8 Essentials of Effective Social Media Copywriting
Michael Gronski
Data-Driven Digital Marketer | SEO & Content Strategist | UX Advocate
Until relatively recent years, business owners had limited options in the past regarding marketing their businesses. Some used posters, flyers, and word-of-mouth, while those who could afford paid advertising used TV and radio commercials.
Today, the internet has opened new doors for marketing businesses and connecting with your customers at scale. One of the most popular platforms now for business owners, marketers and advertisers alike is social media platforms.
When used effectively, social media is a wonderful marketing tool that can help you create awareness about your brand, grow your online community and generate many qualified leads and sales. Social media is a must-have for small businesses looking to maximize their marketing budget.
However, opening accounts on different social media platforms isn't enough to get followers and fans who will eventually become your customers.
You need to be active on these platforms and post valuable content that compels your audience to like, comment, and share each post. But how do you do this? Enter social media copywriting is essential to maximize your business's social media efforts.
Here are eight essential tips you can use to?create effective social media copy:
1. Understand the Different Social Media Platforms
Writing effective social media copy starts with understanding the different social media platforms marketers use to promote their businesses. The most popular platforms currently are:
Let's talk about each of them briefly:
Created initially to connect students, but over time, it has grown to become one of the largest online communities.
It's a favorite marketing platform for many businesses because of its vast user base. It allows marketers to connect to their target audience in many ways, including Facebook Live, images, videos, posts, and more.
Instagram was originally created to share art, but over the years, it has become a powerful marketing tool for businesses, especially those targeting young audiences. It allows its users to post videos, photos, stories, and more.
Twitter is another popular social media platform among individuals and businesses of all types. It's an excellent communication tool that allows businesses to communicate with their customers directly and freely.
Because of the freedom of expression that Twitter offers, customers use it to contact different brands when they have complaints, need help, etc.
Customer tweets are not always positive, but you can use this to your advantage to improve your products or services as a business.
The original purpose of LinkedIn was to allow professionals to connect with people in the same field easily.
But, over time, it has grown into an excellent platform for business promotion and career-related functions (job posting and searching).
Snapchat
Snapchat is a messaging platform where users share videos and photos with one another, but only for a limited time.
Like Instagram, most of Snapchat users are younger, so it's a great platform for promoting your business if you're targeting younger demographics.
Taking time to learn about these social media platforms is important because it helps you utilize them properly and make the most of them.
2. Know the Audiences on Each Platform
Each social media platform mentioned above attracts a different type of audience.
For example, Instagram and Snapchat attract mainly the younger population, so when you're writing for these platforms, you have to be creative, funny, and easygoing.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, typically attracts professionals, so the tone of your copy will tend to be professional too. Both younger and more mature audiences use Facebook and Twitter, so you need to know your target audience on these platforms and tailor your copy to suit them.
Knowing the audiences on different social media platforms is crucial because it influences how you write your copy and reduces the chances of creating content for the wrong demographic.
领英推荐
3. Know the Goal of Your Social Media Copy
After knowing the different platforms and the audiences they attract, you need to ask yourself what goal you're trying to achieve with your copy.
For instance, if your goal is to inform prospective customers about your business, you should make your copy as factual as possible.
Similarly, if your goal is to grow your social media following, your copy should be casual and relatable to enable you to connect with your target audience easily.
4. Have a Clear Strategy in Mind for Your Copy
Another vital tool in social media copywriting is strategy. You must have a clear strategy that you'll follow to achieve your end goal.?
One strategy you can use in your business is creating a week's or month's worth of content in advance. This is important because it gives you more time to make necessary changes and create a posting schedule for your content. It also allows you to establish a consistent presence.
Having a goal in mind will enable you to establish specific milestones to work towards and measure. Web applications such as?Hootsuite,?Adriel, and?Sendible?allow you to schedule your posts in advance, which helps to save a significant amount of time and energy. They also provide great reporting tools essential to tracking your progress and much more.
5. Use the Right Voice
Another essential tip for writing effective social media copy is using the right voice.
Different companies want to be portrayed in different ways on social media. Some want to look expensive and luxurious, while others want to be portrayed as approachable and friendly.
Whatever your case may be, you need to find the right voice to use to portray your business the way it wants to be portrayed and keep it consistent throughout your copy.
One way to find the right voice to use is by going through your company's past social media feeds and getting a feel of the personality of the voice used. If this isn't possible in your case, you need to track down any piece of writing that has your company's voice, like emails, newsletters, etc.
Both methods will give you an idea of your company's persona, which will help you find the right voice to use in your writing.
6. Write Captivating Headlines
The way you write your headline can either draw people's attention to the rest of your social media copy or push them away.
The more captivating your headline is, the higher the chances that your copy will drive higher engagement and more conversions.
So, don't be afraid to think outside the box and develop a creative, thought-provoking, or interesting headline that compels people to continue reading the rest of your content.
7. Always Edit Your Copy Before Posting
It's also important to do a thorough edit before publishing your work. Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, incorrect hyperlinks, and awkward sentences and phrases that don't make sense should all be edited before hitting the post/publish button.
Doing this gives your business a professional look, which is essential when trying to generate more leads and sales.
Some copywriters read their work aloud to help them catch mistakes, while others ask people in their circle to help them review their copy. Whatever you decide to do is your choice. Just make sure that the end product is error-free. Creating a pre-post checklist that you implement can be of great help.
8. Promote Your Social Media Posts
Lastly, you must ensure that your critical social media posts reach as many people as possible after publishing. This is why paid promotion is crucial.
Luckily, social media platforms offer marketers who want to promote their content various advertising options.
Facebook, for instance, allows you to choose the budget for the promotion and the duration of time you want the promotion to last. After doing this, they give you an estimated reach of your post.
Alternatively, you can promote your content organically by encouraging your audience to share your posts with their friends so it reaches more people. Include your social media links on your website, bulk emails, and email signatures.
It's important to remember that people only share posts that add value to their lives, so your content has to be as valuable and useful to your target audience as possible if you want it to get more shares.
Final Thoughts on Effective Social Media Copywriting
Writing effective copy for social media is possible with just a few simple steps kept in mind.
This process involves understanding the different social media platforms and the audience they attract, creating a goal for your copy, creating a good strategy to help you achieve your goal, using powerful headlines, using the right voice to portray your company, and editing your work before publishing.
Make sure you follow these tips the next time you’re writing for social media to create better copy for your target audience and grow your business one post at a time.