The “Dos” of Social Media Copywriting

The core growth of online marketing is being driven by social media. This is due primarily to consumer and business reliance on new technology, which has quickly advanced the ability of mobile phones, spread Wi-Fi access, and emphasized the Internet as primary communicator.

Today’s businesses are rapidly realising that an online presence may be one of the only ways to reach and interact with their intended target audience. This means also changing how these firms look at copywriting services and marketing messages. And, the same strategy, style, and delivery method that worked offline may not be effective for online copywriting. Consider these ideas for what works when it comes to social media copywriting.

Low-Key Selling Strategies

• Use a soft sell approach when developing your advertising copy so as to be less intrusive. An obvious pitch is the fastest way to turn people off. Social media is about interaction and sharing. Focus on engaging your customer and finding out what interests them rather than telling them what you think they want.
• Let go of the control mentality with all your content writing strategies and focus on a more influential technique to the copywriting to make readers feel more involved in the direction of the content as it evolves. Be sure to make the content accessible in terms of a “call to action” like leaving a comment, question, or idea that can generate discussions or be the basis of future content messages.
• Leverage copywriting campaigns as a tool that users can actually do something with like solve a problem, save time and money, or be entertained. Making the connection that you are using social media to interact rather than sell something will actually achieve your real aim of increased market share, revenue, and profits over the long term.
• Keep feeding the content monsters out there with regular copywriting updates on a weekly basis at least if not daily. Social media operates on instant gratification mode. The more you update, the more visitors will check, and the more notice you’ll get from search engines. It’s a cycle that works and builds momentum and followers quickly.

The Nuts and Bolts of Online Copywriting

• Include web copy that attracts search engines so that more traffic can be steered toward your website. SEO copywriting is an essential component of social media because it serves as the virtual map to guide customers to your engaging and valuable content.
• Partner with an interactive media firm or a content agency to track analytics and generate feedback to generate more targeted content messaging.

Entertainment and Emotional Connections

• Balance your social media copywriting so that it offers knowledge or solutions in an entertaining way. Sprinkling a little bit of humour into the content recipe helps encourage visitors to pass a link to your content onto others for a viral return. Just take care in tempering the level of shock value or silliness. Too much of a good thing can spoil the content dish. And, once something goes viral, it’s impossible to take it back or make it go away.
• Develop social media content that resonates with your target audience by infusing the copywriting with the same intangibles that attract consumers or businesses to brands. Although it seems as the world has been drawn more closely together, the virtual world can result in disconnection and isolation. Social media has succeeded because it connects people in new and exciting ways through emotions and shared interests.
• Make the online copywriting messages timely in relation to a season, an event, or social issue. People use social media as a virtual “soap box” from which to spread their opinion and get the thoughts of others.
• Although content writing is a key component of social media success, its value can exponentially increase when a visual or video aspect is included to extend a company’s message, reinforce its brand identity, and generate a higher potential for viral growth.

What Do You Do?

Tell us what has worked for you. What hasn’t worked? Our readers would enjoy hearing about what makes for social media copywriting how it has shaped your success or what type of lessons you have learned from social media missteps.