Gone are the days of simple forums with less than 100 users scattered across the internet. Social media has revolutionised the way we communicate and engage with one another, and more importantly, it’s revolutionised the way we interact with companies and brands.
Below, we’ve given you everything you need to write compelling, engaging and trendy social media posts for your business or personal accounts.
Before we start, it’s important to understand why and what you’re writing copy for. Many social media accounts make the mistake of writing endless posts with no real endgame or understanding of their audience.
Defining the end goal can be:
- Growing a subscription-based community
- Selling a one-time product or line of products
- Simply increasing your social media following
With that said, let’s start with the obvious rule.
Spelling and Grammar
This largely depends on the audience you’re writing for, but it should be a universal rule regardless. Lousy spelling, no grammar and sentences that are confusing or lacking structure are a fast way to turn your readers off. When it comes to selling through copywriting, this will affect the trust that potential buyers have in your business.
Users will typically avoid following, engaging or buying from social media accounts that aren’t taking the time to proofread their content. Most word documents will come with spelling and grammar checks, so make sure you use them!
Understand Your Audience
Social media can be accessed almost anywhere globally with an internet connection, giving you endless opportunities to build a strong following. Social groups have their own way of speaking and interacting, and outsiders stand out quickly because they don’t know the language or slang the group uses.
If we take music producers as an example, a speaker is called a monitor, music software is called a DAW (digital audio workstation), and headphones are called cans. Whilst these differences might not seem like a big deal to outsiders, any producer with more than a few years of experience will quickly relegate your posts to the amateur section.
This also relates to inside jokes that help build relationships between you and your audience, e.g. fix it in the mix is a common joke amongst producers when struggling to get a good take from an artist.
You need to know how your audience speaks before you start writing.
Different Platforms, Different Rules
In addition to understanding your audience, knowing what kind of user is on each platform is essential before writing your first post. Tumblr is predominantly female, whilst YouTube is primarily male. Instagram users are visual, whilst Twitter users are more text-based.
Furthermore, each platform will have its own etiquette for posts. Instagram will let you post up to thirty hashtags per post, and users will typically use the comments for this. On the other hand, Twitter has limited characters, and users will usually not post more than three hashtags per post.
Generate Engagement
People aren’t thinking when they scroll through social media; it’s used as a form of entertainment and procrastination. Your job as a writer is to pull them out of that mindless, zombie scrolling state and make them pay attention to your post.
This varies wildly depending upon the platform you’re using, but a universal trick to generate engagement is simply asking an open-ended question about a relevant topic. The entire ethos of social media is sharing. Ask your audience questions that excite them or encourage them to give ideas on a topic they love. This is also a great way to conduct research on your followers and build up a profile of who is reading your posts.
Twitter has a polling option that allows users to quickly vote on a topic or question. These posts typically have a lot of engagement due to how easily users can vote. You can mix these two tips together by creating a poll tweet and asking users to explain their choices in the comments.
Use Hashtags!
It’s surprising how few companies use hashtags on their posts. Some people think it looks tacky or low-quality, but they’re essential for getting your posts into specific niches and in front of your target audience.
Essentially hashtags are a free form of advertising, and users with specific interests will be presented with your posts on their timelines. Twitter has a ‘tweets you might like’ post in between posts from accounts people follow. Instagram allows users to search entire hashtags as if they were scrolling through their personal feed.
When using hashtags, it’s important to stick with relevant tags that match the niche or style of your posts. Nobody likes seeing posts that don’t appeal to their interests, or hashtags that have nothing to do with the niche.
Additionally, hashtags will provide you with a boost in impressions on holidays and awareness days. You can find entire calendars online that will notify you of upcoming days and their relevant hashtags.
Conclusion
Social media is a constantly evolving collection of platforms. Each year a new version comes out that has ripple effects on the others and changes the way users (and writers) interact with them. TikTok pushed YouTube into YouTube Shorts – smaller length videos that mimic TikTok’s style, and Twitter’s character limit has forced writers from Facebook to get better at short-form copy.
Above all, the number one rule you need to keep in mind is; You’re always writing for people, not platforms.
