Hiring writers to help you produce content to promote your small business is definitely a step in the right direction. Unique, high-quality content has become increasingly important to businesses looking to advance in search rankings, and outsourcing this work to experienced content writers for hire will help free you up to do what you do best: manage your business.
But when assigning content to writers, how much is enough? Read on for some basic guidelines to keep your word count in check so that you don’t end up paying for “fluff” in your web content!
The Short Stuff: Using Content Writers for Hire for Tweets
Twitter can be a powerful social media marketing tool because it allows you to interact with current and potential customers in real time. If you don’t know the first thing about Twitter, no worries! You can easily find an experienced content writer who will be happy to translate your brand and message into a Tweet friendly format.
To put it simply, Twitter allows you to communicate short messages of no more than 140 characters to the people who choose to “follow” your business. This means that when assigning a batch of tweets, you should imagine each tweet to be around 10-15 words. This word count will include any links you want to include as well. Simply multiply the number of tweets you’d like written by 15, and you should have a good estimate of the maximum number of words to assign your content writer.
Blog Posts: The Medium-Length Message
Blog posts allow more room than a Tweet and allow you to expand your message and brand. Depending on your assessment of what your customers actually want to read, you can comfortably assign blog posts anywhere from 300 to 1,000 words. While there’s some evidence to suggest that longer posts ultimately receive higher search engine rankings, it’s important to exercise good judgment. Do you run a retail site and you’re just looking for short posts to describe new inventory? Then a short post should work well. Are you hoping to spark a discussion about a trend in your industry? Then shoot for at least 500-700 words to give your audience some meaty food for thought.
What’s a “White Paper”?
While you may want to get started with some small content assignments to figure out what works best, a longer “white paper” can also be a great tool for your business. White papers typically run anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000 words. The Small Business Administration notes that white papers are particularly effective for business-to-business services, or when you’d like to establish your company’s credibility or expertise in a particular industry niche.
Like Goldilocks, it’s up to you to determine the “just right” size content for your budget, but the good news is that there are many options available and even more writers who can get it done.
Caitlin C is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments.
