Social media has become an avenue for various purposes – self-expression, branding, and promotion. All of these have one thing in common, which is getting the message across to a big audience. The point of social media content is to be seen and heard. If your posts can’t get across to people, you’re probably doing it wrong.
What’s the best way to sell your message to the crowd? The answer is great content. Form and aesthetic are good for hooking the reader’s attention, but getting them to stay and pay attention is another thing completely.
Essays.scholaradvisor rounds up top 7 writing advice and rules to craft your great social media message:
1. Find Your Thesis Statement
Having a core message is important in keeping you anchored in your content. The thesis statement is the main point of your post, which most of the content will revolve around. This is usually found at the start of the post. From there, you can start crafting your content purposefully. Supporting paragraphs should follow this central theme.
Whenever you feel yourself trailing off or moving into another topic, make sure to always go back to your thesis statement. Determining the thesis statement of your content also involves answering a simple question: What do you want to write about?
2. Proofread
[pullquote]Of course, no one will read your work if it’s grammatically incorrect.[/pullquote] At the minimum, good content will have an understandable flow and good grammar. Make sure your content is readable by constantly proofreading it. Identify specific points you would like to edit for every round of proofreading – is it structure, format, or grammar?
Stay focused on the specific aspect you’re targeting for that round of proofreading, and work from there.
2. Ask Help From The Experts
Without undermining your own skills, it doesn’t hurt to contact experts every now and then. Getting advice from professionals is a perfect way of optimizing content. You’ll also be able to learn a thing or two about improving your writing from them. If you personally know a professional editor or proofreader, you may be able to get their services.
However, there are also plenty of expert proofreaders of written online content. You will only have to pay a small price for a big contribution to better written social media posts.
IMAGE: PEXELS
4. Get The Right Tools
A few basic tools can go a long way. Turning on the grammar checker in Word is always a nifty trick to help your proofreading. Aside from that, there are also other online tools available for your disposal. A more meticulous grammar checker would be Grammarly’s plug-in for Chrome. This app helps you proofread your content just before you upload it for your public audience.
Apart from grammar, the app helps detect other anomalies in your content, like sentence construction and misplaced modifiers.
5. Find The Perfect Platform
Sometimes getting your work noticed isn’t just on how well your message is crafted. Certain types of content match the platform they’re on. For instance, apps such as Instagram and Snapchat are better for short, catchy content that people can easily browse through. Users often upload their photos on such platforms, instead of text-heavy posts. On the other hand, blogging sites like WordPress are more preferred for longer content.
The right platform will matter a lot for your content as well. Make sure you choose the right place to upload your posts by seeing how they complement each other. This is a social media strategy that is often overlooked, but extremely useful in leveraging your social media content in the market.
6. Do A Test Run
Once you’ve finished running your content through the entire process of writing, editing, and proofreading, it’s time to upload it online. Given you’ve also chosen a good platform for your content, you’re good to go. But before you let your posts go to your intended audience, try a brief test run with a smaller sample size. Limit the viewing of your post to a select number of people, and see what their reaction will be.
This tip is especially helpful if you’re not yet confident about the quality of your work. Gauging the reception of others towards your work is essential in determining its overall success.
7. See What Others Are Doing
After you’ve sent out your first social media post, make sure to regroup and check your strategy. This involves looking at what works and what doesn’t work online. Don’t compare yourself to others extensively, but developing your own unique voice also involves looking at what the competition is doing. If you’re writing for personal purposes, it still helps to listen to how others have developed their personal content online to see how you can leverage your own content later on.
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7 Overlooked Hacks To Create Great Social Media Content
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