How to Write and Sound Like a Human on Social Media
June 25, 2021
We can all recognize when a post just doesn’t sound like it was written by a human being. They are often very sales-y and have very little value to you as a consumer and social-media scroller.
On a base level, people use social media to connect with people and things that they relate to, so when that is interrupted by a post that doesn’t align or match the conversational posts that they see from friends and other accounts that they follow, they will either scroll by or close out of the app altogether.
The purpose of managing social media for your business is to increase positive brand awareness and build a community around your service or products, so creating relatable and engaging content and copy is very important.
4 tips for creating social media content that sounds human
1. Vary your content
Yes, you want your social media to generate sales and conversions for your business, and for that, you will need to do promotional posts that require calls to action, but we will talk about those later.
The best way to have promotional posts be well received is to make sure that they are the rarity instead of the norm. Create content that your audience will engage with more often than that of sales posts. This can include posts like:
- Quotes
- Lifestyle posts
- Humor
- Questions or polls
- Educational posts
Having posts like these gives your audience a reason to follow you. They will see quotes that they like, humor that they relate to or fun things to engage with. This will help your brand’s social media seem more relatable.
When you do have posts that are more informative or sales-oriented, this will give the audience a reason to pay attention, because you have already won them over. People are more likely to take the advice of a close friend than someone who randomly starts trying to recommend or sell something. You must build that rapport with your following.
2. Establish your voice
There are two important things that go into establishing your brand voice: your product or area of service and your actual voice.
The type of service you provide matters for a few reasons, but the most important is that it can influence your credibility. A humorous and loud brand voice would work great for a clothing company that offers fun clothes, or a brand that wants to market to a certain demographic that enjoys that kind of voice, but the same probably couldn’t be said for an estate planner or hospice care facility.
You don’t want to give people the wrong impression about your business, and your audience may have existing beliefs about how certain professions conduct themselves.
The reason why Wendy’s social media team, for example, can get away with roasting people and competitors on Twitter is that people have a more relaxed view of what they expect to hear from a fast food restaurant than from their financial advisor.
Identify the level of professionalism that your average customer or client expects from your social media page, and aim for that. If you are solely a business-to-business company, then you should operate with professionalism almost exclusively.
To model your brand voice after your actual voice, you have to think about how you would talk to a client in person. Now when I say voice, I really mean the words you use and the overall attitude you are trying to portray, and not the actual pitch of your voice because that is hard to replicate over a post.
You should write as if you were talking to someone face to face. Explain your business as if someone you just met were asking you what you do. Describe your product or service and its benefits as if someone came into your store and had a genuine question about it.
Not only will this give you a more conversational tone, but it gives the customer or client a better idea of what it would be like to talk to you or someone from your company.
3. Let’s get sales-y
So, you have been posting engaging content under a voice that people have been connecting with really well, and it is time to write a post that is pushing a certain product or service or a “promotional” post. How do you do that?
Keep with what has worked. If humor has worked well for you, then stick with that. If being educational in your posts has shown good engagement, then educate people on the different aspects of your product or service. If the style of voice that you are using is working, then don’t change it.
A good promo is similar to a great window display or font sign; they get people through the door. In the digital world, we can think of the ‘door’ as the link that brings them to your site to make a purchase or learn more about you and your services. So, what can you say about you, your product or your service that will get people through the door?
One thing that is important to remember when writing these posts is that you are the expert in your field, and you are trying to sell to people who are not. Being overly technical might seem like a great way to show how smart or skilled you are, but that is a conversation to have when customers are already in, and not a good way to get them through the door.
For example, you could say, “All our products are constructed out of top-quality platinum silicone,” or, “All our products are plastic-free and environmentally friendly!”
Platinum silicone is a great, eco-friendly, alternative to plastics, but people who are searching for environmentally friendly products may not know that. So you can highlight the eco-friendly part and educate them about how you do it once they click through to your site!
Overall, highlight the benefits of your product over the features to show your audience why they should purchase from you.
4. Be you
In the words of Dr. Seuss, “Today you are you, that is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!” And that is true when it comes to your social media presence, too.
Don’t try to be someone or something that you are not. If you try to be exactly like another brand then you won’t be your brand, you will be representing theirs. This isn’t to say you can’t draw inspiration from others, but you should use that inspiration to elevate your own style and not to create a copy of what works for someone else.
The reason Wendy’s roast-fest on Twitter went viral is that no company was doing that before, and it has inspired many other brands to try and recreate that and fail. But some brands took the idea of honest and personal responses on Twitter and decided to go the positive route instead of the negative route.
Take Britain’s Southern Rail for example. This railway service is one of the most hated in England, and one day, they decided to let a nice 15-year-old named Eddy who was there for work experience run the social media for a while. The result? Proof that you can create a social media presence that is overwhelmingly positive by using a method similar to Wendy’s
So, truly be yourself with your brand voice. It will give your customers and clients the feeling like they are talking to you rather than just scrolling past another ad, and let them feel connected to you and your brand as a whole!
Conclusion
When it comes to writing content for your business on social media, the most important thing you can do is decide what you want to portray. If you feel you are representing yourself and your business well, then that is what matters. There are a number of ways that any content can be improved or changed, but nothing can replace your unique voice and vision.
About the author
Hi, I’m Ben! I am a Social Media Content Manager here, and have been since August 2020! I love writing and getting to be creative, whether that is at work or just for fun! When I am not doing that, I’m probably at Church, watching or playing baseball, or recording my podcast!”
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