7 Social Media Copywriting Tips You Can Use Today

The words we use are very powerful. They create emotion, command action, and set the tone of a conversation. Knowing what to say and how to say it is a very valuable skill. In this lesson we will learn so helpful tips to elevate your copywriting skills!

Tip #1 Use Verbs Our first tip is about the type of words that you use. When writing, what you want to do is think about verbs. This is something that's known as active language, opposed to passive language. Passive language might be something like, “I have been thinking about going on vacation.” An active language way of saying this is “I want to go on vacation.” You want to write in such a way that gets results, you want to use active language. Types of words that invoke action are verbs like:

Get

Take

Click

Download

Call

Words like these focus on the action. They prompt the reader to do something besides just reading and scrolling past the post. This is the difference between copywriting and just writing. If you want to write copy that gets results, that makes them click on your links, watch your videos, then you're going to want to use verbs. Let's say for example there's a small business that sells furniture.  A bad way to write out a post would be something like “Our furniture store is amazing. Come visit us now.” First of all, it's not about the reader. It's just them talking about themselves, and most people don’t care. Now a better way to write a post is focusing on the reader with active language to get them to take action. What does the reader care about when it comes to furniture? What action could you get them to take? Think about that, then write the post. You may come out with something like “Comfortable sofas with prices you won’t believe! Visit us at the corner of Lake and Knoxville and test them out for yourself!” Test them out, visit us, these phrases have verbs. Those are words that speak the language of taking action. The more you use these types of verbs in the copy that you write, the more engagement you're going to see with your content. You're speaking the language of action versus the language of passive language.  

Tip # 2 Keep it Simple Keep it simple, don't try to overthink it. No matter what kind of writing that you're writing, long copy, short copy, copy for Instagram, Facebook, etc., just focus on keeping it simple. And one of the ways that you can do this is instead of using longer words, use shorter words when you can. Try to use one or two syllable words. Perhaps instead of saying “residential property” you can say homes or land. There is the caveat that you might have a particular type of customer that responds better to more technical words. But in most cases, especially in b2c, which is business to consumer, you want to keep it simple. Also, be careful not to use too much of your industry jargon that only people in your industry know. Focus on the consumer, would they know what this term means? 

Tip #3 Use Questions to Call Out to Your Market There’s so much noise and distractions in media. From videos and pictures to updates and arguments. How do you get the attention of people who are scrolling through their feeds or going about their day? The trick is to use questions to call out your market. If you can ask a question that calls out somebody from a crowd, makes their ears perk up, makes them notice you, this will help you cut through the noise. So, if you're writing copy for a hair salon. Put the reader first and think “What do most women care about when going to a new salon?” Usually, it’s they don’t know if the stylist is going to do a good job. Keeping that in mind, a good question to ask is one that calls out to the reader and speaks to their fears or objections. So perhaps they could say “Are you looking for a new stylist but don’t know who to trust?” You see how that gets your attention? You can also add a picture of maybe the owner of the hair salon, maybe a video of the stylist doing hair, or client testimonials at the end. You can do this for your content by identifying what are people scared of, what are their biggest pain points or objections. Once you know that, you can make content that calls out to those fears or ideas.

Tip #4 Be Specific You want to be clear, not vague. Do not leave things open to interpretation. Using details, you can make things very clear. Let's say you're writing a quick post or an update. You could say something like “We are right off the interstate, ask us about our sale.” Well, that’s kind of vague. First of all, you're not saying which direction they should go in? How do they get the sale details? What kind of sale are they talking about? Just by making a couple quick changes, we can make that one line a lot better. A better way to write that would be “We're right off Interstate 74 Exit 91. Don't forget to ask Julie about our 15% discount.” This example is clearer and more detailed. It generates action because you're making things crystal clear.

Tip #5 Use a CTA A CTA is an abbreviation for a marketing term and it stands for Call to Action. Using a CTA in your copy will boost conversions and all-around engagement of your page. You can read a story or an article, but if there's no call to action, it just kind of ends. It's just like hitting a dead end. There's a brick wall there with no steps or instructions on what to do next. What you want to do is add a cta. It can be something as simple as having one of your articles and a link at the end with a caption saying “For more articles like this, visit…”. Perhaps the article was something that the reader could relate to and you could ask them a comment below. You're directing someone to do something. So, a call to action could be something as simple as “like this post if you agree”, “comment with your thoughts”, “share this post with your friends”, “click the link below” these are call to actions that direct the next step.

Tip #6 Formulas for Writing Copy I’m going to share with you 2 different formulas that are proven to work. The first formula is called P A S, and it stands for:

Problem

Agitate

Solution

Let's say you have a small plumbing business. Using this formula, you can say something like “Your leaky sink is draining your wallet! We'll fix this, call us now!”  So, “your leaky sink”, that's the problem “is draining your wallet” is the agitation, and then the solution is to call. 

The next formula that you can use is called AIDA. It stands for

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action 

Let's say you have a small business, a laundry mat. You want to make a post for people to come do their laundry at your place.  You can say something like “Got dirty laundry, we'll clean it for you. Enjoy free coffee and Wi Fi while you wait. Come in today!”  So, what you're doing there, you're using a question, like we talked about in another tip to identify the market, you’re calling out the market with a question when you say “Got dirty laundry?” If they do, then they're going to listen. “We’ll clean it for you” So if they're looking for someone to clean their laundry, that's going to get them interested in what you have to say.  “enjoy free coffee, and Wi Fi while you wait” not only will they clean it, you're going to get something for free, free Wi Fi and coffee. So, that's going to make people desire to want to go there versus just going to a coin operated place or the competition. “Come in today!” That's where the call to action is. And that's it! Now do if for your business!

Tip # 7 Be Relevant This is where I feel that there's a big advantage of writing copy on social media. You can take advantage of things that are going on in the world, things that are trending, certain events, things that are happening, you could you can use that in such a way that get people’s attention. 2013 the power went out at the Super Bowl. And for about 34 minutes, people were in the dark. So, what Oreo did was tweet “You can still dunk in the dark.” and they posted a picture of one of their cookies with an all black backdrop in white text. Within an hour, they got over 10,000 retweets and it just went viral. They were relevant to something that was current. They got free publicity. There might be a local event happening in the city, a fundraiser or special event that you can use. You can also think bigger, the world cup, Olympics, The Canadian Dust. Stay away from politics as much as possible. A good site that I like to use to find trending topics is  https://upstract.com/. Another trick that I use to find trending information about a specific topic is I type in a search term or keyword in google, then click on news underneath the search bar.