Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are all great platforms for social media marketing, but how do you get your message across in such a short space?
When content writers needed to write social media posts, they know a little secret. In two words: be concise. What this means is keep this short and to the point. Here’s how to get your message across when you only have a few characters or words to get your point across:
A Twitter post isn’t going to contain your whole message, it just creates an enticing headline that encourages your followers to click through to your actual message. The message should catch the attention as the average Twitter user is quickly scanning through their feed and won’t stop to read something in more depth unless it really grabs their attention.
Instead of a headline of “Read our post about content marketing” try “58% of companies increasing content marketing budget”. You’ve immediately gone from an everyday content marketing post to one that has specific numbers that will have your readers wondering if they need to be with the 58% increasing their budget.
It creates a sense that if they don’t read your full piece, they’re going to miss out on something big. Meta descriptions, the short blurb that appears after your search results, are about the same length, so these can do double duty to get people reading your content.
Pinterest, Flickr and YouTube
There isn’t a lot of space to put information on these types of posts, but because they are visually stimulating, you can convey a great deal of information visually instead of in a written format. Your written information should include how or why the featured product or service will solve a problem for the reader. Will it keep a child entertained for a few hours? Is it a high-quality product that they can expect to provide years of service? Let the image or video convey the details, just describe the solutions it provides.
Facebook and Google+
These are slightly longer posts, typically optimized at under 100 words. You can convey more of your message, but like the Twitter posts, you need to grab the attention quickly. Once you’ve done that, keep your audience engaged with a few facts that make them wondering what they’re missing and then close with a link to your content for more information.
Now that you’ve got a better idea of how to phrase your social media posts to get the best possible response out of your online marketing dollars, consider how you can put that knowledge to work. By developing a content marketing strategy, you can determine if content writers needed to be contracted or if you are able to handle the work in-house. Just remember, a dedicated content writer is on top of the latest happenings in their industry and can save your company time and money in the long run.
Cathleen V is a multi-talented writer with experience in many different fields. She focuses on tutorial, content, blog and article writing for small and medium business management and development, content optimization and marketing, arts businesses, crafts, agriculture, science, construction and home improvement, homesteading arts, food, nutrition and natural health. She is a top 1% content writer out of over 22,000.
