Writing for social media is not like writing for the web. When you write a copy for the web, you have one goal: to SELL. When you write for social media, you don’t necessarily want to sell. You can have other marketing objectives in mind. Your focus is to create a link between you or your brand and your community.
To succeed in your copywriting on social media, here are two steps to follow:
Step 1: Before you start writing.
Before you start any given activity, you need a little time for preparation. When it comes to copywriting for social media, here is how you prepare yourself to write:
Keep these three assumptions in mind.
Social media, today, is designed to be seen on mobile. So should be your content. So, the first assumption to keep in mind is always to make mobile-friendly content.
Your audience is a visual learner. Providing visuals increase the readability of your content. I would even dare and say, only video content can give you the visibility you dream of. So, that’s the second assumption to work by.
Finally, in the third and the last one, your content is targeting not only your audience but theirs too. People, on social media, want to learn, enjoy, and share what they learned. Give them something worthy to be communicated, something they would brag about as if it was their own content. Once done right, your content is targeting their audiences too.
Think SMART Objectives.
Social media is part of our daily digital ecosystem. Take the time to reconsider your palpable marketing objectives and convert them into Social Media ones. You need to have a clear idea of why you chose to write on social media. Is it for conversational matters, for amplification and virality, for brand utility, for conversation, or inspiration?
For you to succeed in reaching your goals on social media, they must be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant & Time bounded).
Imagine you are a young art gallery, and you wish to gain notoriety. Your social media objectives, in this case, would be engaging young art enthusiasts. Your goal is clear and concise, thus specific. By monitoring the number of likes, comments, and bookmarks you estimate the wanted engagement. With these metrics, you can measure your success and failures. Targeting 1K followers per month is something in hand, that’s achievable. Making reels with featured artists is in adequation with your core activity, thus relevant. And finally, defining a time frame as mentioned earlier gives a deadline to your strategy, thus it’s time-bounded.
Create standards to ensure your content is consistent.
Always ask yourself the following questions: What do you wish to accomplish with your social media? And, why is this given objective part of your marketing strategy plan? Answers to these questions will help you establish standard patterns and guarantee a consistent pace in your content.
Know and learn more about your target audience.
Each time you want to start writing on your social properties, you need to know to whom you are writing. You must know your audience before you start writing. If you wish to nail your post, you need to answer their concerns and motivations. Know their pinpoint.
Work on your voice and tone.
Your copies MUST sound like you. Your personality must take over. Be careful with your branding: determine important elements such as abbreviations, proprietary information. Put some guidelines concerning the type of content on every single platform.
Step 2: when writing for social media.
Now that you have your objectives and standard prepared, it’s time to start your copywriting. Copies on social media are short, with simple and concise messages. Put yourself far from any source of distraction to avoid writers ‘block and start running your fingers on this keyboard of yours!!
Master your wording.
Your choice of words is determining whether your audience gives you its attention or not. Choose those appropriate to your core activity. Your followers’ and competitors ‘vocabulary is a gold mine for you to dig. Watch, learn, and apply, when writing down your ideas first. Always keep in mind that by the end of every post, you must convey only one call-to-action to your audience.
Draft multiple versions of your message before you choose your final one. If this task is impossible for you, use a social media optimizer. It will analyze your message and give you the best version.
Be concise and specific with your words.
Using active voice helps identify the action and who accomplished it. It is one way to draw the attention of your audience. This action in question better be something that gives some added value to your audience. Make sure your sentences don’t exceed four lines and keep them short.
Find the appropriate hashtags.
When people use social media, they search by using hashtags. To find their answer, they use specific keywords to reach a specific result.
When it comes to choosing hashtags, think of them as keywords just like on search engine mortars. Use specific words to put your product or service in the right basket and expose it in front of the right target audience. Use hashtags related to the benefits of your product or service, or even opt for features, or any detail your followers might think of and search for. Don’t neglect trending hashtags, if they are relevant to your situation. The better you know your target audience, the more you can refine your choice of hashtags.
Write to inform and entertain.
When writing for social media, you are netting a link between you and your followers. Your content must be informational and or entertaining. Only then, you engage with your audience, just like in a face-to-face conversation with your friends.
Invoke curiosity.
Tell a story or leave some answers unanswered to invoke curiosity. Share personal details within your story, so people can relate and see you’ve been through this problem before. Tell them how you overcame this challenge and why is it important to take action by opting for your service or product.
You will stir instant connection thanks to emotion. Try to pay forward your product. Show that at a given time you had a certain need and this is the solution. And if you’re sharing, it’s only to help out other people in the same situation.
End your copy with a clear CTA
Always end your posts with a clear Call to Action. Your posts must have a purpose and must ask people to do a certain action. You need to be clear about that.
Finally, this is only the tip of the iceberg! Copywriting for social media requires in-depth techniques, that will make you write copies like a digital marketing savvy. If you enjoyed this article, join my monthly coaching. And, don’t hesitate to comment like, and share. Stay tuned!
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