Do you want to write good social media content that brings you the most engagement and profits (likes, shares, comments, sales)?
If your answer is yes, then you're in the right place... Here you'll find comprehensive answers to all the questions you might have about writing social media content, such as:
- How do you find unlimited ideas for social media content?
- What are the most popular types of digital content that are widely shared?
- How do you find the right type of content for the social media platform you're using?
- How do you determine the right writing style for you?
- How do you understand your audience well and leverage this to write engaging social media content?
- What are the most important steps you need to follow to write professional content?
This is in addition to many practical tips, guidelines, and great tools that help you write outstanding social media content.
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What are the goals of social media content creation?
There are general goals for writing social media content that we all know, such as:
1. Education: This goal is based on helping the reader learn something new. This type of content is popular because readers are always eager to gain knowledge.
An example of this type of content is articles that begin with the title "How to..."
2. Informing: This goal is based on helping the reader learn new information to stay informed about all the latest developments in the world around them.
In this type of content, you need to be quick so that the information you provide to the reader does not become outdated, especially with the diversity of information sources available.
3. Entertainment: This goal is based on providing entertainment and enjoyment to the reader, for example, by sharing a specific video or using comics.
4. Inspiration: This goal may seem like a difficult one in content creation, as it involves a significant amount of challenge.
Many people write content to share and inspire others, and in my opinion, it's the most widely used type of social media content, whether for a noble purpose or simply for fame and increased followers.
5. Marketing: One of the most important goals of writing social media content is to promote various services and products, known as content marketing.
Many people know this when they write any social media content, but this alone isn't enough, especially if you want to write professional content that people will follow.
You must answer another very important question.
What is the CTA for the content you write on social media?
We can call many types of social media content "professional content," but in reality, professional content is content that relies on a clear CTA to achieve its goal.
As you know, CTA stands for "Call to Action," and it's a very important point that many people overlook when writing social media content.
Whatever your overall goal for posting on social media, you should have a request you want from anyone reading your content. Perhaps:
- Ask them to share your post with their friends.
- Ask them to ask you a question in the comments so you can engage with them and build trust.
- Ask them to visit your website.
- Recommend a product or service and ask them to buy it.
- Send them a message so you can get to know them better and connect with them.
Knowing your CTA, or call to action, is crucial even before you think about your social media content, because people love to be asked; they want to know what they need to do.
How do you get ideas for writing content on social media?
Before I answer this question and offer you a set of practical tips to help you generate countless ideas for writing on social media, I want you to know the following:
You already have a very large pool of ideas, but sometimes you limit yourself to thinking in a specific direction and never move beyond it. This causes you to miss out on more content that could have been prepared.
So when you decide to write about something, the first step you should take is to write down everything you know about it without prior arrangement or research. This allows you to extract everything from your mental and psychological reserve.
Just let your pen run wild:
- Write whenever an idea comes to mind.
- Write while commuting, at university, or at work when you see a particular experience you want to comment on.
- Write on your phone or in a small notebook.
Just start writing, The important thing is not to publish anything at the time. Don't make this mistake, because ideas alone are not enough to produce professional content.
I'll tell you later what you'll need to do with all the ideas you find. Let's just go through all the possible sources you can tap into to generate ideas for your social media content.
Here are some quick, practical tips that will help you always come up with new ideas to share with your social media audience.
1. Focus on what your audience is interested in.
This is extremely important and represents the starting point for your success on social media. You should pay attention to this from the very beginning of your social media pages (which may represent your business or your website).
We may be able to engage in conversations about other people's interests for a while, but we never get bored when we talk about our own interests.
So, when your interests align with the topic of your social media page, you'll have a steady stream of ideas for constantly refreshing content.
Also, if you're an online business owner and want a social media specialist to manage your website pages, for example, you should choose a social media specialist who has a genuine interest in what you offer on your pages.
2. Always focus on reading and developing your knowledge about the subject of your social media pages.
We always advocate in all our writing articles, "A good content writer is essentially a good reader and knowledgeable person."
As a social media specialist, you must constantly be informed and reading, and always strive for knowledge. This is the ideal way to come up with new content ideas for your social media followers.
3. Write down all the ideas you think are relevant to your social media pages.
You can do this using related keywords. For example, some keywords related to football might be: football, offside, goal, striker, goalkeeper, draw, match, etc.
Using these words, you can write the following ideas:
- The strangest offside this week.
- The most amazing goal in the English Premier League.
- The Real Madrid striker is not among the top 10 strikers in the world.
Writing down related keywords will give you plenty of topics to write content about, whereas if you initially decide to write only about football, this will leave you very limited in your topics.
You can learn more about keywords and how to research them through the "Keywords and Keyword Research Tools" guide.
Using these tools will open up a world of social media content ideas that you might not have enough time to write about.
4. Follow Your Competitors and Benefit from Them
By following your competitors and reading their social media posts, you can always come up with new ideas. This doesn't mean stealing other people's ideas, but rather getting inspired to create your own.
Following your competitors will also help you stay informed about the latest developments in your field.
5. Jot Down Every Idea That Comes to Mind
Don't ignore any idea that comes to mind; jot it down immediately. If it doesn't work as a social media post right away, it might be the next step.
We've already mentioned the importance of this point, but I wanted to emphasize it again because of its importance.
6. Listen to your social media followers.
The audience is always a great source of new ideas. Don't ignore your followers' comments or suggestions. Always encourage them to share their ideas and open up discussion with them.
7. Use Google Trends.
Google Trends is one of the best tools for finding out what's new and what people are searching for online. This tool will not only give you a host of new ideas for your social media content.
It will also give you topics people are searching for, which you can then write about or use in your content. This will enable you to write viral content, helping you achieve your goals more effectively.
8. Join social media groups in your niche
There are many places where social media users gather, such as:
- Facebook Groups
- LinkedIn Groups
- Twitter Communities
Find communities where you think your audience is present, mingle with them, and see what issues, challenges, and interests they constantly discuss.
This method alone will help you generate hundreds of ideas for writing good social media content that engages your audience and achieves the desired results.
Forms of Social Media Content
Now that we've learned how to generate ideas for social media content, let's turn them into content that suits your social media audience.
There are a variety of content formats on social media depending on the type, age, and interests of your audience. Writing content on social media doesn't mean you'll only publish articles.
Let's outline the most important and popular content formats, highlighting the platforms that are most suitable for them.
1. Articles: Relatively long content on social media, typically exceeding 500 words, may be called an article. It's not the most popular type of content, but it's perhaps the most influential because it's often unique and prompts readers to think and engage.
This type of content can be posted on the following platforms:
- Twitter (in the form of a series of tweets)
2. Videos: This type of content may rely on writing. You'll write down your ideas, then create a video around them, either using a camera or a combination of images and effects.
This type of content is suitable for all social media platforms and is perhaps the most popular at the moment.
3. Images: Images are perhaps the most popular type of content created on social media due to their relative ease.
Not only do images require skill to create eye-catching, attention-grabbing images, but you'll also need to write a suitable description, as I mentioned earlier.
There are types of images that achieve success on social media, such as:
- Comics: (funny images).
- Infographics: (images that display statistics and numbers in an organized and attractive manner).
- Photo albums: (sequential images that may tell a story or explain a set of steps).
Be sure to use these types of images in your posts on all social media platforms.
4. Questions and polls: This type of content is classified as interactive content, and its purpose is to engage the audience with the content, either by answering specific questions or choosing one of the answers provided, known as a "poll."
This type of content is used to analyze the audience and quickly determine their reactions to specific issues.
You can use this type of content on the following platforms:
- YouTube
5. Reports and External Content: Some social media platforms allow you to publish external content. For example, if you publish an article from your website on your Facebook account, Facebook will display:
- About the article.
- Main article image.
- Link to the article
This type of social media content isn't the best or most popular, especially among regular users. It's perhaps most popular among professionals and students.
You can use this type of content on the following platforms:
I also advise you to use this type of content intelligently and write good, engaging summaries to encourage your followers to read it.
You can use this type of content to promote:
- Your articles.
- E-books.
- Your professional services on freelance websites.
- White papers (reports and guides published by companies to explain the policies of their services).
- News and statistics from well-known websites in your field.
Successful Strategies for Writing Interactive Content on Social Media
Now it's time to learn how to write engaging and engaging content that engages readers, whether in the form of an article, a description of an image, or a video script.
Here are a set of strategies to help you craft your content and transform a set of boring lines into powerful, impactful words that achieve the desired results.
1. The Surprise Strategy
This strategy relies on starting the post with something shocking and unusual, which attracts the audience and generates their curiosity and desire to read the rest of the content to explain this surprise.
Examples:
- An exceptional offer that allows you to visit three European cities at a very limited cost.
- You won't believe these photos are of places in Aswan.
2. The Gap Strategy
This strategy is particularly suitable for educational content. It relies on highlighting the gap between the follower's current level and the level they are expected to reach after reading the post.
Examples:
- An English learning course that will take you from the basics to fluency.
- Through this article, you will clearly understand the concept of cryptocurrencies, regardless of your technical level.
3. Need Focus Strategy
This strategy focuses on drawing the audience's attention to their need for the published content.
Examples:
- Are you dissatisfied with your excess weight? Here's the solution.
- The job opportunity you need is at your fingertips through this app.
The most important thing in this strategy is to ensure that the content you provide to your audience actually helps them fill the gap you identified, so as not to backfire.
4. Question/Answer Strategy
You start with a question and provide an answer that will make them want to read the post.
Examples:
- How can you maintain an ideal weight with some simple habits?
- What is the difference between the random immigration program offered by the United States and the organized immigration program offered by Canada and Australia?
5. Exciting Comment Strategy
This strategy is great if the content is a link or video. In this strategy, you will add a short comment about the video or link to excite followers and encourage them to open the link or watch the video.
Examples:
- In the fifth minute, you will be shocked (commenting on a video of someone cooking a delicious dessert).
- The fourth reason didn't occur to 90 percent of people (commenting on an article discussing the causes of a phenomenon or a solution to a problem).
6. The strategy of encouraging interaction through comments
This strategy is one of the most popular in the world of social media. It involves posing a question or issue and asking followers to answer or provide their opinions.
Examples:
- What reasons do you believe have led to the decline in tourism in Egypt?
- What is the place you dream of visiting?
The world of social media marketing is full of details and points, but here we've tried to make this article as useful and valuable as possible in the section on writing content for social media.
We hope this article will be a useful resource for social media specialists and page owners, helping them write more professional marketing content to gain greater engagement with their social media audience.