How to write for social media? I suppose that you have a profile on social media. But, posting personal photos and posting on business accounts are quite different.
Simply put – the purpose of your business profile is to sell products and services, but the aim of your personal profile is to make connections with friends and the rest of the world. Unless you are trying to build a personal brand. Then the aim is the same, but in this case you are trying to sell yourself.
Anyway, in this post you’ll find out the most important rules you should follow to attract people’s attention, increase engagement, and drive sales for your business.
Let’s start.
Get to know your audience
This is the first advice, but I do not count it as tip for writing, but rather a precondition for digital marketing overall.
If you were trying to educate yourself on how to write social media posts and blog posts, you would probably encounter this tip – get to know your audience, their demographic characteristics, their problems and desires, what they are striving for, etc.
Why is this important? Without knowing your audience, you are not able to provide them with relevant and reliable content. You should know what they are facing and put those stories on the agenda.
For example, if you sell supplements for weight-loss, you should map your target group’s problems:
- craving sweets
- lack of exercise
- fatty foods
and their desires:
- shaped figure
- attractive appearance
- change of life
Adapt the AIDA model to social media writing
AIDA model is the universal marketing rule. It is used for crafting marketing campaigns with the aim to drive sales. AIDA stands for – awareness, interest, desire, and action and these are stages which every buyer goes through.
AIDA model can be adjusted to the way of writing social media posts as a formula for making them.
With the adjustment, this formula is:
- Attention
There is a certain way to attract your audience’s attention: the headline and the first sentence of the post should be the most appealing.
It is advised that the headline should be placed on the photo you publish, but not in the description part to attract more attention. Headlines should represent the most valuable benefit, the most interesting fact, controversial statement, etc. It is the most surprising fact you found about your product or service that is supposed to provoke the audience’s reaction.
Regarding the first sentence of a post, you should use it to make connections with your target audience. So, it is important to make it reliable. The easiest and most efficient way to do so is to highlight a certain problem your audience is facing. You should empathize with them and show that you understand them. By pointing out thesepoints, you’ll ensure that your audience says “yes, yes, this is happening to me.”
- Solutions and benefits
This is the mid part of the social media post. Its aim is to answer the question at the beginning of the post. You should describe the solution and the benefits of your product or service. You are supposed to promise that your target audience’s problem will be solved and provide them with benefits that will make their lives easier and happier.
- CTA (call to action)
The main aim of any social media post is to engage your audience. The way to get them to leave a comment or reaction is to basically say what they should do.
CTA can be either a question related to the topic of the post or a couple of sentences to direct them to your website or other social media profile.
Speak social media language
First things first, you should write as you speak. It means that you are not supposed to use professional language, but rather the expressions a 7th grade kid is able to understand. The only social media which allows you to use business and professional language is Linkedin.
Let’s take TikTok as an example. The playful nature of this social media enables you to use casual language, plenty of emojis, and even grammar and spelling mistakes. The audience TikTok is aimed at – Gen Z – uses slang, abbreviations etc., and it should be used in its posts too.
Languages are evolving constantly, as are social media. Just to remind you – Instagram captions used to be short, but nowadays long stories are becoming more and more engaging. Yes, it is challenging to follow all these innovations, but it is the only way to stay up to date.
Keep it short and sweet
The new information age we live in is undoubtedly overwhelming. Be sure that your audience does not have much time to process your messages. They are busy with their everyday lives and there are so many posts trying to get their attention. So, today it is, more than ever, crucial to write scrolling-stop posts.
That basically means that you should not burden your audience, but rather give them an easy-digest-post.
How? – Use lists.
5 most useful tools in UX design, 3 books you should read about child development, 10 groceries you should avoid to be fit etc.
It is scientifically proven that people like this kind of content and are more open to engaging with it.
Thought-provoking posts
What do people argue about most? About “hot” topics for which there is no consensus in society.
Make a list of topics that are controversial in your industry and post about them. For example, use these as inspiration:
- universal or winter tyres for the winter season
- is caffeine harmful
- are you in a toxic relationship – check this out
Which of these have you known already? Please leave a comment below.
