How to Write Effective Social Media Posts

Sure, you may have a personal social media account with hundreds of friends, and you may manage to rake in a hefty number of likes on the pictures you post of you, your friends and family. However, it doesn’t always translate to success in managing business accounts. Here are five tips from our resident social media strategist to help you get the most out of your posts, starting with the copy:

1. Keep it short and sweet - You may have a lot to say about a new product, service or event, but odds are your audience doesn’t want to read a whole paragraph about it. It’s best to make a landing page on your website with all the exciting details and leave a short teaser-like description on your social media posts to send people to your site to learn more.
2. Be compelling - You’re not writing a research paper, so make sure it’s something people will actually want to read and engage with. This could include asking your followers questions, prompting them to take action (like, comment, click here, etc.) or by using a little wit to win over the crowd. Even the most mundane posts can be spiced up with a little humor.
3. Write like you’re having a conversation - While yes, contractions are often deemed as informal, it’s how most people generally speak. When you use the long, formal version, it makes the user feel as though they’re reading posts automated by a robot instead of giving them the sense that they are having an actual interaction with the brand.
4. Spell check, spell check, spell check - There’s nothing worse than having typos in your posts. Sure we all make mistakes, but a business that constantly has words that are misspelled or sentences with multiple grammatical errors translates your brand as one that is unprofessional or untrustworthy.
5. Share someone else’s content - Remember, you’re not in this alone! While yes, it’s important to promote your brand and its current promotions, mixing it up with shared content from your industry leaders or your followers can give you a break and help your feed not appear as such a hard sell.

Everything comes down to knowing your audience and testing to see what types of posts work best with them. Don’t be afraid to try new things, but if you’re overwhelmed, we’d love to help.