Writing for social media is not an easy task. That’s because you work with strict character limits, you have to deliver content on time, you use memes and trends that your boss and co-workers might not understand, you have to react quickly and intelligently to trending topics, and if you post a typo, people will notice That and criticize you.
But it’s also fun and rewarding, and great content can help you start inspiring conversations, build engaged communities, drive attention to your brand, and even directly impact sales.
In this article, we share expert tips and tools that will help you become a more confident and effective social media writer.
What is writing content for social media?
Social media content writing is the process of writing content for a social media audience, usually for several major social media platforms. Content can include writing short captions for videos on TikTok or reels for a website. Instagram, long articles for LinkedIn, and more.
Writing for social media differs from writing for blogs and websites, as it requires specialized knowledge of social platforms, their audiences, trends, and jokes among their users.
Writing for social media is a critical component of any brand’s presence and can make or break an entire social media marketing campaign or strategy, but when done right, social media writing directly affects engagement and the rate at which leads are converted into leads. customers, and contribute to the company’s strategic goals.
7 tips for writing for social media:
The tips below will help you create content that will inspire your target audience to interact with you, take an action, or spend a few seconds thinking about what they just read.
Try some or all of them in your next social media posts to build good habits and sharpen your writing skills, and you’ll be surprised how much better your writing will do and how it will help you develop your style.
1. Start writing immediately.
The barriers to creativity are real, but there is an easy way to overcome them. Just start writing without overthinking. Start writing whatever comes to your mind and ignore sentence structure, spelling, and punctuation for now. Just keep writing down the words and skip any obstacles. You can review and edit later.
This is how John Swartzwelder, writer of the popular TV show The Simpsons, wrote the scripts for the episodes:
Since the writing is so hard and the rewriting is relatively easy and fairly enjoyable, I always write my scripts as fast as possible the first day if possible, including jokes and dialogue, and then the next day, when I get up the script, is written, it will be bad but it will be ready, With that, the hard part is over and all I have to do after that is improve it.”
2. Speak about social media style.
This means something different on different platforms, and Eileen Kwok, Social Media Marketing Coordinator at Hootsuite, believes that you should understand how you should speak to your target audience. Each channel has a different goal; So the writing should vary.
For example, LinkedIn is a platform preferred by working professionals. Therefore, priority may be given to educational content and thought leadership. As for the TikTok application, the audience is less committed to official controls. That’s why fun videos that showcase the brand’s personality suit him well.
But this advice goes beyond choosing the right content types and post types for each platform, it comes down to the style you use to communicate.
“On most channels, you’ll need to spell-check everything and make sure it’s grammatically correct, but these rules don’t apply to TikTok, as decorative words are used for effect, emojis are used instead of words, and even misspellings,” Elaine says. The words, all inform the playful nature of the app.
Show it to your boss next time he doesn’t want to agree to a TikTok caption that says a funny word or doesn’t use any punctuation at all.
3. Make your posts accessible.
As a social media writer, you need to make sure that everyone in your audience can enjoy your posts.
Nick Martin, Social Listening and Engagement Expert at Hootsuite, says, “When writing for social media, you need to consider accessibility. unreadable to them.
Unintelligible posts will not help you reach your goals on social media; In fact, you may turn people off from your brand altogether.
“The same applies when you share an image with text on it – you need to make sure you write alt text for that image so all of your audience can enjoy it,” Martin adds.
4. Keep it simple:
Imagine that you are writing to a child. This is a simple but very effective exercise that will force you to write clearly and drop any unnecessary expressions that are only likely to confuse your readers.
Linkedin in particular abounds with clichés and ineffectiveness, and while it is certainly a business social media channel, entrepreneurs are human too, and people respond better to concise and clear writing than to excessive use of meaningless buzzwords. TRUE.
To communicate with your audience, you must speak in a language they understand. Be honest, use a simple style and short sentences, and practice reading in front of a relative or friend to see if the sentences are understood.
5. Put the reader at the center of attention.
Your social media audience isn’t eager to know what your company wants or is important to you; They want to know how it will benefit them; This is why you should always write from your readers’ point of view. So instead of posting a boring list of features you just added to your product, tell your audience how their lives would be better if they used it. Sometimes standing out requires nothing more than writing from a reader’s point of view. This is because most of your competitors do not.
6. Set a clear goal.
What action do you want the reader to take? Want them to leave a comment or click through to your website? Whatever it is, make it clear in your call to action.
Note that your call-to-action doesn’t have to be a button or other overly visible element in your posts, it could simply be an engaging question in your caption, or a sentence telling your audience to click on the link in your bio.
7. Use appropriate images.
We’ve already talked about the importance of adding alt text to images for easy access, but the images you choose are very important.
Some networks rely more on words than on images and videos, but whenever possible and appropriate, you should try to include visual elements in your posts.
4 tools for writing for social media:
1. Hemingway app:
- Services: Write anything briefly and clearly.
- Cost: Free in your browser, one-time payment of $19.99 for the desktop app.
Hemingway will make you a better writer; This is because it flags overly complex words and phrases, long sentences, unnecessary words, passive voices, and much more, and it also rates the readability score.
Always try to achieve a score of 6 in readability, some subjects are a bit complicated; So be flexible and don’t get discouraged if you aren’t always able to hit that number, but it’s generally a good standard.
Here’s how to use it:
- Type your text.
- Copy and paste it into Hemingway’s online editor.
- Notice where the problems are.
- Make the necessary changes.
- Watch your score improve.
2. ZenPen
- Services: Writing without distractions.
- Cost: Free.
There are a lot of distractions in life, and ZenPen is your little distraction-free corner to help you write without outside interference.
Here’s how to use it:
- Go to the (io) site.
- Start writing posts for social media.
- Enjoy the distraction-free editor until you’re done.
3. Grammarly
- Services: Make your writing clear, efficient, and correct.
- Cost: Basic plan is free, and premium plans start at $12 per month.
Grammarly promises to keep your social posts right. It points out issues from contextual misspellings to inappropriate vocabulary, and the tool integrates with plenty of online platforms, including Twitter, Gmail, and Tumblr.
4. Lately with Hootsuite
- Services: Automatically generate captions for social media posts from other texts such as blog posts.
- Cost: Plans start at $14.99.
Lately is an AI content creation tool for social media marketers that, when combined with Hootsuite, will learn which keywords and phrases drive the most engagement with your audience and automatically create content based on those. thoughts.
Lately can also break existing long-form content — such as blog posts — into multiple headlines and short social content segments, all designed to increase responsiveness. As you review and edit content, the AI continues to learn; So the content they create will automatically improve over time.
