Whether you are a marketing assistant, blogger, individual or content creator, a honed skill in social media copywriting will make your marketing communication more effective, improve customer engagement, optimize conversion and help you reach your salesβ goals.
In this lesson you will learn 25 practical steps you can put to work straight away to improve your copy and make it more concise, persuasive, attention grabbing and engaging; 12 helpful βrealworldβ examples from top brands who are totally ace in writing for social; 9 quality writing resources for a bit of extra help when you need them; Fundamental principles on how to write for several social media platforms; How to craft response that encourages engagement and minimize conflict; And How to avoid common mistakes people make when writing for social media.
From profile to post and pages, the copywriting skill you will learn in this class will make your social media marketing communication more effective. Pick a project that you would want to promote on social media; It could be a landing page your want people to visit; a product you want them to buy; or you want to increase engagement through story telling.
The Basic Rules
- Prepare for success.
- Know your audience.
- The focus of business social activities should not be your business but effective enough to address reoccurring customersβ needs. Address their problem rather than loud your brand.
- Be consistent with your brand tone of voice.
- Use a casual tone because people use social media to connect with friends and family.
- A post should have only one CTA (call to action); Whether it be to click on a landing page, buy a product or engage with the post.
- Keep your post simple and straight to the point. You can tweak and break some grammar rules in line with your brandβs tone of voice.
copywriting
1. Profile and Bios |Inspired by Forrester
Start strong; Get to the point; banish bloat.
Bio is the first impression your customers get of you. Its pertinent to have a professional crafted in all your social media accounts.
i. Business title and name
ii. @handle
iii. Who you helped and how you helped them.
iv. What makes you unique.
v. Prove it. (Something that proves your credibility; this could be earned certificates, awards or number of customers youβve served.
vi. CTA + Benefits
_____________________________
Example:
Urban Barista
@urbanbaristaleicester
Specialty blends for discerning coffee drinkers
Dog β friendly shop in the heart of Leicester
Specialty coffee Association member
Follow us for special offers.
Resource:
Hootsuites Bio Templates β for more templates on bio style
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2. Writing For Twitter |Inspired by Samsung Mobile
- Audience : News Seekers
- Post length : 70 β 100 characters
- Hashtags : 1 or 2 per post
Twitter audience are mostly people seeking for news, topical issues, trends and updates.
Keep your post, punchy, concise and straight to the point as this vital to get better engagement on Twitter.
Use hashtags to highlight key words and shorten your texts.
I encourage you to break some grammar rules, tweak words and be less formal.
Example
New coffee blend! seductively dark. Creamy. And its got a kick.
Southern promise combines beans from either side of the globe β Brazil and Indonesia.
Visit our shop for a 10% discount #Thisweekonly
Resource:
Sprout β A tool for defining the length of every social media post. With Sprout you can first place your post to get feedback on its length and number of hashtags.
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3. Writing For LinkedIn | Inspired by Templafy
- Audience: Professionals
- Post length : 50 β 100 characters
- Hashtags : 1 or 2 per post
Posts on LinkedIn usually link to a blog post or website landing page. Complement your content; make sure the content title (the landing page) follows on smoothly from the post.
One way to engage your audience on LinkedIn is to βask a questionβ. You can alternate between an open or close question. Clarity is everything, ask simple but broad question, then sit back and watch the reactions pour in. Tea or coffee? Company retreat or vacation?
Always write with your readers in mind by making your post more of them and less of you. banish bloats, craft only professional posts. Be formal
Be specific and resolute about your CTA. Writing persuasive content on LinkedIn or any other social platform should be all about connecting with your readers and gently leading them into your marketing funnel β the landing page.
4. Writing For Facebook | Inspired by GoPro
- Audience : Less web savvy
- Post length : 40 β 80 characters
- Hashtags : 1 per post
Facebook users do not like being linked outside the platform. You should try to include contents that keeps users on the platform.
Use magic numbers. Write numbers in numeral rather than in words. Human beings for some reason are naturally drawn to numbers. Including numerals in your facebook post is such a cheap way to increase engagement.
Capitalize first letters; think of your post as headlines to help you make them shorter and more concise. Use title case converter
Include video and/or picture on your post. Note that Facebook is a visual platform.
Get personal, get into your customerβs shoe. Use adjectives such as us, we, you, our, your, etc. its more engaging and draws attention.
Resource: Title case converter
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5. Writing For Instagram | Inspired by AliDropship
- Audience : Positivity seekers, Influencers
- Post length : 138 β 150
- Hashtags : 10 or 11 per post
Instagram is considered a mini-blog, so if you want to experiment with longer social media content, then this is the right platform for you.
Separate the hashtags from the main post. This is preferable at the bottom of the post, and make the hashtags stand out as a set of keywords rather than being part of your post.
Tell a story; Storytelling is such a powerful marketing tool and Instagram is a preferred platform for it.
Space it up to make it more readable and clear; use the Instagram Line Break tool to space up your IG post
Resource: Instagram line Breaker
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Common Mistakes To Avoid.
When it comes to interacting with your customer, particularly when it comes to answering queries, and handling complains, youβll need to learn from the best, avoid these common mistakes and instead convert that loophole into an advantage.
1. Chek Speling : The secret of spotting these typographics and errors is proper proof reading before posting. Check username and hashtags. Use tools like Hemingway and Grammarly to check grammars and spelling before publishing.
Get a second opinion if possible. Make each post be checked and signed by another member of your team.
2. Click on Hashtags : Always click on all hashtags you are about including in your post to make sure its something your brand would wish to associate with. If not, then discard and opt for a more in-tone hashtags.
3. Avoid Cross-Posting : Cross posting is where you share exactly the same post on all of your accounts through out several social media platform. Its tempting to do this because it keeps your accounts active, saves time and makes it easy to share your content widely. But its a terrible idea in the long term because it has a potential to really devalue your brand.
Cross posting looks likes spamming and reeks of unseriousness. Avoid it.
4. Use Emoji base on your brand voice: Only include emojis in your posts or replies when its in line with your brand tone of voice.
5. Conversation : Vary your replies when crafting responses to query and mentions to encourage positive engagement and minimize conflict. It could be tempting to copy and paste the same reply for similar questions to save time, but varying your response is key to B2C and B2B interactions.
Replying with the same post will make you look insincere and customers might think you are some kind of robot or automated responder.
What to do: Write out similar answers for a popular question and send them alternately to different customers. You can pick the one that best match the style used by your customer. For example;
- Send us DM with your four-digit order number and we will look into it.
- Weβll check this out, please send us a DM with your four-digit number.
- DM us with your four-digit order number and weβll investigate.
- Let us look into this, please DM your four-digit order number.
- Drop us a DM with your four-digit order and weβll look into it.
Its such a quick and easy way to make your responses more tailored and less robotic. However, get them signed by the Manager before you start.
Also, using adjective βIβ instead of βweβ and adding your name at the end of the reply can create a bit connection with the customer and increase conversion. Here are some more examples;
- Hi Luca, send a DM with your four-digit order number and Iβll look into it. _Bishop
- Hi Bryan, please DM the four-digit order number and I will check it out. _Bishop @Swiperite
When it social media copywriting, youβll also need customer service skills to scale your career. Take a dive or browse through customer service social media field for inspiration on how to interact with customers efficiently and effectively.
Be job ready. Take courses on Skillshareto hone your copywriting and customer service skills. Its Free for the first month.