According to Forbes, social media sales will become a key trend in marketing by 2020, which means that quality content on social networks will become even more important in the near future. Customers are interested in interactivity and want to get answers to their questions at any time of the day. They are becoming more demanding and only read the most interesting content. So, how can you write text that will engage such an audience?
How to write posts on social media correctly: 5 tips from a textbook
A good post on social media should help the customer avoid danger (for example, spending money on a bad product), find the answer to a question, or achieve their goal. To earn the audience’s respect, follow the professional rules for creating journalistic texts. These rules are in almost every textbook and are never unnecessary in an SMM specialist’s work.
- Don’t take sides. Remember, in a conflict post or article, you need to show both sides of the argument; otherwise, the audience will think you’ve chosen a “favorite” and are playing favorites.
- Write using the GOSS method: Goal, Obstacle, Solution, and Start. These four points will help you come up with plenty of topics for posts.
- Combine stories with facts. For example, if you’re talking about a real-life situation, don’t forget to add statistics and think about the causes of what happened.
- Don’t tell, show. Forget about generic phrases and judgments like “As we know, this person is a sweetheart.” Tell the story from different perspectives so the reader can make their own conclusions.
- Balance text and photos. For example, the optimal post length on Instagram is up to 2,000 characters. Don’t be afraid of long texts; just structure them well and break them into subpoints.
Writing high-quality content is only half the battle. The other half is a well-planned SMM promotion strategy that helps deliver this content to the right audience at the right time.
Don’t deprive the text of soul: What every SMM specialist should remember
An easy, interesting, and vividly written text will engage the reader. The text should be emotional, provoke feelings, and play on emotions. A dull style of writing, clichés, and bureaucratic language, as well as a bland plot, can be tolerated in a journalistic article for a business publication, but it’s impossible to endure in social media posts.
Texts about dangers that threaten us or those we care about add a sharp edge. Bitter-sweet posts show us “from the outside” and leave an interesting aftertaste. And of course, where would we be without sweetness – beautiful, artistic texts, some phrases of which sometimes stay in our memory forever. The text can be anything, but please, just not “gray”! How can you master emotional writing and create a text that will truly touch your audience?
- Write about what worries you. If you really want to share valuable and useful information with your audience, you won’t need to force emotions.
- Write about topics that are close to your audience. To achieve a broad reach, the topic should be relevant and interesting to your target audience. It’s a good idea to first identify who exactly your audience is and what these people care about, then tailor your content plan to their characteristics.
- Be provocative. Write about something new, important, and provocative. Expect to get dozens of comments under the post.
- Write both short notes and longreads. The maximum post length on Facebook is up to 3,000 characters. If the article is longer, it will be cut off, so make sure to have an engaging start.
- Never insult the customer. Texts like “you’re an idiot, but you can get smarter” don’t work. You must always speak respectfully to customers, set boundaries, and draw red lines, but never cross them yourself.
Look for topics around you and practice small brainstorming sessions: ask your colleagues about a topic (politics, utilities, choosing a kindergarten for your child) and ask them to come up with 20-30 post ideas for each topic. Edit the texts until you understand that there are no unnecessary words left in the post. And last but not least – make posts every day so that your audience gets used to it and looks forward to them. If you don’t have time to manage corporate social media yourself, you can entrust this task to specialists at “LuxSite“.
