3 Tips for Writing on Social Media

Do you follow companies that you love on Facebook? Sometimes, you get posts that are so exciting and fun to read that you feel compelled to share them. Other times, however, businesses post to Facebook and other social media platforms less than thrilling statements and information that leave people wondering why they liked the page in the first place.

Writing on social media takes finesse and practice. It takes research and knowledge to know what people want to read, and more importantly, what will get people to engage with your brand on a level that will ultimately help your small business see an impact to your bottom line. Social media marketing is still in its baby stages and takes a unique approach to create content that will make a splash.

As you get started writing posts on social media, here are a few rules that you should follow to help get the most out of your efforts and create the biggest splash on this powerful marketing platform.

Use the Goldilocks Rule of Thumb
Over sharing can be annoying, but under sharing on social media can make your small business look like you don’t care. Instead, you must focus on finding a happy medium that will keep your readers engaged in just the right amount of words and posts. This can be very tricky for many small businesses. You are passionate about your business and may feel as though you have a lot of intriguing information to share. On the other hand, you may worry that you are oversharing and cut back on the amount of posts you write ultimately saying too little. Put yourself in your fans shoes and decide what would be interesting or have an impact on them, and what you can keep to yourself.

Write Something People Want to Read
This may seem obvious, but many small businesses write in a way that is boring or off putting. Some small businesses feel that because social media is so frequently used as a sales platform, they can oversell to create buzz around their product. Other small businesses write in a way that makes people feel as if they had wasted seconds of their life reading what was posted. By not putting personality behind your brand and writing in a way that will get people excited to read what you have to say next, you can drive away likes and discourage social media participation which can have a negative impact on your overall brand and strategy.

Create a Plan
Having a plan is the best way to determine how to post to social media. With a plan in place, you can oversee what has been posted and when. This way you can avoid over posting or not posting enough and be sure to have intriguing variety with each of your posts. Once you have made the posts, use an analytics tool to track shares, likes, and comments. Keep a record of the posts that made the biggest splash and what was being said about them. If you had a particularly powerful post that generated some stir on social media, you may want to post more on that same topic. But if you are seeing very few likes or comments, you may want to try writing something new. This will take trial and error.

Social media is a complex marketing tool that many small businesses attempt to go at alone. This, however, can make your marketing efforts turn sour losing your business money. Contact us for help managing your social media marketing and see what a difference having a strong writing plan in place can do for you.