Good social media writing for a business comes down to a few habits: know your audience, post only when you have something to say, keep it short, simple, and casual, reply to comments, and check your spelling and grammar before you post.
For a business, an online presence is close to mandatory. Customers and potential customers expect to find something when they look up your name in a search engine or on social media. If they find nothing, they may wonder whether something fishy is going on.
An online presence makes it easy for potential customers to find you. It also helps you build relationships with your customers, promote your products and services, and build your brand. None of that comes easily, of course: you need to post good content on your social media accounts to get there. Here is how.
7 quick tips
Whether you own a business or run its social media accounts, these 7 tips will help you write better content for social media.
1. Know your audience
This is probably the most important tip of all. Everything you write on social media must speak to your audience, so get a clear picture of who they are.
Also remember that people are on social media to connect with others. Keep that in mind when you write an ad, an announcement, or any other post. Being too commercial is a big no-no. The do's and don'ts of social media etiquette go into more detail.
2. Have a purpose
Don't post for the sake of posting. Only post when you have something worth saying.
Let's say you run a used car dealership. A good time to post is when you have a special offer for a limited time, a new, rare-ish car in stock, or another deal your audience may be interested in.
You may also post to warn potential customers about a common used-car scam. When you help people avoid losing money on a bad car, they tend to remember you for it.
3. Keep it short
People on social media don't want to read a full-length article. Keep your posts short so that readers don't lose interest halfway through. When you have more to say, link to the full article on your company website.
4. Keep it simple
Nobody comes to social media to read a thesis. Write so that an eighth grader could follow you: use short sentences and simple words. Avoid jargon, and when you can't, explain the term briefly. The post on how to simplify your content has more ideas.
5. Be casual
Social media is not the place to be formal all the time. Loosen up a bit, and write as if you were chatting with an acquaintance in a café.
6. Reply to comments
The comment section is a great place to talk to your followers and get feedback from them. Reply to their comments to build a closer connection. A reply shows that a real person runs the account and that comments don't disappear into a void.
7. Check your spelling and grammar
Before you post, check your text in the Spell Checker to catch misspellings and grammar mistakes. Being casual is one thing; a post riddled with typos and bad grammar is another.
Conclusion
Writing for social media is not that different from writing for other platforms, but the tips above will help you write better posts.
They are the most important ones, though not the only ones. Don't worry: you will learn the rest as you go. For a closer look at a single post, read about the perfect social media post.