Social messaging

checklist

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 Winging it on social media?

To the rescue… Check out my social media messaging best practices…

Think you’re a great content writer?

You can spell, understand an Oxford
comma, and you’ve got a vocabulary
to die for?

But…
that doesn’t mean you’re fit to write social media posts. That’s an art form in itself.
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 Get to know your audience

Write for everyone, and no one will

hear you.
Every piece of content you write, has to target the right audience. Those who will buy your product
and support your brand. Never assume that your audience on social media is the same across the
board. Those following you on Twitter, aren’t necessarily following you on Facebook. Your social
media followers may not be on your email list, or subscribe to your blog.

I have a formula. Wait, wait… you’re gonna love it…

problem + solution + URL/CTA

You’re hungry + we sell cupcakes + link to cupcake form
When writing a social media message, it should speak to your audience’s interests and pain points.

• Interests - what does your target audience like?

• Pain points - what problem do they have that your product or service will solve?
Don’t assume you know your audience.
You’ve heard the saying… assume makes an ass out of u and me.
Heed my warning, it won’t be my brand that suffers.
Check out your followers’ profiles...
• What are they talking about?
• How are they saying it?
• What language do they use to describe your industry, product, brand?
• What blogs and websites are they reading?
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 Why people want to share

To work with social media effectively,

you have to understand why people
share content. Here goes…

• To define themselves
Does your content reinforce the identity of your audience
members?

• To give value to their followers

Content that’s helpful, entertaining, educational. Your content
should demonstrate a clear benefit - how it will help their
followers.

• To feel good, valued

To make them look cool. On trend. Down with the kids.
Intelligent. To get likes, shares, positive comments.

• To build relationships
Social media is about connecting with people, starting
conversations. Your content should encourage sharing and
chat.

• To support their cause

We love to share our opinions on social media. Our soapbox
where we express our beliefs. Demonstrate your support for a
cause - controversial, if you can take the heat - but, it has to be
genuine support.
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 Determine your brand voice & tone

Done properly, it won’t smother your brand’s personality. Flexibility is vital, but your brand has to be
recognizable across multiple platforms. Your brand’s voice should vary, according to the channel
it’s speaking from. How do you speak to a work colleague? To a customer. To a friend? Same
person, different voice and language.

Hold up… what’s the difference

between tone and voice?

Voice - your brand’s style, Tone - emotion or inflection in

personality, character. What you your voice. Changes according to
sound like on social. the context of the content you’re
publishing.

Be consistent across channels - If you have multiple team members working on your social
channels and website, they have to all sing from the same song sheet.
Your social media posts will reflect your brand. If you’re sloppy - spelling, grammar, broken links,
branding - your company looks sloppy.

Create a style guide to keep your social copy on brand. It should include…
• Mission statement
Why does your brand exist? What are your values? What makes you different? Why are you on
social media?
• Audience persona
Who are your writing for? Your social media audience.
• Social media brand voice
Describe how it sounds - casual, serious, professional.
• Social media tone of voice
What tone does your audience use? Match it on each channel - helpful, humorous, authoritative.
• Branding
Spelling - UK/US, acronyms, logo, tagline, colors, image style.
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• Message types
Which type of message for which social network.
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 16 social media messaging best practices
• Lose the jargon
You’ll sound more authentic. You’ll sound
more human.
• Avoid buzzwords
Transform, disrupt, innovate, out of the box,
optimize, holistic, snackable, synergy, viral.
Set your teeth on edge, no?
• Don’t be a drama queen
Clickbait headlines are cheap. You’ll scare,
annoy, lose followers.
• Create a story around your brand
Make it fun, helpful, truthful, edgy, exciting.
• Don’t boast
Write about your followers and the great
things they’ll achieve when working with
your brand.
• Listen and respond
Make it real. Make it worthwhile. Listen
90% of the time. Talk 10% of the time. Your
audience has to come first.
• Be clear. Be concise
K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.
We skim social media. Short, punchy
sentences work. Simple language. Just
cos you can use 280 characters on Twitter,
doesn’t mean you should. A couple of
sentences is ideal. For example…
• Here is our latest blog post all about a
very, very awesome topic you are going
to love.
• Here’s our new blog post about social
media messaging.
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• Hard-sell, won’t sell
Yes, your social ads can get away with sales-
driven messaging. Your organic social posts
have to be more human - entertain, educate,
engage. DO NOT post a sales pitch!
• Be tantalizing
You want people to click. Tease them with
enough information that they want to click
your link and find out more.
• Add hashtags
Use the appropriate hashtag in your post,
and you’ll attract new eyes. Hashtags
increase the odds of your posts - LinkedIn,
Twitter, Instagram - being found in a search.
• Stand out from the crowd
Competition is high on social media. Users
are faced with a deluge of content 24 hours
a day. Answer users questions, and you’re
onto a winner.
• Video is a must
Used in your posts, video brings more than
12 times the reposts that text and image
posts do.
• Use influencers
Partner with an influencer in your industry,
and get them to promote your brand to their
social followers. Influencers’ followers trust
them. Your brand benefits from this, gaining
new fans.
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 • Avoid weasel words • Passive
Filler words - designed to sound We were awarded an industry prize
authoritative or meaningful, but lacking • Active
content - anonymous authority. For instance We won an industry prize
- hopefully, well…, maybe, research shows,
try, experts claim, I would say, cutting- • Banish the fluff
edge, leading, some, many, just, that, very, Unnecessary words - think punchy and
every, some, most, but… Get the idea? For concise. You don’t have much space, so
example… keep it short. Remember, we skim social
media. For example…
• Big, fat weasel
Hopefully, this blog post will deliver • Tooooo much
some of what you’re looking for on social We promise that you will win more
media. customers if you use sign up for our
product.
• No weasel
This blog post guarantees to show you • Concise
how to win new clients on social media. Win more customers with our product.
• Passive vs active words
An active voice is clear and straightforward,
describing what you did, without fluff or
fanfare - I did this. A passive voice is a third
party speaking - this was done. An active
voice holds way more power.

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 Social media channels
I’m going to cover the ones that most brands use in their social media marketing strategies -
Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn.
All social media channels are different. Different audience, purpose, expectations. Your messaging
has to be crafted according to each network.
330
million monthly
active users
News platform and social media network.
Retweets, comments, and curation are
encouraged. Ideal for brands sharing blog
posts, social ads, or promoting their website.
Interact. Share opinions. Be informal. Be
familiar. Be bold. Be human.
Include images, polls, GIFs, hashtags, emoji,
questions. Encourage RTs to reach a wider
audience and drive more traffic to your website.
Engage with followers to increase your
audience.
• Frequency - 3 to 30 times per day
• Time of day - Spread throughout
• Characters - 280 per post
• Do more than share blog post titles - write
copy that adds to the post - outlines the
content. This will tempt them to click the
link, and find out more.
• Hashtags - At the end or incorporated into
the content. #FridayFeeling - works at the
end and places your tweet. How to win
at #SocialListening - incorporates in the
message. Stick to 2 or 3 hashtags per tweet.
This isn’t the ‘gram.
• Character limit - A whopping 280. But… just
because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
Be concise. Be clear. Avoid shorthand in an
attempt to cram more in.
• Tag other accounts - if you talk about an
influencer, tag them. Chances are they’ll
share your post.
• Emoji - absolutely. It’s a new language. A
universal language.
8
2.4
billion monthly
active users
News and entertainment social network,
sending more website referral traffic than other
social channels.
Informal. Playful. Engaging. Friendly.
Personable. Funny. Include images, blogs,
competitions, polls, memes, GIFs, and don’t
forget Facebook Live. Helpful advice will
increase user engagement and target future
customers.
• Frequency - Once per day, minimum - 3
times per week
• Time of day - Early morning, early evening
• Characters - 63,206 per post
• Avoid promotional CTAs - The Facebook
algorithm hunts down overly promotional
language. Sign up, Buy now, Download here -
with a hard-sell message, will be demoted in
news feeds.
• Headlines to share - They work on Facebook
- shorty, edgy, conversational.
• Text on images - ads and boosted posts are
restricted to a 20% image text overlay. More
than 20% of your image has text, and your
post’s reach will be reduced.
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 1 303
billion monthly million monthly
active users active users

Visual-based network for image and short Connecting professionals. Formal. Business-
videos. Not the best platform if you’re looking to like. Industry posts. Webinars. Avoid memes
increase blog or website traffic. Ideal for strong, and GIFs, but you can get away with an emoji
visual, pretty brands - fashion, luxury, cosmetics, or two. You’re selling your business, rather than
etc. your product. Build your presence to find B2B
The majority of users on Instagram are Gen X leads, and improve your brand identity. LinkedIn
and Gen Y. If they aren’t your target audience, Pulse for publishing and distribution.
don’t give up. Each year, new users are signing People spend time on LinkedIn. Help your
up for the ‘gram. followers do their job better. Answer their
Your brand isn’t pretty, so you’ve dismissed questions. Address their pain points. Thought
Instagram from your marketing strategy. No, no, leadership content goes down a storm - users
no. Take photos of your office, your team mates. are buying your problem solving, not your
A sneak-peak behind the scenes. Team building product.
days. Create company hashtags for events. • Frequency - Twice a week, no more than
Give your brand a face and a personality. once each business day
• Frequency - Once per day, no more than 3 • Time of day - Post in the morning
per day • Characters - 1300 per post
• Time of day - Early morning, early evening • Hashtags - 5-6 per post. Make them relevant
• Characters - 2,200 per post to your content, company, and industry.
• Align image & post copy - The ‘gram is a
visual channel, but does include copy. Entice
users with image copy that links to your post
copy.
• Hashtags - Go crazy!

Keep these social media messaging

best practices close at hand. Refer to
them often. Hey, add to it if you think
of something that I’ve forgotten.

Enjoy!
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