Have you ever clicked a social media post that is not in line with your hobby or interest? How about getting curious what’s the details behind that ‘Learn more’ button? Do you easily get enticed by the emotions and images conveyed in a post?
We get hooked through these posts because of great copywriting. A good copy for social media may sound easy to write, but there are certain ways to nail it properly.
Incorporate your Brand Voice
I cannot emphasize how important this first step is. In my previous blogs, we learned the significance of creating engaging content and understanding your brand’s strengths. This includes setting the correct brand voice for your social media posts. As a marketer, we need to make sure that this is aligned across our marketing materials – brochures, posters, website, infographics, email newsletters, and more. We have to consider the image and positioning that the brand portrays in the market. Is it a thought leader in the industry or is it a start-up? What are the profiles of your target audience? Are they millennials or boomers? Which social media channel are we posting the content on? These are some of the factors to consider when using brand voice. Below is an example of a LinkedIn post of an industry association announcing an upcoming annual event.
Notice how professional the tone is with the corresponding image that has a formal layout. In this post, the Board of Directors is also tagged to gain a wider algorithm on LinkedIn.
Edit your Captions
Social Media channels are not the same. They all have different audiences. A well-engaged post on LinkedIn may get low reactions and comments on Twitter or Instagram. It is important to craft your copy based on the platform where you are posting. For instance, you can simply edit the copy from Figure 1 above to, “Who’s excited for the 2023 ASTech Awards? Make sure to save the date for the Grand Opening Ceremonies in Edmonton and Gala Awards Night in Calgary. More details will be announced soon. Stay tuned! ” This type of caption can be applied to Twitter or Instagram. These platforms can have a more casual tone without sacrificing the brand voice.
For Twitter (which is now known as X), showing the personality of the brand and making the copy more human is effective. Twitter is a great conversational tool where brands can interact and engage quickly. Just remember not to overuse the official hashtags, otherwise, your post will look spammy. If you want to see a complete guide for Twitter Marketing in 2023, please visit Hootsuite Blog.
For LinkedIn, one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience is through polls. LinkedIn is the platform that is most applicable for B2B. Thus, if your brand is planning for a product or service improvement, you can easily generate a LinkedIn poll with the right copy and run it for about two weeks.
Keep your texts short. Remember, you only have 140 characters to use. To learn how to create and publish a LinkedIn poll, have a look at this ZDNet article.
Make it Personal
The use of 4Ps (Promise, Picture, Proof, and Push) is a good formula to guide us when creating copies. We can achieve this by combining other types of content such as images, videos, GIFs, or testimonials.
Across all platforms, these content types are effective ways of increasing engagement with our audience. Just be mindful that when writing the copy for each social media channel, the image resonates with the caption and audience. In the image below, notice that the Facebook copy maintains the brand voice of a professional choir while injecting an exciting tone to invite its audience to watch the upcoming season. Emojis were also used to grab people’s attention.
Another key step is to test your captions. For Instagram, the first 140 characters of your copy is critical since these are the texts that will appear on a user’s feed. I’ve been following the Lionesses (England’s Women National Football team) social media accounts for many years now. I’ve seen their shift in copywriting this year. Notice that they only have one sentence in most of their posts. Below is a great example.
Copywriting Tools That Can Help
As a social media marketer, you have the responsibility to spellcheck and make sure everything is polished before you hit that publish button. Grammarly and Hemingway are free tools to proof your copies. When running out of ideas, the ChatGPT free version can help. It’s a user-friendly tool that helps generate copies. Remember to always tweak and edit your copy according to your brand.
Social Listening and Analytics
Each social media platform offers an analytics or insights feature where you can see the data for your content. Refer to these dashboards on a regular basis to assess the posts that gained high impressions and engagements. For the content that didn’t perform, re-evaluate what went wrong. Is it the copy? Is it the image or video? What time did you post the content? Did you tag any suitable accounts or people? Below is an example of a LinkedIn dashboard with corresponding posts, impressions, clicks, CTRs, and reactions. Please note that you can also customize the date range depending on the data you need to see.
Conclusion
Copywriting is essential for social media marketing. Great copies help content gain higher engagements and conversions. Practice the 4Ps formula when writing your copies. Test or conduct A/B testing occasionally and make sure that your copies resonate your audience. Remember, the copies shall reflect the needs of your customers, not your brand.
To sum it all up, below is an Instagram post by the Lionesses. Notice how they connected the copy to World Alzheimer’s Day and how the image is well fit for the post. The official charity partner is also mentioned in the post.
Here are additional copywriting courses that you can take:
- LinkedIn Learning: Learning to Write Marketing Copy
- LinkedIn Learning: Learning Conversion Copywriting
- LinkedIn Learning: Marketing Strategy – SEO Content Writing
- LinkedIn Learning: A Crash Course in Writing Well – Learn to Write with More Style, Flair, and Impact
References:
Alexis, M. (2021, August 25). Marketing: Copywriting for Social Media. Retrieved from LinkedIn Learning: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/marketing-copywriting-for-social-media/effective-copywriting-is-the-key-to-social-media-success?u=2109516
Beveridge, C. (2022, November 22). The Complete Guide to Twitter Marketing in 2023. Retrieved from Hootsuite: https://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-marketing/
Darby, C. (2022, October 24). How to create a LinkedIn Poll for quick, valuable engagement. Retrieved from ZDNet: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-create-a-linkedin-poll/