Capturing Your Audience with More Interesting and Shareable Copy on Social Media

That social media has pervaded nearly every aspect of people’s modern lives is an understatement.

Not only is social media a means to communicate and connect beyond physical and social boundaries but also a major source of information, thus playing a significant role in people’s decision-making.

Moreover, social media is only expected to grow. According to Oberlo, there are about 3.78 billion users of social media around the world in 2021.

As one of the most popular activities to engage in online and an easily accessible platform for people around the world, it is safe to say the age of social media is here to stay.

What Does This Mean for Brands?

Social media has always been a powerful tool for promoting and marketing brands. Engineered to build communities, inspire followings, and ultimately, influence decision-making, social media can be leveraged by brands to directly engage with their audiences.

And with the right social media marketing strategies, brands can not only grow and connect with their communities but also generate leads and sales.

However, it is one thing to establish a social media presence and another to harness its real power to turn audiences into customers.

Putting your brand on the best platforms and utilizing social media metrics are surefire methods to boost your brand’s performance on social media, but at the heart of it all is how well you can engage your audience with content.

Cutting Through the Noise

This is where writing for social media—and doing it well—comes in. Here, we look at some crucial ways of making more interesting social media copy and engaging audiences with posts that are more likable, shareable, and impactful for your brand.

Beyond getting into the basics of copy writing, these tips can help you connect more meaningfully with your audience, make your brand stand out in the market, and put your brand on top of its social media game for the long haul.

Set brand guidelines for social media copy

Elevating your brand’s social media copy begins with having a strong foundation. What you need to aim for is consistency—and it might be a bit more complicated than you would expect.

Having an established set of guidelines or a style guide can unify your social media posts in a way that helps audiences distinguish your brand and identify it among a host of other brands churning out posts on social media.

Social media makes it quicker and easier to get in touch with your target audience, but it does not mean you should cut corners.

If you’re just setting up your style guide for your brand’s social media or want to improve your existing guidelines, here are some things you can consider.

• Goals. Firstly, decide who your brand wants to be and why your brand is on social media—and make sure it comes across in your messages.
• Audience. Determine who you’re writing for in your social media posts.
• Voice. Social media brand voice is an essential brand element. While you must strive to keep your messaging consistent among different channels, you might find that your tone on social media can help showcase the fun side of your brand.
• Playful and punchy copy writing is great for social media. Decide what you want your overall tone to be—whether it’s friendly, compassionate, helpful, upbeat, deadpan, youthful, or formal.
• Branding. Highlight your brand’s requirements for spelling, formatting, and other copywriting-related elements. If your brand already has a style guide for copywriting, it would be an excellent starting point for developing a social media style guide.
• Target messaging channels. You would have to consider which channels you’re keen on using for your posts. Remember, what may be appropriate on one channel might not be for another. Draft guidelines on your messaging types for every network as well.

Decide on your goals

Behind every piece of content is a clear marketing objective—and it is no different writing for social media.

Setting clear goals for every social media post not only makes it efficient to measure its success through metrics but also helps you execute a defined follow-through strategy. It prevents sloppy posting and instead brings consistency to your social media channels.

Are you aiming for clicks, likes, or shares? Or, do you want this post to bring more awareness to your branding?

Are you looking to engage your audience through comments or conversations? Is this particular post meant to drive conversions? 

Determining your goal beforehand will help you craft your social media copy to achieve your desired outcomes.

Write with your audience in mind

Adapting to different audiences is an essential skill in writing for social media because it’s crucial to remember that each channel is different.

This also means identifying where your target audience is among the various social platforms available when marketing your brand. Get to know the most popular platforms along with specific tips on writing for each one.

• Facebook

Facebook remains the most widely used social network and is the market leader; thus, it’s important for brands to know how to leverage Facebook marketing now more than ever.

People use Facebook as a source of both news and entertainment, which means more opportunities to dial up shareable headlines for brands.

To boost your organic reach on Facebook, the copy should be short, simple, and sharp. You must also avoid being spammy, as Facebook can detect excessively promotional language.

• Instagram

Visuals are key for a winning Instagram marketing strategy. If your brand is visually inclined, Instagram would be a fitting platform to anchor your social media strategy on.

• Twitter

Twitter is an ideal platform that lets you share posts from your website or blog by directly adding links to your tweets.

Considering a limited character count, it is best to ensure your copy is attention-grabbing, error-free, and punchy.

Make the best use of hashtags to make your tweets more visible and ready for retweets. You could also figure out a strategy for curating your posts on this platform.

• LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most well-known community for professionals and is seen by many as a content distribution channel.

It is great for sharing industry-related news or statistics, quotes from industry leaders, and general professional content.

Make sure your content offers value

It is easy for any post to get lost in the number of searches, amount of tweets, and quantity of shares every single minute.

Your audience is ultimately likely to click on or engage in something relevant to their interests—whether it’s something entertaining or informative. Here are a few tips to gear your content toward meaningful value for your target audience.

• Keep abreast of trends.

Tap into the power of what’s trending with your social media copy. Though it appears simple, successfully riding the momentum of a trend with an impactful post takes more than a quick response.

Your copy should be carefully crafted to suit the situation at hand. Staying on top of trends is the first step.

• Do your research.

Beyond popular topics, do substantial research on sites and blogs with similar keywords to those you use for your site. Keep a pulse on trending searches and news that might be relevant to your brand.

• Crank up your posts with standout visuals.

Visuals are a powerful way to elevate any post. Especially on visual-driven sites, it is important to use or produce visual elements that pack a punch.

Well-crafted graphics, photographs, infographics, and videos can level up your copy—ensure that these elements are aligned to catch your audience’s attention.

• Utilize hashtags and emojis.

In a hashtag- and emoji-saturated space, you can leverage these elements to keep your posts relatable. However, use them wisely by keeping them appropriate for each post and learning when not to use them at all.

• Write compelling headlines.

Nothing can make your audience stop scrolling than a catchy, compelling copy. For headlines, try to craft them in a manner that tells a story but hooks and encourages your audience to want to learn more by consuming your content.

• Be concise.

Audiences want to get to the point, quickly. Keep your posts clear, concise, and straightforward. Master the art of using fewer words without sacrificing value.

• Add a call-to-action to your posts.

Motivate your audience to stop scrolling and get to your content directly on your site by adding a call-to-action statement in your social media copy. However, use this wisely—avoid over-promotional CTAs and overselling your content.

Try something new

Platforms are now making it easier to think outside of the box when it comes to the kinds of content you can post on social media.

For brands, this is a key opportunity to get creative to gain your audience’s focus and engage them.

Try a form of content that’s new to you—whether that’s checking out new technologies like 360 live video streaming or experimenting with new platforms like Tiktok or Musical.ly.

Or give your followers a sneak peek into your brand by posting behind-the-scenes footage. The possibilities are endless; it’s up to you to use these opportunities creatively.

Harness the power of community

Finally, never discount that at the heart of social media is a network of like-minded people. Thus, it is always important to keep your audience involved and engaged.

The best campaigns make their audience feel like they are in on the experience, and this is key to understanding how best to engage them.

Start conversations and encourage activity with your posts. Urge your audiences to comment on your posts by posing a compelling idea or question.

Come up with highly shareable content, and encourage your audience to hit the “share” button.

You can also create a challenge or game as a way for audiences to co-create the content with you. Re-share user-generated content and make your social media platform a platform for your community.

Get Social and Stay on Top

There are various ideas your brand can utilize to up your social game, but at the heart of it is content that matters to them.

Beyond the basics of copy-writing, create compelling content that makes your audience feel part of the experience. With these tips, you may be ready to start working on your first draft.

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