Social media is meant to be consumed quickly. Therefore, it should be comprised of meaningful, interesting content. Unfortunately, many writers get caught in the trap of long paragraphs, which will lose a reader’s attention after the first two sentences.
Here are 10 ways to avoid this problem:
1. Look at the content feed for a site similar to yours before writing on a given topic or category. You’ll get a feel for what your audience wants rather than just guessing at it.
2. Use concise, to-the-point writing. Practice conveying material in 150 characters or less.
3. Take advantage of the ability to spread content between writing, photographs, and video material.
4. Be responsive to commentary on content, but don’t get bogged down in a comment war. (You could probably write ten posts in the time it takes to win an argument.)
5. Your posts don’t have to be daily, but there should be new material every few days to hold the interest of your readers.
6. Be a lazy bum. If you find good, relevant content on someone else’s feed, link it to yours and share.
7. Practice and plan overall themes that tie multiple posts together. You can map out writing strategies on a paper month calendar and construct 30 day running themes for posts, hooking writers far more than with just one-off posts.
8. Keep up with people and companies who are successful on social media. Why do you like them? Why do they have a big following?
9. Pick one social media platform and stick with it. Spreading thin across multiple platforms takes a lot of energy and reduces the quality of your writing.
10. Market and advertise by using links in your posts. Your writing may be great, but you have to make people aware of whatever you’re selling if you want to build a following.
About the author
Tom L brings to customers and clients almost 20 years of extensive writing and editing experience working in government and producing documentation for public consumption. Additionally, he has spent the last 11 years privately producing written content and analytical products for clients and freelance agencies as well.
