1. Define Your Voice
Writing for social media is its own discipline and different from traditional writing: it is more like writing a story, a story that you want people to share with their friends and so on and so on. Defining your voice is the combination of knowing what you want to say and how you want to say it. Your knowledge, interests, and personality will only add value to the story. Plus, telling a story in your own way is what will create a unique and authentic connection with readers. One way to define your voice is to stop writing the way you think you should--you know, the way your English teacher told you to write--and start writing the way you think and speak. The words should fit you and be easy to read aloud.
2. Hook Your Audience from the Start
In addition to easy to read aloud, social media writing should be tighter and simpler than traditional writing: the beginning of your story should hook readers fast and hard, the way a song’s hook does. Whether you love or hate Queen, you know what comes after “we are the champions” (at least if you’re older than 25). That’s right, “no time for losers.” In essence, a hook is a memorable phrase that summarizes what a song is about. Think of a title and an opening line as your story’s hook. And don’t worry that you’re giving away the best part. Knowing what to expect won’t ruin your story for readers. It will prime them for what’s next and introduce your main point.
3. Construct Clear, Compelling Copy
Speaking of your main point, get to it quickly and clearly. While using a string of straightforward, declarative sentences is too abrupt for traditional writing, it is perfect for social media. Because unlike traditional writing, readers won’t go back to re-read or stop to think about difficult sections. Your writing has to be clear and direct the first time around: don’t be coy and promise to get to the interesting stuff later. Think of your story as a first date: put on your fancy pants and put forward your most compelling, date-worthy self. It’ll make your readers want to read your story and get to know you better. At the very least, it won’t make them regret saying yes.
Having trouble keeping your audience engaged in the videos you create?
I know that you may think it’s the audiences fault for not catching onto the content, but maybe there’s something more to it. It can be hard to admit, but often times it is not your audience that has a problem…it’s actually you (or the videos you create rather).
More often than not, we as filmmakers get caught up in the actual production of the video and fail to take a step back to identify the best ways to communicate with our audience. Traditional methods of making videos, coupled with technical information, can spell disaster for most viewers. If you’ve been guilty of this it’s ok, really, because in the following video I’m going to give you a few tips to get you back in the good graces of your audience.
I presented at the BtoB Networking Breakfast (#BtoBNet) today and wanted to share my slides in this blog along with some food for thought based on my presentation:
Not all social media participants will converse, comment or create. The Forrester social technographics ladder outlines 6 active social participation categories that also include people that are spectators (e.g., read your blogs), joiners (e.g., maintain a LinkedIn profile) or collectors (e.g., bookmark your content). Don’t lose sight of these groups when planning your social engagement.
Lead with listening. I have spoken and written about this many times before and the new nugget here is that Read More »
Success can come in many forms. Three very different success stories. Listen to the replay for details.
This week, Partner Velocity (Cisco’s program to help partners’ marketing efforts) held a one-hour webcast to help you get started with social media.
It’s a topic near and dear to my heart, so I led the webcast and provided some guidance for beginners and more advanced practitioners, tips, and tricks to help launch a social media presence.
If you couldn’t make it, don’t worry as there’s a replay available. Be sure to listen to this replay and attend the next two webinars in the series: you’ll be entered to win a US$2500 marketing consultation.
Head to the Partner Velocity site for details, and to register for the next two sessions (Social Media for Events and Creating an Integrated Campaign).
Here’s a quick recap of the topics covered in this week’s session “Building a Successful Social Media Program”:
How to develop a listening strategy
How to define and segment your audience (and create content for each persona)
Tips and tricks for engaging with your audience
Ways to design a measurement/metrics plan
And finally, some key takeaways and next steps
Keep reading for my seven questions to ask before launching your own social media program.
We can’t wait for our #smtraining tweet chat tomorrow! As we’re getting our fingers ready for speed typing tomorrow, we wanted to give you a sneak peek into some of our tips and lessons learned. All in a tweetable format so please feel free to tweet away using the #smtraining hash tag.
We already covered in an earlier blog how to create a social media training program that works. In this post, we’re going to call out (lucky) 13 points you will need to consider as you think about your training strategy and implementation. Read More »
