4.76 billion, or more than half of the Earth’s population, use some form of social media. It goes without saying that social media is vital to the success of every business.
The truth is, though, that not everyone is well-prepared for social media with its jargon, easily-distracted audiences, and other platform specifics.
Fret not, we’re here to help with some social media writing tips that will make your business more appealing and relatable to your audience.
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10 Social Media Writing Tips
- Use the Social Media Jargon
- Keep It Short
- Diversify Your Content
- Have a Clear Purpose
- Know Your Audience
- Be Positive
- Add Images and Videos
- Include a CTA
- Engage Your Readers
- Use Hasthtags
1. Use the Social Media Jargon
An emoji is not something you eat, BTS, BRB, ROFL, LOL, and LMK are not sports cars, and memes are the most popular, universal language.
Writing social media copy requires an understanding of the appropriate slang, especially if you want to connect with the younger generations.
Naturally, the platform also matters, as LinkedIn, for example, is a place for professionals, and requires a more authoritative tone. TikTok or Instagram, on the other hand, are much more casual platforms, where users expect different content, and tone of voice.
2. Keep It Short
The technological rise, and the birth of social media, in the last 20 years have made people very impatient. A lot of users are immediately drawn away when they see a long post.
Chances are, even the greatest post you write will fall into the pit of ignorance, should it be too long. After all, why do you think social media have length limitations?
For Facebook, it’s 33,000 characters, but less than 50-character posts were found to have the most engagement. Twitter has a limit of 280 characters, however tweets with less than 100 characters have a higher engagement rate than longer ones.
You get the idea – shorter content usually beats it’s long-form brother, so always keep that in mind and try to keep your posts short and sweet.
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3. Diversify Your Content
Even the best type of content will become boring if you keep posting the same thing day after day, week after week. Sure, it might have received great reactions at first, but you can be certain that the interest will decline.
Instead, diversify your posts. That means, for example, you could have some company-related content first, then add some fun posts. What’s more, you can encourage people to share UGC (user generated content) by starting contests, giveaways, and other engaging activities.
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4. Have a Clear Purpose
What is the goal of your posts? Have you developed a social media strategy, or are you just posting content for the sake of it? It is logical that without a clear purpose, you probably won’t achieve great results.
So, before you start your social media journey, sit down and think about what you want to achieve – is it to encourage people to visit your website, or perhaps you want them to like your page and leave a comment?
Whatever it is, set your goals beforehand, and then you can begin understanding whether you are successful or not from the information obtained.
5. Know Your Audience
After you’ve identified your purpose, it’s equally important to understand who your readers are. It’s one thing if you’re posting for middle-aged business people, and completely another if your audience consists of teenagers.
Once you’ve established your target audience, you should focus your efforts on sharing content that is highly relevant to them. Furthermore, take some time to truly understand what their obstacles, and needs are, and give them a solution.
For instance, in this post, Shopify addresses one of the biggest challenges their audience is facing, and they provide an answer:
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6. Be Positive
First, let’s clarify – being positive doesn’t mean you should be happy to the point of idiocy. It’s more about avoiding negative language and criticizing other people or businesses publicly.
Social media is not the place to be a bully, and your readers will probably be drawn away by such actions. Instead, focus on positive messages and stand your ground for topics that are important to your brand.
For example, if your business is conscious about the environment, you can defend such initiatives, and promote the good examples.
7. Add Images and Videos
Of course, content isn’t just about words. One of the best tips for writing social media posts is to always include an image or video when possible. They grab the attention much more than mere text.
Furthermore, when a user is scrolling through social media, they are more likely to stop at an image than at plain text. Ultimately, combine text and images, or videos, and try to be as engaging as possible.
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8. Include a CTA
Users don’t automatically know what is the required action from them. That’s why you must emphasize it, and why every social media post – be it on YouTube, Facebook, or Instagram – usually has keywords/phrases like “Follow us for more”, “Like, share and subscribe”, or “Leave a comment”.
These are a clear indication of what you want your audience to do. In fact, it’s completely normal in the world of social media to indicate clearly what you want people to do. It’s called, calling your readers to action or CTA!
Align this with the previous tip about having a clear purpose. You make it obvious that you’d like visitors to “Visit our website for more information”.
9. Engage Your Readers
There’s nothing worse than a boring social media post. The type of content that just makes users scroll past and let it fall into oblivion.
Of course, in order to create engaging content, you need to take several factors into account:
- Right timing
- User feedback
- Authenticity
- Personalization
- Proper formatting
- Rich media (images, GIFs, videos, memes)
- Storytelling
- Originality
Sounds like a difficult task or a lot of points to remember? Relax, it’s not that hard once you’ve established a few major components, like who your audience is, what their pain points are, what are their interest, and so on.
10. Use Hashtags
Hashtags hold a universal power across all social media platforms. They are popular on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube…
I mean, young people have quite literally started talking with hashtags, so imagine how influential it is. #thatscrazyright
Unless you purposely want to sabotage your own social media strategy, do use hashtags. While you can post up to 30 hashtags on an Instagram post, the general rule of thumb is that 3-5 per post are best.
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Summary
That’s it, folks! Hope you liked our social media writing tips, and if that is the case, don’t forget to leave a comment and share this article with your friends.
And don’t forget that DevriX is a leading B2B digital marketing agency that help you with your social media.