Social Media Writing: How To Write Compelling Posts

Writing, well, Social Media Writing, requires skills different from normal writing. The whole concept revolves around the idea of the content being read and appreciated. As long as your writing piece is being read and understood by your audience – you are doing a great job. Blogs, articles, content for your website or any other form of writing that may pull you into this domain will need the skills and the craftsmanship of a great content creator. In this article, you will learn how to write Compelling Social Media Posts To Drive More Traffic, Sales or Lead Generation. 

 Every social media post reflects your niche and talks a lot about you – your brand. It would be worthwhile to mention that social media writing is like developing your brand identity.

While writing for print media or other platforms may sound familiar to us, social media writing is all different. The attention span of people has dropped from an average of 12 seconds to 8 seconds as per a Time magazine report dated 14th May 2015. Due to the presence of multiple streams of media people hardly have the patience or attention to read an entire content and this, all the more, requires the content to be so intriguing to be able to hold on to the audience’s attention.

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The entire content should be easy & simple to read without overworking the mind of the audience. The most important thing to consider before writing is to clear the air on what will make your audience glued to your content. No matter what you write, if your content is not being read then it is not worthwhile and there you will need to know your audience better than most do.

Few points to consider before putting your hands on the keyboard…

• Have a deep understanding of your audience – know them better
• Understand the subject – do your research well
• Use plain language which is easy to decipher – never use words that make people reach out to a dictionary – this makes the audience bored and will skip your content
• Usage of interesting subject 
• Content should engage your audience by of use to them
• Content should be action-oriented allowing the audience to do something out of their interest

I would like to emphasize more on the usage of the plain language here. The principles of plain language include…

• Jargons – Don’t use them!
• Use language which is easy to understand
• Use words that are familiar and widely used 
• Choose sentences that present a definite meaning and is interesting to read
• Use Active voice

Remember you will face very fierce competition with others when it comes to social media writing. People keep skipping content till they find the right one which gets them to read what they need to. Once they have gone through and found the content exciting, worth their time and attention be rest assured it is going to be shared with like-minded readers. Once again, to get it all right till the end make sure to have the starting right – get the subject worthwhile in the first place – understand what value it gives to the readers, and build upon that idea with simple, fluent, friendly, and engaging content.

Writing on Twitter

Twitter is one of the most widespread means of social media writing, making your presence felt in the form of a Tweet. The difference between Twitter and other media is just like the difference between writing a story and poetry. You may use a thousand words to give a vivid description of your subject or use very few words to give the same impact. Twitter is a great platform to share your thoughts, happenings, and expressions. If you can do all these within 140 characters or less – this is the right platform for you. Some technical facts on Twitter to reach a wider audience with ease…

• A Tweet composed of a maximum of 250 characters is allowed by Twitter. You can include up to 4 photos, a gif, or a video in your Tweet.
• Twitter limits sending 1000 messages per day
• A maximum of 2400 Tweets per day is allowed – remember Retweets are considered as Tweets.
• A maximum of 4 changes to account email per hour is allowed.
• A technical follow limit of 400 per day is allowed.
• Once an account is following 5,000 other accounts, additional follow attempts are limited by account-specific ratios.

You may be surprised to know that you can use your voice too to tweet. This publishes your Tweets with an audio attachment together with your pic for adding relevance and identification. For reaching a very wider audience a system of Hashtags is used. A hashtag is created automatically when a # symbol is used before a word so that it categorizes your tweets around a particular topic. This allows larger audiences to join a particular topic and find information efficiently.

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Writing on Facebook

Facebook is a social media platform that allows users to allow multiple ways and means to reach out to its audience – be it by writing a blog post, posting pictures or issuing a press release, posting videos, or even messaging – you can do it all. Facebook has the largest audience, with many being serious and several just being noise. But before even contemplating writing on Facebook, consider on priority if this platform is right to connect with your audience. This will prevent future issues when you have spent a good amount of your time reaching out, realizing later that your audience doesn’t use this platform for their purpose.

Creativity or desperation, whatever is your need – make it crystal clear. Remember that Facebook is a relaxed and jovial platform and hence your posts should be based around that. Once you have taken a firm decision that you want to use Facebook as your writing medium, there are certain do’s and don’t to get you maximum clicks, likes, and comments.

• Link your article to your Facebook page, after writing a short description of your posts. This makes them press on a ‘call to action’ and will reach a wider audience.
• Write in such a way that it asks questions to your audiences making them take part.
• Use quotes that attract and give a real feel of the present moment.
• Use fewer words, preferably less than 80, some says 50, I would suggest that you decide for yourself the one which works out best for you. All in all the idea is to keep it short.
• Your posts should be around a fun-filled and relaxed tempo.
• Use images and use them greatly to your advantage. This is a great source to attract your audience.
• Use emotions to attract. Attract your audience using this attribute.
• Be honest with yourself – write what you like to write.

Writing on Quora

Quora is another great platform for question and answer microblogs. Whenever a question passes our mind for which we have no answer, the first thing that comes to our mind is to reach out to Quora for the answers. It’s not only the answers but the different perspectives to it which bring people in multiple folds to this platform. Normally we always like to see the flip side of the coin too before concluding and Quora provides that for us. The idea of Quora revolves around sharing knowledge either by asking questions or by providing accurate answers.

But what makes this different from just Googling is the quality and wide variety of people’s perspectives that you get from this platform. Moreover, you can follow topics that attract you or interests you. You may also ‘upvote’ the answers you agree with or consider them based on factual information, and may ‘downvote’ answers which you think is not factual or is based on incorrect information. This makes the answer appeal to other readers asking similar questions. If you are deciding or have already decided to use Quora for searching or sharing information or for following topics of interest, then always consider the following points…

• Be factual
• Stick to the question 
• Ask short, to-the-point questions using what, where, why, how, etc.
• Answer questions if you are sure that the answer you know is of high quality, is honest, and is based on facts. 
• Respect the person who has asked the question
• Answer the question considering it as a way to help the person who has asked the question
• Comment only if you think something needs to be added or deleted to the information that has been provided.
• Getting into a healthy debate is fine – but do not insult or disrespect other writers.
• Remember there is a limit to the character you use on Quora. If you think your answer is going to be very elaborate, use a weblink to the content on the website where the answer is. Be concise – write to the point.

Writing on Instagram 

A great platform to show it with pictures, videos, and hashtags. If you are good at expressing yourself with these, then this is the perfect platform for you to grab the attention of your audience. Some even call this a simplified version of Facebook where you can grab the attention of like-minded people. 

Remember Instagram is a platform to find, share, and like the best pictures and videos and this makes this unique from Facebook. Instagram allows its users to post videos of a maximum of one minute in length. 

To have a sizeable number of followers one needs to ensure that the content is of high quality that can give a wow feeling to the audience so that they press the follow button without thinking twice. 

Every picture or video that you post must include a captivating description that has relevance to the media that you post. Start by making your target audience curious about your posts. Like their posts, follow them and leave a personalized comment if you can, this makes them all the more willing to communicate with you. The more followers you get and the more they like and comment on your posts the better it is for you. This spreads and it spreads like wildfire that you have some great content that makes people reach out to you in multitude.  

To say this is easy but it requires strategy…

• Make your audience always write comments after they have pushed the like button. 
• Encourage them to share the content, if they liked it. 
• Always reply to the comments posted by your audience. A thank you goes a long way
• Use hashtags to their fullest capacities
• Add location to your posts to increase visibility
• Before launching an intriguing video, spread the news of its arrival through a post. This has a great impact on the audience where they get a glimpse of what is expected to arrive. If they bear relevance they will surely like, comment, and share the post.
• Post your content on Facebook or Twitter directly through Instagram. 

Writing on Medium

Medium is a digital publishing platform to publish your written content so this makes it a platform and a publisher. It has both professionals as well as amateurs who provide great reading materials on a wide array of topics to choose from. It is a perfect medium to express yourself without any hindrances whatsoever.

Beware though, that Medium is not just another Twitter or Facebook, it is a domain on its own and has a niche crowd of storytellers who create great content to keep the readers glued to it – all you need to do is write stories the way you want it to be read. People who come on Medium generally do not search for information, they are browsing for quality reading content and thus people who write great stories on real-life experiences get the most followers. People here like to be real, are writing personal tales, and are getting all the attention, and why not? readers on Medium love it this way.

The point to note here is that Medium curates good stories to give a satisfying experience to its readers. Curation not only makes it possible for your followers to read your content but also for other readers interested in the topic you wrote. Some factors to keep in mind when writing on Medium…

• Write real
• Write about what you know
• Write without feeling guilty about your experiences – share them complete
• Make sure you have a lesson to be told
• Write your opinion on a topic – don’t think good or bad
• Write about triumphs and tribulation 
• Write simple but intriguing
• Use simple but fluent language 
• Have a catchy header from the storyline – that which can attract the reader
• Distribute your story into short paragraphs 
• Use pictures if you need to create an impact upon your audience

Writing on Goodreads

Goodreads as part of the name suggests is a platform for reviewing books. The majority of the books on Amazon will appear on Goodreads, perhaps if you like a book on Goodreads, you can purchase it from the Amazon link on it. A good platform to provide ratings, read and write reviews on books you have read.

If you are writing a review, ensure to not write spoilers or if you intend to write spoilers then you will need to choose an option indicating the same. If you happen to have a blog, you can include the review on your blog too by posting it. No matter how easy it may look, there are a few points to remember before writing a review…

• Provide a rating to the book 
• Put a tag line or punch line from the book which catches the attention of the reader
• A short write up of the book you have read to make the reader sure what the book is all about is always recommended – it has a greater impact and people start following good reviewers
• Put in a few words along with a reason whenever you criticize or recommend a book to other prospective readers.

Concluding this, whichever platform you choose to indulge in social media writing whether the purpose is for leisure or business, always ensure to follow the community guidelines and stick to them. It takes a decent amount of time, discipline, and patience to make a mark on any platform you opt for.