The measure of good content and successful communication is how well your audience understands you. After all, if you write brilliant, information-loaded content that is largely misunderstood by your reader or full of inaccessible language it will not be useful. The best content is clear, easy to understand, and engaging. Writing social media copy is simple, but not easy!
Your social copy is a very important piece of the puzzle. Those little blurbs surrounding your videos, images, and links are a chance to grab your audience, tell part of a story, or bring personality to your social presence.
What’s a conversational tone—and why does it matter?
A conversational tone is simply writing like you talk, complete with slang and humor. Using casual language to communicate your point matters. Not only does the simplicity of language make it easy to understand, it shows that you understand your audience at a fundamental level.
After all, if you’re speaking to a younger audience on TikTok, your social copy should not read like an instruction manual. If your language is dated or seems out of touch, you’re going to lose your audience. Conversely, social media is not formal. Things that are overly complex will be skimmed right over. Always strive for efficient language!
Additionally, there is a severe lack of trust in the online realm. Users are jaded, and they instantly distrust most online brands. Being authentic in your social media copy is a great way to bridge that gap. It shows that you understand who you’re speaking to and you care about what they think.
Writing social media copy with engagement in mind
It’s simple. Think through the questions a normal person would ask when discussing your topic, and answer them as if you were sitting next to each other. Don’t talk down to them or speak over their heads. What baseline knowledge does your average user or reader have? Assume that and create accordingly. It starts with your content, it it doesn’t end there! That conversational tone is likely even more important on social media.
Some tips:
- Keep it simple! Brevity is your friend.
- Choose your words carefully. Every line matters when you’re working with character counts and short attention spans.
- Casual vernacular is good. Be approachable and comfortable—nobody wanted to read stilted techie language when they’re scrolling. Be funny. Be human.
- Don’t be scared of a joke! Just be sure it is something relatively neutral that won’t fall flat on your readers.
- Casual does not mean sloppy. Just because you present less-formal content on social media does not mean you have permission to skip editing or give false information.
Pitfalls to avoid
A lot of this is common sense! It can be tempting to overthink our online strategies, because it’s difficult to maintain success in a severely oversaturated social media landscape. However, it doesn’t have to be as hard as we think! Social media is—above all else—social. It’s important to remember that the point of being on social media is to communicate with your audience. Here are a few things that can hurt your relationship with your readers before it begins:
- Ignoring your audience. Seriously, don’t ignore the people that engage with your content. If they ask questions, answer them. If they point out errors, fix them. This isn’t to say that you have to respond to every comment, but the conversation should not be one-sided.
- Too much formality. Stuffy corporate speak is not going to fly. Don’t take yourself too seriously! It feels too impersonal.
- Inconsistency. You have to show up! If you want to maintain a relationship, being present is non-negotiable.
- Overcomplicating things. Seriously, just hit the highlights. If you want to go deeper, take it to your website or YouTube. Don’t get lost in the weeds.
