Social Media Marketing Tips: Writing Consistently Great Posts
Social media has truly taken over the marketing world. Traditional marketing avenues such as television ads, radio advertising and print media have been left behind by social media marketing. As everyone works to keep up with the latest trends, it’s important to utilise all the social media marketing tips we can!
With all the different platforms out there you’re probably overwhelmed and unsure where to start with your social media marketing. There are so many options:
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and LinkedIn to name a few!
And each social media site has its own requirements to optimise your posts.
When you’re first trying to start a business it can be hard to have space in the budget to hire a professional (
hi!), but there are some basic tips you can follow to optimise the posts you make yourself for the best reach, engagement and follower growth.
What makes a social media post stand-out?
There are a couple of important points to consider when you’re writing the copy of your posts (text):
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- Your post hook
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- Post type (sales, informative, or casual)
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- Timing
Ok, let’s delve right into writing your post’s text. Every brand/business should have a ‘voice’ and communication style that you stick to. You may aim to portray yourself as casual and approachable, professional and helpful, or informative but humorous. Whichever tone your brand uses, you need to make sure it is consistent through your posts, videos, and advertising.
This means when you sit down to write your social media posts you need to be focused on conveying the appropriate tone. If you find this hard to maintain, you could try writing your brand’s personality points on post-it notes around your computer screen or on your business vision board. Somewhere in clear view of where you typically sit down to create your content. As with most things, having a consistent ‘voice’ in your writing takes practice, so don’t stress if you aren’t nailing this from the get-go.
What draws you to read some posts more than others on Instagram?
Because they start with a good hook to draw you in (see what I did there?) You can have the most valuable insights and content on offer, but without a good hook to draw your readers in it is unlikely to get seen. On average our attention span is only 5-8 seconds, so you have very little opportunity to leave your audience wanting more, ready to hit that ‘see more’ button. The key to overcoming this is a good hook, in your first 120-ish characters. The number of characters you have varies by social platform, we will cover this in more detail in a future blog.
Can I just post sales or product information in every social media post?
Sorry, while this is easy, the short answer is… no. Our audiences don’t want a sales pitch from you every time they scroll their social media timelines. Keep your posts relatable and engaging by varying the type of post you are delivering.
Consider setting up your phone to record you one day and then posting a day in my life reel. Captions for these can be short and simple. “Join me for a standard word-day!”
Show what you do outside of work as well. Love walking in a local park? Tell them about it (about the walking, don’t include the specific park’s details for safety!)
Do you offer a service? Try to write posts educating your audience about the service that you offer:
- What it is
- Why it has value
- Allude to nitty gritty’s that you can help with (don’t give your service away for free accidentally!)
What does timing have to do with an effective social media post?
My final social media marketing content writing tip is: to make sure you are thinking about the timing of your posts. And not in the way you probably assume.
Yes, there are optimal times of the day for posting that find your audience most active and ready to engage. But the timing I am referring to is actually your ‘social timing’. Sometimes it is easy to schedule posts so in advance we forget what that day is going to say until it comes. But you cannot do this.
Being aware of what your day’s social media content includes and what is happening in the world that day/week is vital. You don’t want to end up upsetting your audience by not acknowledging an event or posting sales information on a day when something devastating has occurred. Keep your finger on the pulse of the world’s news so you remain attuned to the mood of your audience.
Bonus: My top recommendations for great grammar and spelling
If you haven’t already. Install Grammarly on your web browser. They offer a free grammar and spelling checker that will really boost the quality of your writing if you struggle with these. Additionally, if you need help maintaining tone, their paid version assesses things like tone and clarity as well.
If you are not a native English speaker but your audience mainly are native English speakers then consider following and engaging with some of the English proficiency profiles on Instagram. My favorite is Arc English. His daily videos help you understand basic English and level up your understanding of slang and colloquialisms so you can more easily relate to your audience!
As always, have a fantastic day, and stay tuned for my next blog on the latest on how to use hashtags with the new Instagram algorithm changes as we enter 2023 next month!
