Social media is about pace, relevance and being eye-catching, so any writing rules are generally ‘left at the wayside’ – but what tips can you follow?
It’s always wise to consider purpose, tone and audience, regardless of what you are writing, but doing that through images (Instagram, Pinterest), or 140 characters (Twitter), or video (Vine, YouTube), makes these concepts harder.
When you consider that 60% of consumers say the integration of social media makes them more likely to share products and services (Jeff Bullas) then all the extra effort becomes worthwhile. And it is extra effort, believe us. Typically, you should be spending 39.5 hours per week on social media management for your company (Intersection Consulting), which is obviously going to be hard to manage, more importantly how can you appeal to your audience in such varied formats?
Four things to consider in your content creation
- Purpose: Always consider the audience of the platform you are writing for. Twitter is full of news and information, Facebook is for family and general wonderings, Pinterest is images which hold meaning and Instagram is sharing your day-to-day life (which can then be shared across Facebook and Twitter). Never try and ‘hard sell’, generally speaking, Joe Jones has his feet up and spends his time looking at Facebook pictures of his brother’s, friend’s dog looking goofy – not where his next purchase will be.
- Tone: The whole point of recognising your purpose – and your audience’s perceptions of what should be on which platform – is that you speak with your audience, in content and in voice. Post a funny meme or YouTube video if it’s light-hearted, relevant in some way, and non-offensive. Speak in a way they would expect and understand, don’t just pre-load six posts a day about your company, they will tune out.
- Content: Be relevant to their lives in everything, so yes that meme is funny but does it represent you? Is it innocent enough so that you won’t lose followers/fans/customers? A good way to start is images, memes and videos about Monday Morning and ‘that Friday feeling’ – be on their level with fun, informal content which is given to them in a fun, informal manner. Content is often distributable, so bear in mind that your Pinterest audience isn’t necessarily on Facebook, so where applicable, re-use content across platforms.
- Buzz: An audience must love you, when they love you they will share you. Once you have a loyal base of followers you can grow your audience through what is hopefully shareable content that you have been posting. Make them want you, not want to scroll past you.
How you know your social media marketing strategy is working
And when you think you have taken care of all the relevant things you can find out if it’s working through the following methods, suggested by Social Media Examiner:
- Generating traffic? Your metric = unique visitors from social websites where you’ve run your social media campaigns.
- Creating a following? Your metric = subscribers, followers on your social channels (Facebook, Twitter, etc.).
- Generating interaction? Your metric = quantity and type of commentary (Facebook comments, Twitter replies/mentions).
- Generating revenue? Your metric = the precise dollar value of every lead a social post generates.
How much time do you need to put into updating and maintaining your online networks?
Going back to 39.5 hours of social media management and looking at all these different methods and content requirements to consider it’s worthwhile remembering the advantages of outsourcing. Outsourcing your social media management can be a big load off when it takes up such time, as it is an essential, but very lengthy process, particularly if you aren’t sure.
We would advise you seek a company with whom you can build a good, trusting relationship as they are essentially helping to sell your brand.
When it comes to arranging the outsourcing of work, remember to withhold some control, you never know when you’ll feel like putting in a little time on Twitter. Eve Mayer, author of The Social Media Business Equation, says:
“The companies that have the most effective social media communications are those that have a combination of internal and external people doing social media” (The Outsourcing Guide).
