by Ashley Jones, Account Supervisor, and Brady Lovett, Content Manager

It can be daunting to manage a brand’s social media presence — and all the potential that comes with it. You could go viral! Or fall victim to cancel culture. Knowing that it could go either way, social managers can find themselves spending an absurd amount of time crafting a 250-character Tweet.

Even when the social realm is in flux (as it almost always is), social platforms have remained deeply rooted in one thing — copy. From profile bios to post captions to comments and DMs, copy fuels expression, creativity, conversation and engagement. For brands in particular, social media platforms also offer a space to demonstrate the humanity, personality and purpose behind a business.

This makes it important to practice, perfect and pressure-test your approach to social media copywriting. Let’s start with the basics.

1. Embrace your brand’s persona

No brand is exactly the same, and your social media presence and copy should reflect your story and be tailored to embrace your brand’s unique persona and voice. Don’t know where to start? Ask yourself these questions:

• Who is your brand? What is your brand’s story?
• Who is your audience?
• What is your brand’s personality? How do you want to sound? E.g., confident but not cocky.

2. Hook your audience

Today, the average human attention span is shorter than that of the goldfish — it hurts, we know. Not only that, there’s also tons of content being churned out by the literal second. That’s why it’s important to hook your audience in with the first line of copy and then reel them in with the rest. Examples of thumb-stopping good hooks include:

• Questions: “What are the three most common mistakes PR pros make when pitching to media?”
• Statistics/facts: “30% of journalists receive over 26 pitches per day.”
• Statement: “Here’s why journalists are skipping your pitch.”
• Diction: “The best pitches all have one thing in common — New York Times journalists spill the secret.”

3. Ask open-ended questions

The objective of most social media content is to engage your audience. As a consumer, we love to feel heard and included. Addressing audiences in active voice and asking open-ended questions prompt your audience to engage, collect useful information and to have a little fun.

While you can pose questions directly in post copy, there are also native features across platforms that you can leverage as well:

• Polls (IG, FB, LI)
• Question/Quiz Stickers (IG)

4. Be conversational and consistent

Social media platforms are where brands and businesses get to show there are humans behind what they do. From B2C brands to B2Bs, and everything in-between, social media is where you can loosen the tie a bit.

Copy should come across as approachable, relatable and informative, while still maintaining the overall brand persona and storytelling across other channels (i.e., website, blog, etc.).

For example:

• Don’t fear using contractions.
• Avoid jargon and simplify word choice (i.e., use instead of utilize, etc.).
• Use exclamation points (sparingly — don’t shout at your audience).
• Use emojis (when appropriate — but don’t overdo it).

5. Keep it short and sweet

In a culture where skimming and scrolling are the norm, social media copy needs to be digestible — a quick, tasty snack versus a five-course meal.

Don’t feel compelled to fill up a social post to the full character limit. On some platforms, copy is cut off after a certain point with an ellipsis (…) and See more prompt. While longer copy can be fine, ideally land the most important point in that first sentence before the cutoff. Test and learn to find what works for you!

Character length sweet spots (avg. findings — not a one size fits all!)

• Facebook: 40-80 characters (copy cuts off at 140 characters)
• Twitter: 71-100 characters (280-character limit)
• Instagram: 125-150 characters (copy cuts off at 125 characters)
• LinkedIn: 100-140 characters (copy cuts off at 140 characters)

6. Evoke emotion

From humor to passion, your copy should aim to emotionally appeal to your audience. Beyond just adding a “!” to the end of a sentence, use language and phrasing that naturally evoke laughter, excitement, etc.

Which sentence makes you feel excited?

• ”We’re excited to launch our new link in bio feature today!”
• “Get those links ready for clicking, because our new link in bio feature drops TODAY.

7. Don’t forget your @s and #s

Your social copy should almost always include relevant handles, hashtags, URLs and more to improve reach and engagement. When tagging handles, make sure you’ve tagged the correct account!

Be sure to use the official hashtag (if there is one) when tweeting about a campaign or trend, and pay attention to capital versus lowercase. Here are few different types of hashtags to include:

• Industry
• Brand/campaign
• Community
• Location
• Event
• Celebration

How many hashtags per post? It depends…

• Twitter: 1-2
• Instagram: 3-5
• Facebook: 2-3
• LinkedIn: 1-5

8. Include clear CTAs

Your copy should almost always include the next steps for your audience to take. Highlight the benefit for users with action-driven language to encourage clicks. Some of these phrases include learn more, buy now and register here.

Which CTA would make you more likely to click on a link?

• Visit our website.
• Click here to learn more.

Last but not least, make sure your link is functional and directs to the correct website.

9. Cater your copy

While your tone and message will stay mostly consistent across platforms, there are some key points to keep in mind:

• Twitter: Be clear, concise and catchy. Cut it down to keep the key points (if necessary, use a thread). Have fun with it!
• Facebook and LinkedIn: Be conversational. More space to get your point across, but don’t bury the lede.
• Instagram: Keep it concise and engaging. Use emojis to break up copy. Provide context for your content — can you get your point across within the first sentence?
• TikTok: Use language that’s relevant to the algorithm to ensure your video gets in front of as many eyes as possible. Keep it short, sweet and SEO-optimized.

10. Don’t click post until you’ve done a spellcheck

Grammatically correct copy is helps improve trust in your brand.

BEFORE you click post:

• Read it, reread it, then re-reread it out loud.
• Triple check proper punctuation, spelling and grammar — go word by word!
• Turn to trusted colleagues for a second set of eyes.
• If all else fails, copy/paste the text into a word doc and change the font to view it with fresh eyes.

For more content-creation best practices, download our “Content That Cuts Through” white paper.