Writing for social media is not an easy job.
You work with strict limits on the number of characters and hard turnover. You speak the language of memes and microtrends that your boss and colleagues may not understand. You must respond quickly and witty to current topics. And if you ever post with a typo, people will notice and call you. (Looking at you tweeters.)
But it’s also fun and rewarding. Great content can help you start inspiring conversations, build engaged communities, create buzz around your brand, and even directly influence sales.
Keep reading to discover expert tips and tools to help you become a more confident and effective social media writer in no time.
What is social media content writing?
Social media content writing is the process of writing content for a social media audience, usually on several major social media platforms. This can include writing short captions for TikTok or Instagram Reels, as well as long LinkedIn articles (and everything in between).
Writing for social media is different than writing for blogs and websites—it requires expert knowledge of social platforms and their audiences, trends, and inside jokes.
Social media writing is a critical element of any brand’s social presence. This can make or break a campaign or your entire social media marketing strategy. Done right, social writing will have a direct impact on engagement and conversion, as well as helping you achieve your strategic business goals.
7 Social Media Writing Tips for 2022
The tips below will help you create content that will inspire your target audience—whether to interact with you, take action, or just spend a few seconds thinking about what they just read.
Try some (or all) of them in your next 10 social media posts to build good habits and strengthen your writing muscles. You will be amazed at how clearly you will write and how you will be able to focus on your voice.
1. Just start writing (you will edit later)
Writer’s block is real, but there’s an easy way to overcome it: just start writing without thinking.
Start typing whatever comes to mind and forget about sentence structure, spelling and punctuation (for a moment). Just move your fingers and overcome any obstacles. Editing will come later.
Here is how John Swartzwelder, the legendary writer of The Simpsons, wrote the scripts for the series:
“Because writing is very difficult, and rewriting is relatively easy and quite fun, I always write my scripts as quickly as possible, on the first day if possible, adding crappy jokes and formulaic dialogue. And the next day, when I get up, the script is already written. It’s lousy, but it’s a script. The hard part is done. It’s like some crappy elf snuck into my office and badly did all my work for me and then left with the tip of his crappy hat. All I have to do from now on is fix it.”
This of course means different things on different platforms.
Eileen Kwok, social marketing coordinator at Hootsuite, says it’s critical to “get a good understanding of the language your target audience speaks. Each channel serves a different purpose, so the text should be different.”
Wondering what it looks like on Hootsuite’s own social media channels? “For example, LinkedIn is a space for working professionals, so we prioritize educational and cutting-edge content on the platform. Our TikTok audience is more casual, so we give them videos that talk about the fun and authentic side of our brand.”
But this advice goes beyond choosing the right content categories and post types for each network. It really comes down to the language you are using.
Eileen says: “On most channels, you’ll want to check everything for spelling and make sure you’re grammatically correct, but those rules don’t apply to TikTok. Capitalizing words for dramatic effect, using emoji instead of words, and even misspelling words all serve the app’s playful nature.”
You can go ahead and show this to your boss the next time he doesn’t want to approve a TikTok caption that mentions Dula Peep or doesn’t use any punctuation.
3. Make your posts accessible
As a social media writer, you need to make sure everyone in your audience can enjoy your posts.
Nick Martin, social listening and engagement strategist at Hootsuite, told me, “When you write for social media, you have to keep accessibility in mind. Some of your followers may be using screen readers, and a post full of emojis will be almost unreadable to them.”
Incomprehensible messages will not help you reach your social media goals. In fact, they may turn people away from your brand altogether.
“The same thing happens when you share an image with text,” Nick adds. “You need to make sure you write alt text for this image so that your entire audience can enjoy it.”
Here’s a great example of how you can have fun writing creative and entertaining alt text for the accompanying images of your social media post:
Grooming routines and bear encounters start with setting boundaries pic.twitter.com/reul7uausI
— Washington State Department of Natural Resources (@waDNR) September 20, 2022
4. Keep it simple
Imagine that you are writing to an eighth grader. Like, actually.
This is a simple but very effective exercise that will force you to write clearly and get rid of unnecessary jargon that will most likely only confuse your readers.
“Innovation Movement”.
“Become a destroyer.”
Ugh.
LinkedIn, in particular, contains some of the most used and underperforming claims of all time. And, of course, it’s a “business”social media channel. But business people are people too. And people respond well to short, clear texts—don’t overuse buzzwords that have little to no real meaning behind them.
To communicate with your audience, you must speak a language they understand. Say something real. Use simple language and short sentences. Practice on your niece, mom, or friend and see if they understand your message.
5. Write to the reader
Your social media audience is eager to know what your company does or what is important to you (unless it is very relevant). They want to know what’s in it for them. That’s why you should always write from the reader’s point of view. Make them a hero.
So, instead of posting a boring list of features that have just been added to your product, tell your audience how their life will improve if they use it.
Sometimes “stand out”is nothing more than writing from the reader’s point of view, because most of your competitors don’t.
6. Have a clear goal
… and write that goal down at the top of your draft so you don’t get distracted from your goal as you write.
What action do you want the reader to take? Do you want them to leave a comment or go to your site? Whatever it is, clearly state it in a CTA (call to action).
Note that the call to action doesn’t have to be a button or any other very obvious, easily identifiable element in your message. It can be as simple as a question in your caption, or it can be a sentence telling your audience why they should click on a link in your bio.
7. Use (Correct) Pictures to Improve Your Words
This one speaks for itself. (One image is worth a thousand words, anyone?)
We’ve already talked about the importance of adding alt text to images for accessibility, but the images you choose are very important.
Some networks rely on words more than images and videos. But whenever possible (and appropriate), you should try to include visuals in your posts — they are much more effective at capturing the attention of scrollers than words. And without that attention, your words won’t have a chance to shine.
4 social media writing tools
1. App Hemingway
Best for: Writing something concisely and clearly.
Cost: Free in your browser, one-time payment of $19.99 for the desktop app.
The Hemingway app will help you become a more engaging writer. It flags overly complicated words and phrases, long sentences, unnecessary adverbs, passive voice, and more. It also gives you a readability score.
Pro Tip: At the Hootsuite editorial team, we always strive for Grade 6 readability. Some topics are just a little tricky, so stay flexible and don’t beat yourself up if you can’t always reach that benchmark – but it’s a good result to look up to.
Here’s how it works:
- Write your copy.
- Paste it into Hemingway’s online editor.
- Visually see what works and what doesn’t.
- Make your changes.
- See how your score improves!
2. ZenPen
Best for: Writing without distractions.
Cost: free.
There is a lot of confusion in life. ZenPen is a distraction-free little corner of the universe that helps you write without interference.
- Go to zenpen.io.
- Start writing social media posts.
- Enjoy the silent editor until you’re done.
3. Grammatically
Good for: Makes your writing clear, efficient, and correct.
Cost: Free basic plan; Premium plans start at $12 per month.
Grammarly promises to keep your social media posts up to date. It will flag everything from contextual misspellings to bad word choices. Moreover, this tool integrates with many online platforms including Twitter, Gmail and Tumblr.
4. Lately + Hootsuite
Best for: Automatically generate social captions from other text (such as blog posts).
Cost: Plans start at $14.99.
Recently, it is an AI content creation tool for social media marketers. When integrated with Hootsuite, it learns which keywords and phrases generate the most engagement with your audience and automatically generates content based on those ideas.
More recently, it’s also possible to take existing long content like blog posts and break it up into multiple headings and short snippets of social media content, all designed to maximize responsiveness.
As you view and edit content, the AI continues to learn, so your auto-generated content will get better and better over time.