Your company has finally decided it’s time to engage with an audience on social media. This likely means running social advertising campaigns (think Facebook Ads) and establishing a strong brand presence on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and potentially others.
Image source Let’s be real, the sheer number of platforms with their unique length and tone requirements can make crafting social media copy a daunting task. Don’t worry, we’ve compiled some best practices to help you get started. Here are seven tips to make your social copy more engaging, shareable, and overall, more captivating:
- Develop brand guidelines specifically for social media copywriting.
- Define a clear goal for every social media post.
- Tailor your writing style to the audience of each social platform.
- Encourage audience interaction and engagement.
- Ensure your copy complements the visual elements of your posts.
- Utilize hashtags and emojis strategically and thoughtfully.
- Stay informed about current social media trends. Let’s dive in!
1. Establish Social Media Copywriting Guidelines for Your Brand
First things first, you need to determine how you want your brand to be perceived on social media. This might seem straightforward, but it can become surprisingly complex. For example, should your social media voice align with your website’s tone? What about your local advertising, email marketing, or out-of-home campaigns?
Social media offers a unique space to showcase your brand’s playful side, whether through consistently lighthearted copywriting or by highlighting your fun-loving employees. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this tweet.
It’s unlikely you’d see Pop-Tarts cracking the same jokes in a TV commercial or customer service interaction.
If you’re unsure where to begin with brand guidelines, we’ve got you covered. If you already have established brand copywriting guidelines, that’s even better. Simply incorporate social media into your existing rules and expand from there.
2. Define a Goal for Each Social Post
While setting goals for Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn ads is relatively easy, it can be trickier for organic posts.
In case you missed it (ICYMI): When creating social ad campaigns, each platform prompts you to choose a goal to focus your advertising and improve performance. These goals can range from brand awareness to clicks or conversions. When determining goals for organic social media posts, consider starting with your paid ad goals and expanding from there. Here are some examples:
- Brand awareness
- Website clicks
- Content shares
- Conversions
- Follower growth
- Likes
- Comments or direct messages
Once you’ve established your goal, you can gauge the success of a post. Then, it’s time to start crafting your copy.
3. Adapt Your Writing for Each Platform’s Audience
Here’s the thing about social media copywriting: Each platform is designed differently to cater to different audiences and their needs. This means you shouldn’t directly reuse LinkedIn copy on Twitter, and vice versa. When creating your brand guidelines, try to define the most formal and informal tones you’ll use on social media to set some boundaries.
Let’s imagine your office hosted a Halloween party with clients, and you want to share photos on social media. We’ll use the most popular platforms as examples.
LinkedIn: “We had a spooktacular time with @Client1, @Client2, and @Client3 last night at our annual Halloween Monster Mash—let’s connect again soon!”
Tags are crucial on any platform, especially if you’d like your clients to repost.
Facebook: Using the same copy on Facebook would be fine, but consider posting multiple photos and tagging more people. Facebook is great for photo albums, and your “friends” are more likely to interact with a visually rich post.
Twitter: “Things are getting spooky over here! The annual Monster Mash is in full swing, see you on the other side.”
This platform is ideal for live updates, so aim to tweet during the party. While this leaves less time for copy review, keep it concise, engaging, and include a picture.
Instagram: “Happy Halloween from this spooky crew!”
Similar to Twitter, Instagram can be used in real time. If you had a Halloween costume contest or fashion show, you could snap photos and add them to your story instantly. The following day, choose the best party photos and post them on your timeline with simple, casual, and direct captions.
4. Encourage Audience Participation
If you’re investing in social media, your brand likely wants to connect with an audience that other mediums can’t reach. Social media offers unparalleled opportunities for engaging with potential customers. While this should encourage a degree of caution, it’s also incredibly exciting!
Voss excels at engaging its social media audience through contests and giveaways. The company has experienced tremendous follower growth and established a distinct brand identity on Instagram (notice all the co-branding tags!).
Many companies primarily focus on self-promotion on social media, whether it’s highlighting their mission, showcasing products or employees, or announcing company updates. While these are important aspects, relying solely on self-promotion can bore your followers. Or worse, people won’t see the value in following your accounts in the first place. Make your brand relatable and start with simple initiatives like user-generated content from product giveaways or customer appreciation posts.
5. Align Visuals and Copy
One area where many B2B brands, and even some B2C brands, could improve is connecting their visuals to their copy. Sometimes, it feels like brands just need something, anything, to accompany a generic statement like, “We believe in giving back, which is why we’re launching this new initiative. Learn more today.” However, the accompanying image might be… a puppy? What’s the connection?
As part of their “Proud to Belong” campaign, Ray-Bans shared a series of re-cut videos and photos on their social channels. This provided a unique opportunity to pair visuals with copy that either enhanced or explained the campaign message.
The key takeaway? Collaborate closely with your design team to ensure consistent messaging throughout the entire post.
6. Strategic Hashtag and Emoji Use
Remember when everyone used hashtags constantly, on every single post? You’d have your caption copy followed by at least five hashtags. We’ve all been there, no shame!
Here’s the thing: Hashtags still work. They function the same way they did when social media platforms first gained popularity. People still use them to discover new content, and influencers continue to leverage them. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide if you want to include them in your brand’s posts.
If you want to participate in a trending topic on Twitter, go for it. However, on other platforms, I recommend making it a conscious brand choice. Avoid posting copy with excessive hashtags and then publishing the next post without any.
Nike is a prime example of a brand that consistently and effectively utilizes its own hashtags. We all instantly recognize #justdoit, regardless of their current campaign.
Similarly, emojis can boost engagement and demonstrate that your brand is in tune with current trends. However, double-check that an emoji’s meaning aligns with your intended message before posting.
7. Stay Updated on Social Media Trends
This might seem obvious, but ensure that you (or whoever manages your social media copywriting) are active on social media. This means following a diverse range of accounts across platforms, keeping an eye on trending topics, and being able to participate in lighthearted conversations like, “Going to tell my kids this is…” or the recent Dolly Parton challenge comparing LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Tinder.
Netflix’s timely tweet capitalized on the internet’s reaction to IHOP’s temporary rebranding to IHOB.
These opportunities for comments and jokes are often fleeting, so stay current on trends. This will also be your best defense against a social media mishap. We’ve all seen them and heard the corporate apologies; try to avoid becoming one of them.
Bonus Tip: Just Start Writing!
Ultimately, as with any type of copywriting, you just need to start writing. Write a lot. Create numerous versions of the same copy and then start over with a different approach. Discuss messaging with your team—feedback is crucial. This process becomes much smoother with proper planning, allowing you to complete a month’s worth of copywriting in a couple of days.