Social media is one of the strongest and most effective online marketing tools today. There are more than 3 billion social media users worldwide. It’s amazing just how powerful social media platforms can be for building a brand, raising brand awareness, and communicating with your followers. Ultimately, it can help you turn your social media followers into customers.
But, you need to build a strong social media writing strategy that will help you reach these goals. If you want your followers to become your customers, you have to win them over for good. Writing high-quality social media content is one of the ways to do it. That’s why we’ve put together a guide with content writing rules that will help you convert your social media followers into customers.
Let’s dig into it.
Define Your Writing Style
One of the most important elements in your social media content writing strategy is your writing style. You need to define it before you start writing on a regular basis, and here’s why.
Your followers and potential customers expect honesty and consistency.
If you’re using different styles of writing every day, they won’t be able to create an image of your business in their minds. And that means they won’t believe you.
This is why you need to define your writing style. Here’s an example of what to think about:
- formal vs. informal writing
- friendly vs. educational tone
- funny vs. serious
- etc.
Your writing style will mainly depend on your brand personality and your target audience.
If you’re a business selling swimwear for young women, you’ll probably want your tone to be informal and your tone laid back. But, if you’re selling office supplies to business people, you’ll go for something different.
This means that you have to consider the needs of your target audience and adjust your writing style to your brand personality.
Once you define it, you need to stay true to it in every social media post that follows.
Use Your Audience’s Vocabulary
If you want your social media followers to understand you, like you, and believe you, you’ll need to speak as they do. That means that you have to use the vocabulary they’ll understand.
So, after defining your target audience in terms of demographics, online behavior, social status, etc., you’ll also have to analyze their vocabulary.
By using their language preferences, you’ll make them feel like they’re talking to a friend and not reading a social media post that’s supposed to make them buy something.
Here’s what to consider:
- use everyday vocabulary
- avoid scholarly terms
- avoid technical terminology
The rules above should be suitable for any target audience you may be dealing with. Even if you’re selling high-fashion men’s clothes, you still need to send out friendly vibrations.
And you can further adjust your vocabulary by using some slang, emoji, or specific vocabulary your audience will love hearing.
Create Valuable Posts
Fluff and fun never killed anybody, but they’re far from enough to turn your followers into customers. If the only thing you’re sharing is superficial and empty words, you’ll use your followers within days.
But, if you create valuable posts that have a certain heaviness and impact, your followers will grow to like you more every day.
Therefore, make sure to create posts that:
- are highly informative
- are helpful
- contain data, facts, and statistics
- explain/reveal/educate
- are based on credible sources of information
If you show your followers that they can trust you as a source of information, they’ll begin to trust you more as a brand.
That will motivate them to consider becoming a customer, which is the ultimate goal.
Provide Updates
Another way to keep your followers interested and engaged is to turn your social media posts into the best source of the latest niche-related news.
Be the go-to resource for your followers to:
- read about the latest news
- learn about important events
- get updates on trends
Cover the topics they want to read about every day, and always provide the best, fresh topics. This will have them grow to like you even more and eventually go from being a follower to being a customer.
Address Followers’ Pain Points
Another way to draw more attention to your social media content is to cover your followers’ pain points.
What does that mean?
It means that you should know what your target audience’s potential problems and worries are and then try to solve them.
Here’s an example:
- you’re selling baby gear and clothes
- your target audience are young parents
- their pain points can be anything from choosing high-quality fabrics for their babies to secrets of successful breastfeeding
Once you explore and define their pain points, cover them in your social media posts. Write a post such as:
- How to Choose the Best Baby Stroller For Your First Child?
- Should You Stop Breastfeeding After a Year?
If you manage to impress your followers by covering the topics they truly care about, they’ll be more willing to check out your products and buy them from you- a brand they trust.
Constantly Engage Your Followers
Your content needs to be valuable and informative, but it’s still not going to go a long way unless you make it engaging.
Engaging content is the kind of content that will make your followers:
- leave a comment
- share with their friends
- repost
- send you a DM for
- like
- tag a friend
- respond with another desirable action
- etc.
Writing engaging content is a challenging task that you have to perfect as time goes by. Here’s what you can do to make your social media posts more engaging:
- ask questions
- invite to share their story
- have them choose
-
Ask your followers about their opinion, ideas, feelings, or wishes and invite them to share it with you: “What’s your favorite home gadget this winter?”
-
Invite your followers to tell you about their experience with a product/situation/service that you covered in your post: “Have you ever had issues finding the right babysitter for your child?”
-
Open a debate and have your followers vote for a product/service/item/ of their liking: “Which Christmas ornaments do you prefer- the red ones or the silver ones?”
Make sure to leave an open invitation to all your followers who want to share an opinion, tell their friends about you, or leave their feedback.
Engaging content is more memorable and personal and will help your followers bond with you and your brand.
Share User-Generated Content
Social proof matters. People online tend to look for evidence that a brand is trustworthy and safe to buy from.
Luckily, social media is the heart of user-generated content (UGC) and gives you a chance to share it and showcase your customers’ positive opinions.
Therefore, make sure that you invite your followers to:
- post images related to your brand
- create videos
- tag you
- use designated hashtags
This will help you find their content and decide which one to showcase on your social media profiles. You should share UGC that includes:
- customer images
- customer stories
- customer videos
You can even use storytelling to share UGC and give social proof to your followers.
This is one of the strongest social media marketing tools you should use, so make sure to give your followers a strong reason to trust you.
Include a Good CTA
A call-to-action (CTA) might be considered an overly “marketing” addition to your content. But, if you have written it wisely, it will be a valuable part of your social media posts.
A CTA is supposed to inspire your followers to perform a certain action.
It’s also meant to have them actively consider engaging with your brand on a level other than reading, liking, or sharing.
Let’s first consider some examples of great CTAs for social media posts:
- Find the full recipe on our blog!
- Claim your discount ASAP!
- Join our free webinar!
- Shop this exact style!
CTAs are not supposed to be overly pressuring and to send the message “buy this, buy that!”. On the contrary, CTAs are meant to subtly guide your followers one step further in the process of becoming your customers.
So, if they visit your blog, they’ll see more interesting information. If they like it, they might come back for more. And, in time, they’re bound to check out what you’re selling on your website.
So, make your social media CTA light and don’t add too much pressure to your potential customers.
Monitor Your Competition
In the process of building a solid content writing strategy for social media, your competitors should be a major concern.
It should be a part of your strategy to monitor their social media profiles and see what they’re doing. This way, you’ll be able to:
come up with unique ideas
- figure out how to separate yourself from the rest
- stay updated on the news and trends
- watch what portion of your target audience are you sharing
If you see a pattern in what your competitors are doing, try doing something else. Make a change and try being unique. This might get you the additional points that you need.
Proofread to Perfection
Your followers want to make sure that they’re dealing with a professional brand and not some second-hand, low-budget one.
This is why everything you write and publish needs to be perfected.
That means that you have to edit and proofread your content to make it accurate and polished. You’ll need to:
- remove grammar mistakes
- remove spelling mistakes
- use proper vocabulary
- use proper punctuation
This is the final touch that you need to add to everything you publish on your social media. If you feel like you need extra help, check out some professional writing services.
Final Thoughts
Writing for social media is a challenge since there are hundreds of other similar brands trying to win over your target audience. But, if you create a strong and stable writing strategy and share the right content, you’ll be able to win your piece of the cake.
Use the content writing tips that are listed above to improve your social media posts and aim them towards your goal of turning followers into customers. You’ll be able to see the first positive results sooner than you expect.
Author Bio
Jessica Fender is a copywriter and blogger at GetGoodGrade with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services.
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