Writing for social media shouldn’t be a simple job.
You’re employed with strict character limits and tight turnarounds. You converse the language of memes and microtrends that your boss and coworkers won’t perceive. You need to rapidly — and wittily — react to trending subjects. And, when you ever publish a publish with a typo, folks will discover and name you out. (Taking a look at you, Twitter meanies.)
But it surely’s additionally enjoyable and rewarding. Nice content material will help you begin inspiring conversations, construct engaged communities, create buzz round your model, and even instantly affect gross sales.
Preserve studying for professional ideas and instruments that may aid you turn out to be a extra assured and efficient social media author very quickly.
Bonus: Download The Wheel of Copy, a free visual guide to crafting persuasive headlines, emails, ads and calls to action. Save time and write copy that sells!
What is social media content writing?
Social media content writing is the process of writing content for social media audiences, usually across multiple major social media platforms. It can include writing short captions for TikTok or Instagram Reels, long-form LinkedIn articles, and everything in between.
Writing for social media is different from writing for blogs and websites — it requires expert knowledge of social platforms and their audiences, trends, and inside jokes.
Social media writing is a crucial element of any brand’s social presence. It can make or break a campaign or your entire social media marketing strategy. When done right, social writing directly influences engagement and conversions, and contributes to strategic business goals.
7 social media writing tips for 2022
The tips below will help you create content that will inspire your target audience to interact with you, take action, or simply spend a few seconds contemplating what they just read.
Try some (or all) of these in your next 10 social media posts to build good habits and strengthen your writing muscle. You’ll be amazed at how clear you’ll write, and how you’ll zero in on your voice.
1. Just start writing (you’ll edit later)
Writer’s block is real, but there’s an easy way to blast past it: Just start writing without overthinking it.
Start typing whatever comes to mind and forget about sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation (for a moment). Just keep your fingers moving and power through any blockages. Editing will come later.
This is how John Swartzwelder, legendary Simpsons writer, wrote scripts for the show:
“Since writing could be very onerous and rewriting is relatively simple and reasonably enjoyable, I all the time write my scripts throughout as quick as I can, the primary day, if attainable, placing in crap jokes and sample dialogue […]. Then the following day, after I stand up, the script’s been written. It’s awful, nevertheless it’s a script. The onerous half is finished. It’s like a crappy little elf has snuck into my workplace and badly performed all my work for me, after which left with a tip of his crappy hat. All I’ve to do from that time on is repair it.”
This, after all, means various things on completely different platforms.
Eileen Kwok, Social Marketing Coordinator at Hootsuite thinks it’s completely essential to “have a great understanding of what language speaks to your audience. Each channel serves a distinct objective, so the copy must range.”
Questioning what that appears like, precisely, on Hootsuite’s personal social media channels? “LinkedIn, for instance, is an area for working professionals, so we prioritize academic and thought management content material on the platform. Our viewers on TikTok is extra informal, so we give them movies that talk to the enjoyable and genuine facet of our model.”
However this recommendation goes past selecting the correct content material classes and publish varieties for every community. It actually comes right down to the language you employ.
Eileen says: “On most channels, you’ll need to spell-check all the pieces and be sure you’re grammatically right — however these guidelines don’t apply for TikTok. Having phrases in all caps for dramatic impact, utilizing emojis as a substitute of phrases, and even the misspelling of phrases all serves the playful nature of the app.”
You’ll be able to go forward and present this to your boss the following time they don’t need to approve a TikTok caption mentioning Dula Peep or utilizing completely no punctuation.
3. Make your posts accessible
As a social media author, you need to be sure that everybody in your viewers can get pleasure from your posts.
Nick Martin, Social Listening and Engagement Strategist at Hootsuite informed me: “When writing for social media, accessibility is one thing you need to be preserving in thoughts. A few of your followers could use screen-readers, and a publish that is stuffed with emojis can be almost unreadable for them.”
Unintelligible posts gained’t aid you attain your social media targets. The truth is, they may flip folks away out of your model altogether.
“The identical goes for once you share a picture that has textual content on it,” Nick provides. “You’ll need to be sure you write alt-text for that picture so all of your viewers can get pleasure from it.”
Right here’s a terrific instance of how one can have enjoyable writing artistic and entertaining alt-text on your social publish’s accompanying pictures:
Self-care routines and bear encounters each begin with setting boundaries pic.twitter.com/reul7uausI
— Washington State Dept. of Pure Assets (@waDNR) September 20, 2022
4. Preserve it easy
Think about you’re writing to an eighth grader. Like, truly.
It is a easy however tremendous efficient train that may pressure you to put in writing clearly and ditch any pointless jargon that will doubtless solely confuse your readers.
“Drive innovation.”
“Turn out to be a disruptor.”
Ugh.
LinkedIn, particularly, is house to a few of the most over-used, under-effective statements of all time. And certain, it’s a “businessy” social media channel. However enterprise individuals are, properly, folks too. And folks reply properly to succinct, clear copy — not overused buzzwords with little to no actual which means behind them.
To attach along with your viewers, you need to converse a language they perceive. Say one thing actual. Use plain language and quick sentences. Follow in your niece, mother, or buddy, and see in the event that they get your message.
5. Write to the reader
Your social media viewers isn’t dying to search out out what your organization is as much as or what’s necessary to you (until it’s tremendous related). They need to know what’s in it for them. That’s why you need to all the time write from the readers’ perspective. Make them the hero.
So, as a substitute of posting a boring checklist of options which have simply been added to your product, inform your viewers how their life will enhance in the event that they use it.
Typically, “standing out” is nothing greater than writing from the reader’s standpoint — as a result of most of your rivals don’t.
6. Have a transparent objective
… and write that objective down on the high of your draft to maintain your thoughts on the goal whilst you write.
What motion would you like the reader to take? Would you like them to depart a remark or click on by to your web site? No matter it’s, make it clear in a CTA (name to motion).
Word {that a} CTA doesn’t must be a button or some other tremendous specific, simply identifiable aspect inside your publish. It may be so simple as a fascinating query inside your caption, or a sentence telling your viewers why they need to click on on the hyperlink in your bio.
7. Use (the proper) footage to boost your phrases
This one speaks for itself. (One picture is price a thousand phrases, anybody?)
We’ve already talked concerning the significance of including alt-text to pictures for accessibility, however the pictures you choose are crucial.
Some networks depend on phrases greater than they do on pictures and movies. However at any time when attainable (and related), you need to attempt to embody visuals in your posts — they’re far more efficient at grabbing the eye of scrollers than phrases. And with out that focus, your phrases gained’t get an opportunity to shine.
4 writing instruments for social media
1. Hemingway app
Good for: Writing something succinctly and clearly.
Value: Free in your browser, one-time $19.99 cost for the desktop app.
The Hemingway app will make you a greater, extra participating author. It flags over-complicated phrases and phrases, lengthy sentences, pointless adverbs, passive voice, and a lot extra. It additionally offers you a readability rating.
Professional tip: On the Hootsuite editorial workforce, we all the time goal for grade 6 readability. Some subjects are merely a bit sophisticated, so keep versatile and don’t beat your self up when you’re not all the time in a position to attain this benchmark — nevertheless it’s a great rating to shoot for.
Right here’s the way it works:
- Write your copy.
- Paste it into Hemingway’s online editor.
- Visually see what works and what doesn’t.
- Make your modifications.
- Watch your rating enhance!
2. ZenPen
Good for: Distraction-free writing.
Value: Free.
There’s loads of litter in life. ZenPen is one small nook of the distraction-free-universe that will help you write with out exterior interference.
- Go to zenpen.io.
- Begin writing posts for social.
- Benefit from the noise-free editor till you’re performed.
3. Grammarly
Good for: Making your writing clear, efficient, and proper.
Value: Free primary plan; Premium plans begin at $12/month
Grammarly guarantees to maintain your social posts on level. It’s going to flag all the pieces from contextual spelling errors to poor phrase selections. And, the instrument integrates with a lot of on-line platforms, together with Twitter, Gmail, and Tumblr.
4. Lately + Hootsuite
Good for: Mechanically producing social captions from different textual content (e.g. weblog posts).
Value: Plans begin at $14.99
Recently is an AI content material creation instrument for social media entrepreneurs. When built-in with Hootsuite, it learns which key phrases and phrases drive essentially the most engagement along with your viewers and robotically creates content material primarily based on these insights.
Recently may take current long-form content material, like weblog posts, and break it down into a number of headlines and quick content material items for social, all designed to maximise response.
As you evaluate and edit the content material, the AI continues to study, so your robotically generated content material will get higher and higher over time.
Compose, schedule, and publish your expertly written posts to all the foremost social media channels from one dashboard utilizing Hootsuite. Strive it free immediately.
Do it higher with Hootsuite, the all-in-one social media toolkit. Keep up to the mark, develop, and beat the competitors.