Writing for social media
If you’re creating written social media content for an organisation, one of the biggest challenges is getting the “tone” right.
Conveying your message creatively requires a completely different approach to writing for other marketing materials – at least, it does if you want to make an impact with your audience.
For this post, we’re going to use Twitter to illustrate, because it’s the most challenging platform in terms of creating great content; it’s noisy, busy, there’s a lot of competition for your target audience’s attention, and you only have 140 characters to play with.
So, how do you need to change your writing style?
Writing the Old Way
It’s so much easier to learn from specific examples, so we’re going to go very specific here to illustrate the difference between an “OK” tweet and a “great” one.
Let’s pretend we’re tweeting for a hypothetical software company. Our imaginary company is about to release a new version of its flagship product, and you’re going to tweet about it.
If you were following the “old” rules – the kind of writing required for a press release, or even an email to customers, the content would just announce the release:
or perhaps, shout about a few of the new features it includes:
There’s nothing wrong with these; they’re “OK”. A typical “OK” tweet for business keeps to the old rules; properly spelt and with correct grammar, and informal enough not to be wildly inappropriate for the Twitter environment. But, a “great” tweet does so much more.
A slam dunk Tweet
A “great” Tweet will be more engaging (in terms of grabbing the imagination of the reader and creating some resonance with them), do more for the reader’s perception of the company, and make better use of the opportunities Twitter offers. Here’s our take on it:
Obviously, the image is important, but we’ve just grabbed a stock one – your “real” image would show your developer team half-hidden behind pizza boxes, or a row of takeaway cups from a well-known coffee purveyor stretching away into infinity. You get the idea.
Good social media content
So what makes our last tweet better? A number of things, and these would be our “top tips” for making your social media content writing more creative:
1: Offer real Insight
The tweet gives a “behind the scenes” view of what’s really going on at Fabsoftware; the reader is getting a privileged insight. This is always more interesting than the official corporate line!
2: Humanise the organisation
One of the messages that the tweet very clearly conveys, is “real people work here”. Showing that, over time, is a great way to build affection and brand loyalty – and also perhaps more tolerance for the odd mistake…
3: Be Entertaining
Playing to stereotypes about coders pulling fast-food fuelled allnighters – what’s not to like?!
4: Exploit Twitter’s unique capabilities
Including a quick snapshot image (even if it’s been, ahem, slightly staged) works well because of the sense of immediacy. And as we all know, a picture can be worth a thousand words…..
Change your thinking
Doing social media content well isn’t really about changing your writing style as such; it’s about thinking differently about how you present your organisation, and what you can share with the wider world. Get that part right and the writing will follow.
How often should I tweet for business?
Almost every client we work with raises the question, at some point, of how frequently they “should” be tweeting, posting to Facebook or updating their other social networks.
It’s another of those areas where there is some absolutely terrible advice doing the rounds (some of which we’ll share with you below) so an article here seemed to be called for!
Tweets and Facebook posts – back to basics
Hopefully, before you even think about tweeting or posting on your business Facebook page, you already have a strategy. You know who your likely audience are, and have figured out what you can offer them that they value. That means, you have an outline idea of the type of content you’re going to be sending out. If you haven’t done this, go back a stage and get your strategy sorted; it’s amazing how much else will then come into focus.
Like the answer to today’s question. You know what your value is to your Twitter and Facebook audience, so you should Tweet or post….when you have something interesting or relevant to say.
But won’t we lose followers?
Let’s explore this a bit further. I’ve been told, just this week, by the social media team in a large and prestigious organisation that they have to post constantly because
“we were told by a big Social Media company that we must tweet and post several times each day”
Unpacking that a bit further, it seemed that the “reason” was to do with not losing followers, and with gaining new ones.
Will somebody please think of the children users!
As with so many things in marketing and comms, if you’re able to put yourself into your audience’s shoes for a moment, the lack of logic behind this becomes pretty clear.
From the point of view of one of your Twitter followers or Facebook Likers, they have connected with you because they think that your content is going to enhance their Timeline in some way.
If, after a few days or weeks, they often see content coming into their timeline which is not interesting to them, what will their likely response be? They will unfollow you. It might take a while for the irritation to build, but sooner or later, they will depart your social media shores.
Now let’s look at the alternative. Someone connects with you on social media, and in the first couple of weeks they only see a couple of pieces of content from you in their timeline – but both of those are useful or funny or whatever.
Who on earth would think “ah, but two days have gone past and I heard nothing from that company, so dammit, it’s not good enough. I’m unfollowing them.” Nobody, that’s who.
Silence is golden
Basically, very few people will break their connection with you on social media because of what you don’t do – unless your account really does go completely dormant for a significant period. You get unfollowed because of what you DO do. Posting irrelevant, repetitive or just plain dull stuff repeatedly into their social media feed.
So in summary, never, never post or tweet for the sake of having posted or tweeted. The only exception to this is if you are actively pursuing a spam strategy of the “chuck enough mud and some will stick” variety, like the one suggested in the helpful article here. Nobody likes mud anyway, and you might not like what it sticks to, but as with all kinds of spam it must do something for someone or nobody would do it. However, if you’re a reputable company, this is not a road you want to travel. In fact, “...to get noticed, you will need to tweet a lot more frequently” may be one of the worst pieces of social media advice we’ve ever seen – time to start a Hall of Fame, perhaps…
Four Lessons in Twitter brilliance…from an unexpected source
Never thought i’d see the day, but this week’s blog is all about social media superstar technique…as demonstrated by the public sector.
Solihull Police’s Twitter account came to our attention earlier this week, as a result of some fun they were having with the snow-related shenanigans. They are doing a great job, and there are a whole bunch of lessons here that ALL organisations on Twitter can learn from – but especially those in the public sector, where the use of social media is far too often stilted, formal and dull.
Check out the account for yourselves, but in the mean time, here are our Big Four lessons for Twitter brilliance, as illustrated by Solihull Police.
1. Stop taking yourselves so seriously.
In fact, this could be lessons 1,2,3,4 and 5 as far as we’re concerned. As we’ve mentioned before, social media in general, and Twitter in particular, isn’t a place for po-faced corporatespeak.
Whatever it is that your organisation does, whether you’re Undertakers or brain surgeons, there is a lighter side ( or a darker, but still funnier, side, which is fine too).
It’s a fine line, of course, but mastering this one makes your Twitter feed 100% more engaging, immediately.
It also shows confidence in your organisation – you don’t feel the need to be defensive or stick to the party line. For example:
Well played with the retweet! I’m sure we’ve all seen the equivalent interaction where the slightly “off message” response would’ve just been ignored.
2. Join in with the community
Note: this does not mean making awkward comments about the X Factor.
Keep it to things which are relevant on some level – this might be thematically or geographically – in this case, the “snow crisis” which was affecting the local area at the time.
But again, humour is key:
3. Involve staff, and have a holistic approach to social media
Particularly in a larger organisation, if your social media efforts are confined to the office junior in the Communications team, it’s going to be difficult for them to give a real flavour of what you’re doing. Not impossible if they’re supported by a good flow of information from other departments, but difficult.
Some staff are more talented communicators than others, and if you can find those individuals and involve them in your social media strategy it will make all the difference.
Across the West Midlands region there’s a well developed network of staff at all levels who are contributing – from the Solihull Borough Police Commander’s personal Twitter account, to individual officers’ blogs, which are promoted through the main Twitter feeds:
This gives a much better insight into the different staff roles, opens up additional channels of communication, and is much more resonant for outsiders than a generic “press release” style corporate commentary. Do check out PC Stanley’s blogroll and other social media links for a glimpse of the level of activity going on here!
4. Understand Twitter and play to its strengths
It’s not all about fun, but our last example is perfect for demonstrating how serious and important that fun aspect can be.
Exhibit A:
There are two things which are notable about this. Firstly, whoever’s in charge of the @SolihullPolice feed has made the link between people frequently browsing Twitter to kill time while they’re on public transport, and the likelihood of the missing children being in transit somewhere. Then they’ve used that understanding to turn the public into the eyes of the police, by specifically addressing those people.
Secondly, without all of the “fun” stuff, the Twitter audience would simply not be big enough or engaged enough to have made that sighting happen. Twitter is amazing for mobilising a community, but first you have to build your community.
Again, that applies to all organisations; applying the same strict rules you’d use when approving a corporate brochure is likely to destroy any chance you have of harnessing the unique opportunities that Twitter offers.
Have you got any other examples of Twitter superstars in the public sector? Feel free to add them in the Comments if you do.
Buying Twitter Followers / Facebook Fans: Does it work?
Buying Twitter or Facebook followers is easy - but is it a smart move?
Buying Twitter or Facebook followers is easy - but is it a smart move?
Twitter followers and Facebook Likers for sale?
The thriving underground economy around buying Twitter followers and Facebook Likers was highlighted recently during the US elections, when Mitt Romney’s Twitter base expanded by an implausibly large extent seemingly overnight.
Most people are now aware that artificially boosting their social media audience is a risky venture, even if they’re not sure exactly why. Having said that, there are a few scenarios where doing this still looks like the logical way to meet specific needs within a social media strategy.
So if you’ve ever wondered how that tedious “business guru” with 55,000 Twitter followers managed it, and whether it could be beneficial to your account to do the same, here’s a quick lowdown on the industry, how it works, when it might help you – and when it won’t.
How does buying followers work?
A quick Google search turns up pages of websites offering to sell you Twitter followers, Facebook Fans / Likers, YouTube views and so on. Twitter followers are usually the cheapest, from as little as $5 per thousand, and Facebook Likers the most expensive.
The costs are directly related to the amount of hassle involved in setting up a fake account, making it look vaguely plausible, and preventing it being deleted by the platform owner. There are other methods, but the majority of the dealers who are selling these followers have set up thousands, sometimes tens or hundreds of thousands, of fake accounts which they then control. On receiving payment they begin following your Twitter account with the appropriate number of their accounts, or use them to Like your Facebook page or watch your YouTube video.
With the help of some clever software, this can take the dealer a matter of seconds, so it’s more than possible to make large profits even at the kind of low rates they’re charging.
The key point, though, is that none of these accounts have real people behind them. So the potential for them to use your services or buy your products is absolutely zero.
They won’t buy…so what can they do for me?
This fake follower industry’s been around almost as long as Twitter has. In the early days, it’s likely that most people didn’t understand what was happening here and genuinely thought that they were taking a short cut to a large and genuine audience on social media. These days, many users know what they’re buying – but do it anyway. What they want from the deal is something different.
Here are a couple of logical reasons people buy followers, even when they suspect they’re fake:
1. Credibility. At first glance, a Facebook page with 3,000 likers or a YouTube video with thousands of views, gives the impression that it must be a quality resource. There are still plenty of social media users out there who can’t be bothered, or don’t know how to, see past the basic numbers. Having that big number visible can lead to interest from real people.
2. Sheep syndrome. When a business launches a new social media account, it’s friendless and lonely. They don’t want to show it to existing or prospective customers because it’s the social media equivalent of the empty wine bar – there might be nothing wrong with it, but if there’s a packed bar next door, most people will choose that. Fake followers can act as “extras” to get past that stage.
3. Visibility boost. Some of the social media directory sites weight their search results heavily by follower volume, so the more followers you have, the more likely your account is to show up high on the list for, say, your local town. YouTube search results are also influenced by viewer numbers.
These are all perfectly logical reasons for buying in fake followers – provided you don’t get caught. Artificially inflating your numbers is against the terms of service of all the major social media sites, so ultimately anyone using this approach is at risk of being kicked out, and for that reason alone we’d strongly advise against it.
That short cut could be making life hard for you
If that’s not enough for you, there are a few other good reasons for being wary of fake followers.
Those great first impressions won’t last. If a Facebook business page apparently has a huge audience of Likers but nobody ever responds to the organisation’s posts, what impression does that give? Visitors are likely to assume that it’s a dull place to be, and may be less forgiving of that than a company which is honest about being in the early stages of building an audience.
Socially savvy users will run a mile. Anyone who’s experienced in the social media world will spot fake audiences a mile off - a quick look at one or two of the Twitter, Facebook or YouTube accounts in question will reveal obvious giveaways in terms of who else they follow and what else they do or say. There are also services like Status People’s Faker app which claim to reveal how many fakes follow an account, and have been known to call out some big names in the past.
Skewing your metrics can have unforseen and damaging consequences in the longer term. For example, assuming you’re aiming to build a Facebook page with a genuine community, and you’ve bought Likers to bridge the gap until your audience recruitment strategy delivers results. A year down the road, Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm will be using the proportion of your followers who interact with you to determine how interesting your posts are – and how likely it is to show them in your Likers’ timelines. If 50% of your Likers are fake accounts who’ll never engage, you’ve disadvantaged your Page from the outset.
If a job’s worth doing…
…it’s worth doing legitimately. There are “best practise” ways to build your audience, credibility and visibility which will provide great foundations for your longer term social media presence, without any of the risks involved in buying an audience. If you’re stuck with those, we can help.
Stamping out Hashtag abuse
It’s been a while since we made use of the Soapbox, but a lot of very badly used hashtags in our Twitter stream this week has inspired us to get it out of storage.
Most hashtags used on Twitter are pointless
So here’s the niggle: pollution of Twitter by stupid, unhelpful hashtag usage on a grand scale. It really has got to the point now where there are far more uses of hashtags which just general visual noise, than there are for any practical purpose.
Let’s start by considering how hashtags are generally explained to new Twitter users. Twitter’s own help page provides this definition:
Does this seem a fair enough description to you? Well…it almost works. Except when it doesn’t, which is most of the time.
Hashtags for “keywords or topics”
Think about it. If you’re using a “keyword or topic” in a Tweet, the word in question would typically be something that’s perfectly standard and very likely to be predictable by any Twitter user. For someone looking for tweets about Google Adwords, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that “Adwords” is your likely keyword.
So if you’re getting involved in a conversation about Adwords, what exactly does adding a hashtag in front every time you type #adwords, actually achieve? Honestly, nothing. Absolutely zip. You’re short cutting the search process very slightly for anyone who sees your outbound tweet, because they can click directly on the word to search for it. To my mind, that’s just not enough justification for #adding a #load of #visual #noise to your tweet. It’s going to take anyone thinking “hmm, I’d like to see who else is saying what about Adwords” less than a second to just type “Adwords” into the Search box.
Twitter’s internal search algorithm doesn’t distinguish between a word with or without a hashtag when returning results (see below) and neither does it distinguish when reporting Trending Topics, so neither of these are a good excuse:
In other words, Twitter’s definition leads to users stuffing their tweets full of hashtags which are just shortcuts to obvious searches. Which is ugly, and a really poor use of the hashtag concept.
Here’s where the magic happens
Because here’s the thing: used properly, hashtags are fantastic. They have the power to bring people together who’d otherwise not have had a hope of finding one another, and enable real-time discussion in a way which doesn’t exist anywhere outside of Twitter.
Here are a couple of totally valid uses of hashtags, where their presence actually adds something to the tweet.
Firstly, to bring people together on a topic, often time-sensitive, where it’s not obvious what the appropriate search term should be.
A great example of this is the BBC topical comedy show Have I Got News For You. For years now, the hashtag #HIGNFY has been shown at the end of the opening credits, to enable a real-time discussion (OK, massive snark about the presenter’s tie, but still).
Without the hashtag being “declared” in that way, the likelihood of the whole audience arriving at it is miniscule; people could be using all kinds of combinations of “haveigotnews”which means many who want to be involved in the conversation may end up missing one another.
The hashtag #PMQS for Prime Minister’s Question Time is another – again, people want to quickly see what’s being said on a transient topic, without having to set up multiple searches for all the ways in which it might be referred to.
Similarly with conferences or events; having an agreed hashtag lets attendees find one another and converse with each other or speakers, and those not attending keep up with what’s being said.
Second good use: to indicate the topic of something where it might otherwise be unclear from the tweet, or discovered by a standard search (because the keyword’s not in the tweet). Going back to the Adwords example; “my company is very good at #Adwords” is a poor use of the hashtag, but “Here’s a fascinating guide to the evolution of internet advertising over the years [link] #Adwords” is helpful.
A final bonus good use: indicating to your followers when you’re taking part in a Twitter meme game – to save them the time spent wondering if you’ve lost your mind. You know the ones we mean – #updatedbooks (“Bridget Jones’ Blog”) and so on.
Your turn – send this to the hashtag polluters in your timeline if you dare. And if there are any clever uses that we’ve missed, comment them up!
