Are You Crafting the Right Social Media Copy?
There are so many different ways that your brand can participate in social media. When drafting the social media copy for posts across platforms, do you want your tone to be entertaining, funny or witty? Do you want to sound informed, knowledgeable or professional? Regardless of your brand identity, there’s a social media strategy that fits your brand. From word and character counts to hashtags to tagging, there are many ways to improve the success of your social media posts.
Post Captions and Social Media Copy
Your post copy, or caption, is incredibly important to the success of your efforts on social media. One common issue with social media copy is its length — followers don’t want to read a verbose social media post. Instead of sharing a long-form message, attempt to shorten your messaging to ensure your content is engaging for your audience.
Some platforms, like Twitter, have character limits for their content. So, as long as you share content that is under the 280-character limit, your content will be successful, right? Well, not exactly. On Twitter, tweets that are 100 characters or less get 17% higher engagement, and the ideal tweet length is between 70 and 110 characters.
Other platforms, like LinkedIn, have a much longer character count limit. On LinkedIn, that limit is 3,000 characters. While it’s unlikely that your content will exceed that length, it is important to note that after just 140 characters, LinkedIn will shorten your posts with a “…see more” button. For this reason, LinkedIn’s recommended post length is between 100 and 140 characters.
Hashtag Recommendations
As with our previous tip for writing social media copy, hashtag recommendations also vary on different platforms. Some platforms recommend using only a few hashtags to best engage with your audience. When adding hashtags, it is important to remember how your followers will consume your social media content. If you share a post with too many hashtags, your engagement could decline.
Let’s take a look at some social media copy hashtag recommendations for several of the most popular social media platforms:
- Instagram: As many hashtags as possible.
- Twitter: 2-3 hashtags per tweet.
- Facebook: 2-3 hashtags per post.
- LinkedIn: 2-3 hashtags per post.
Writing Social Media Copy for Instagram Posts
Instagram is a platform that supports a lot of hashtags. When sharing an Instagram post, create your caption, but put your hashtags at the very bottom of your post. This allows you to get engagement from hashtags without boring your followers with uninteresting copy. By “hiding” them at the bottom of your post, you save your social media post from sounding too promotional, busy or complex.
What Social Media Copy Works Best on Twitter?
Twitter is nearly the exact opposite of Instagram. With Instagram, there are no limits, and you can add as many hashtags as you want. For Twitter, your tweet will have to abide by the platform’s strict 280-character limit. For this reason, Twitter recommends 2-3 hashtags per tweet. By utilizing 2-3 hashtags, you will not only ensure that your content reaches those hashtag audiences but also that your social media copy isn’t too elaborate or promotional.
When thinking about hashtags, think of them as a way to connect your social media content to a specific topic, event, theme or conversation. Since social media platforms tend to aggregate all of the social media content using that same hashtag, discovering posts around those specific topics is easier than ever, but don’t go overboard with hashtagging content.
The Importance of Tagging
Tagging can be a great way for your social media profiles to grow engagement. Specifically, tagging your clients or partners can help further the conversation. By tagging another established social media profile, your opportunity for engagement increases exponentially. A great way to incorporate tagging into your social media strategy is to share testimonials from clients. If your client decides to share your testimonial post to their profile, which they often do, your post will not only be seen by your audience but your client’s audience as well. This engagement can bring clients, sales and boost your brand awareness.
Through improved and optimized copywriting and by implementing hashtags and tagging friendlies on social media, you can improve your social media content strategy. There are many different ways that companies and brands around the world are using the various social media platforms, and new trends will continue to disrupt the status quo. If you need help creating effective social media copy or developing an entire social media strategy that bolsters your business, contact our team today!
