUIDELINES 2021 12 Messaging Tone allows Handshake to personalize brand messaging. While our brand voice is unified and consistent, tone has inflections and range — it factors in audience and setting. Handshake’s Tone Handshake’s tone is informal, but it’s more important to be clear than entertaining. When writing for our customers, consider their state of mind. Are students anxious about the career journey, or relieved to be finished with their application? Once you have an idea of their emotional state, adjust your tone accordingly. Handshake has a sense of humor, so feel free to be funny when it’s appropriate and when it comes naturally. But don’t go out of your way to make a joke—forced humor can be worse than none at all. If you’re unsure, keep to the point. In order to naturally adjust our tone based on audience and context, we should think about our relationship to each of our user types. We’re student-focused, but also have to develop close partnerships and support the success of our customers. These relationships are professional and we want to present ourselves as approachable, but reliable as a business associate. We’re there to help everyone achieve their goals.