What Do I Write?

Keeping your social copy clean and within brand standards can be a challenge. Even knowing what to wrote let alone HOW can often keep people from posting on social media at all. Keep it succinct and ask yourself “What would make me stop and want to read?” Below is a planner that we use in the Agency to prompt questions and get your thinking differently about what you write so make sure you download and keep it on hand.

Here are some tips to get you started:

Understand Active Vs. Passive Voice – Using active voice helps produce more engaging copy. Readers prefer active voice sentences, as it clearly identifies the action and who is performing that action.

Put Your Audience First – It’s rude to only talk about yourself. So, write in a way that puts your audience at the centre of the story instead. How do you do this? Simple. Say “you” more than you say “us.” 

Write Stuff People Want To Share – Delivering value to their audience. People want to share things their audience will find valuable. This could mean content that’s helpful, entertaining, or otherwise worth paying attention to. Try writing posts that convey a clear benefit. If you create how-to content, consider writing copy that hints at what the linked article will help readers do. You can also create unlinked social messages that include a useful tip in your post copy or image copy.

Make Sure Your Copy Matches Your Visual Content – If you’re writing image copy, consider connecting it with your post copy too. 

Be Clear And Concise – Avoid complex language and use short sentences. People skim on social media, so punchy posts tend to work better than long-winded paragraphs. Try to limit yourself to just one or two sentences, if possible. This isn’t a firm rule, but it may be a useful guideline to keep yourself from rambling.

Credit People and Engage Your Audience – Writing for social media isn’t just talking at your audience and then walking away. It’s meant to be social! That means posting, responding, engaging, and tagging others in your posts. Whether it’s tagging another brand, a partner, contributor, supplier or micro influencer, it’s important to be sociable.

Avoid Pushy, Overly Sales-Driven Messaging – At least when it comes to writing organic social media content. While social ads need to be written to sell, organic social posts should be written to inform, entertain, or otherwise make a connection with your audience. That doesn’t mean you can’t promote yourself. It just means it’s best to find a way to sell people on the idea of taking an action without directly sounding like you’re making a sales pitch.

Create Curiosity – Write in a way that makes people want to click through. If you’re linking to another article or blog post, you don’t need to tell the whole story in your social media update.

How To Define And Develop Your Voice And Tone – People expect social media accounts to have a consistent voice. Your presence needs personality, even if you’re representing a brand.

Social media is about generating conversation. No one wants to talk to someone boring. This means you’ll need to develop a consistent voice. One that’s both true to your brand or personality, while fitting for each social network you’re on.

What Does Your Social Media Voice Sound Like? Your voice is essentially your personality on social media. Are you fun? Serious? Creative? 

Know Your Audience – Who are your customers? What are their values, concerns, and interests? 

It’s important to figure this out if you don’t already know. Survey your audience if you have to. You need to know who you’re writing for before you can understand what they want from you.

Creating a social media audience persona might help. This essentially entails creating a character description of your average target audience member. Building personas takes a little bit of work, but it can help you get a clear idea of who you’re writing for.

Know Your Competition – Seeing what kind of content your competition is writing can help inspire your own approach. Check out some of your competitor’s social profiles and make note of the following:

• What does their brand voice sound like?
• Does their content appear to drive engagement?
• If this company were a person, would I want to talk to them?

Quick tips for writing social content:

• Hashtags are usually best placed at the end of posts. This is mainly for accessibility as contextual hashtags can be difficult to read. The exception to this rule is Twitter, where the character limit is shorter and contextual hashtags are commonplace.
• Write the most important things first, especially in a longer post that might be cut off with a “Read More.”
• Write your posts out then edit them to be concise. Drop unnecessary words that don’t add to the impact of the caption.
• Use fewer words as a teaser to your link, video, or blog post. Create intrigue for the blog post rather than trying to write it all in a caption.
• Convey your message with an image instead of a caption. For some brands, words don’t speak as loudly as images. This is especially true on photo-heavy sites like Instagram and Pinterest.
• Don’t just tell your fans to buy a product because it’s good. Describe the benefits of the product and what it will do for them
• Keep your content focused on the end CTA. What do you want the reader to do? Read the blog/ click the link/ get the offer/ shop the discount.
• Avoid asking multiple questions or giving different instructions in one post. Usually, readers will dismiss it as confusing or difficult and move on without doing anything.

Next Lesson:  What Are Hashtags?