SOCIAL MEDIA CONTENT WRITING TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

Crafting engaging content is crucial for anyone, from beginners trying to establish their online presence to aspiring social media content creators, if they want to capture their audience's attention.

It can assist you in distinguishing yourself from the masses and establishing a faithful audience. By providing expert tips and strategies, this article aims to help readers become masters of social media content writing.

You can start writing good social media content by following this 7 steps formula:

1. INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL CONTENT WRITING
2. DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS (FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM)
3. START WITH RESEARCH
4. ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE IN THEIR LANGUAGE FOR MORE ENGAGEMENTS
5. KEEP YOUR CONTENT SHORT AND SIMPLE
6. USE IMAGES AND VIDEOS
7. ADD A CALL TO ACTION

1.INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL CONTENT WRITING

Welcome to the Social Media Content Writing Tips. In this article, you will learn precious step-by-step tips that will help you start writing catchy social media content. Let’s begin it with fundamentals!

What is social media content writing?

Social media content writing is also a part of content writing in which you create relevant and engaging content. It is mainly used as an overall marketing strategy because social media is crowded with billions of people, which helps content creators reach more audiences.

There are hundreds of other secondary purposes of social media content as well, some everyday purposes are;

• Increase brand awareness
• Generating leads
• Increase website traffic
• Promote content
• Audience engagement

What is the scope of social media content writing?

You might know that these days more than half of the world's population uses social media and because of that social media is one of the most essential tools for entrepreneurs around the globe to market their businesses and reach the maximum audience. That’s why the demand for content writing is getting higher and higher day in and day out.

Responsibilities of a Social Media Content Writer.

To maintain a strong online voice and brand consistent with marketing goals, a content writer is responsible to do the following tasks:

• Write, edit and publish engaging posts for various social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Optimize social media posts (language, tone, message) based on the target audience’s behaviors.
• Update social media pages with compelling business news.
• Coordinate with internal teams to create advertising posts (e.g. for events, open roles, and product releases)

How to become a Social Media Content Writer?

As you have got what is social media content writing, what is its scope, and what will be your responsibilities of being a content writer, the next thing that might be popping up in your mind would be how can I become an aspiring content writer.

Just like other skills, social media content writing is also a skill that requires patience and abundant practice to master, and you can do that by following these steps:

• Decide your niche
• Enhance your network
• Get experience
• Polish your skill

Read good content, write good content (the more practice you do, the chances of becoming a pro gets higher)

2. DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS (FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM)

You need to understand the quirks of social media platforms to write content specific to every platform. For instance, a white paper about your product probably will not go over well on Facebook, but could be a big hit on LinkedIn, and Twitter only allows 280 characters per tweet with the opportunity to hashtag an important word or idea. Let's dive a little more deeply into the differences between some of the most common social media platforms.

FACEBOOK

Facebook is the most used social networking site that allows users to connect with their friends, family, and businesses. Facebook is a social media platform from which any business may benefit. You get access to numerous users all around the globe, but the disadvantage is that establishing your brand can take a little longer. It’s a little hard to grow the audience on Facebook organically because of its crackdown on organic visibility, as you have to spend over ads to grow your audience.

INSTAGRAM

Instagram is a platform where users share photos and videos, you can establish your own account and follow other users’ photographs and videos to have them appear in your Instagram feed. It’s a Facebook subsidiary with a strong visual component that encourages authenticity and creativity. Fashion, tourism, and design-related businesses gain more from Instagram than businesses in other areas that struggle to create aesthetically engaging material.

TWITTER

Twitter is a social media platform that allows users to connect with one another through tweets. Tweets are short communications that a person can put out and have their followers see or find using hashtags. The catch is that tweets can only be 280 characters long. The goal was to appeal to a generation of people who have trouble paying attention. You can simply get to know someone on Twitter and obtain information with just a glance. Information is supposed to travel quickly on Twitter, which has become a hotspot for trending issues.

LINKEDIN

LinkedIn is a site for professionals who want to advance in their careers. B2B enterprises get the most benefits from this platform. Business professionals enhance their network and expand their business. Any company, however, can use text advertisements, sponsored In Mail, or sponsored content for advertising on the platform.

Let’s Start Writing!

As it is now crystal clear to you what is social media content writing, what is its scope in the market, how you can be a profound social media content writer, and what are the different social media platforms and how they are different from each other, lets’ discuss some tips to practically craft a compelling social media content.

3. START WITH RESEARCH

Why is it important?

Research before writing content is as essential as pillars to a building because. It helps you gain expertise on the topic and helps you arrange your thoughts for proceeding. The research process might seem intimidating, but the fact is that the content you are about to compel is dependent on research, if your research is shoddy then your content will be shoddy, and it will not get you what you are looking for.

How to understand the audience?

All you need is to write content that your audience can relate to and to write that content you need to hang up with them. You will have to think like them, you will have to talk like them, you will have to feel their pain, and you will have to understand what their desires are.

On the internet these days, you can find out multiple sources to collect data for your social media content, but for the most accurate data you are advised to use the following sources.

Forums

Forums are online discussion boards where people ask questions, share their experiences, and discuss topics of mutual interest. On forums, you can find the most accurate research data relevant to your target audience, as you can find them speaking about what they are looking for.

Simply open Google and type keywords relevant to your topic of research. Google will display the results of your topic, click on the tab “Discussion”, and here are the forums relevant to your topic of research, just open them and start absorbing the most accurate data.

Google Trends

Google Trends is one of the best free tools for content research. You can see what is recently trending, and what was most searched in the past years, and there are stories about big topics there as well that will really help you to write the most relevant content. Follow these steps.

Step-1: After opening Google Trends once you enter your keyword or key phrase in the search bar, you will see relevant trending topics and queries to your keyword or key phrase.

Step-2: For more accurate results you can set your country of research, time duration, categories, and search type (e.g. website, search).

Step-3: For more detailed research, you can further niche down to trending topics and queries by clicking on them. (In the following screenshot, you can see the related topics and queries of the National Memorial Day concert, which is the sub-category of Memorial Day).

4. ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE IN THEIR LANGUAGE FOR MORE ENGAGEMENTS

As you have got how to do extensive research to dig out “what to write?”, let’s come to “how to write?”. This is the element that most writers ignore deliberately, resulting in unengaging and ho-hummed written content that nobody reads. And that element is, they don’t know how to address the audience in their language. For engaging and result-oriented social media content, it is essential for you to learn how you can address your audience in their language.

Here are some points you need to keep in mind for higher engagements while writing content:

Know Your Audience

You would not talk to your dad the same way you talk to your friend because you understand this difference subconsciously. That is exactly what you have to apply while writing content. Utilize data that you collected during research and create an image of the specific person you are writing to. Give them a name, maybe even a face, and start writing your content as if you were talking to that person specifically.

Address Your Reader

Most often, writers make the mistake that they write in the third person, e.g. “businesses do this mistake” or ‘they need to digitalize their business”. For engaging content you need to come to your audience’s level and talk in 2nd person, e.g. “you can earn more money”, “you deserve to be more than that”. That’s more powerful when you address someone specifically in “You” instead of “They”.

Read Your Content Loud

Before publishing your content, take a minute and read your content loud, either to yourself or to a friend. This will help you get a sense of just how conversational your writing really is and will give you better insight into what’s working and, maybe, what isn’t.

Example of High Engaging Social Media Content

5. KEEP YOUR CONTENT SHORT AND SIMPLE

Social media platforms are the places where people don’t really like to read long and boring content. That’s why it is necessary for you to get more out of your content and show them that you value their time by writing simple and short content. The following pointers will assist you in this context:

Keep the readability of the content to the 7th grade, because the more simple and readable your content would be, the more audience it will engage, and chances of conversion get higher when you convey a simple and short message to your audience.

Use headings and bullets where needed, because when you break your text into headings and bullets, your content becomes more readable and easier.

Keep your paragraphs up to 3 sentences maximum, when you write plenty of sentences in a paragraph it gets tougher to focus and read, which means your content is no longer efficient.

Try to be succinct, because the more detailed and concise your content would be, the more efficiently your audience can relate to it.

Tip: Use online tools to check and improve readability.

6. USE IMAGES AND VIDEOS

Why images and videos?

Because appealing images, infographics, and videos play a key role in increasing engagements and conversions as people respond to visuals more than text. But one thing is to be considered here, different social media platforms have different specifications to upload visuals. Some platforms have live video features as well, which can greatly benefit you.

How to use images and videos?

For best results, optimize each piece of visual content for the platform you’re posting it on to ensure your message is being shared, and that you look professional.

Tip: Images and videos should be as attractive as they can stand you out from the crowd and grab attention at first sight.

7. ADD A CALL TO ACTION

Why Call to Action?

After applying all the essentials in your content now you want your audience to take action and do what you want finally. That’s why you need to add a call to action (CTA) to your social media content. Without a call to action (CTA), your content is nothing but a bag of garbage because it doesn’t matter how much your audience got engaged with your content, you can’t get anything out of it until you ask them to take an action.

Types of Call to Action (CTA)

For different purposes, a call to action comes in different forms. Here are some of them for your clarification:

• Ask to like or share your post
• Ask a question
• Ask them to connect with you on more social media platforms
• Direct them to your website or landing page

Examples of call to action (CTA):

Instagram Ad

Facebook Ad

Twitter Ad

LinkedIn Ad

FINAL THOUGHTS

KUDOS! Finally, you have done it. You have all the essential tools to write compelling social media content. Now, it's time to put these tips into action! Start creating, experimenting, and refining your social media content to build a thriving online presence.