Social media savvy companies engage consumers to the tune of:

• 6x more likely to try a new product.
• 4x more likely to make a referral.
• 60% more valuable per purchase.
• 3x more valuable annually.

We can attest to this, with one client recently seeing a 400% ecomm increase YOY after we’d been driving their marketing for a year. And another with a 30% increase in average order value on site within three months of us managing their social media. Run far and fast from anyone who tells you social media marketing isn’t a brand growth machine.

The problem is that, even if a business leader can artfully develop a content and social media strategy, there’s so much ground to cover when it comes to execution: Hundreds of posts per quarter and thousands of digital touchpoints over time. All day, every day, what separates varsity players from the rest? Copy. 

Just as marketing tactics have transformed over the years, so has the art of copywriting. In the field, there’s a lot of chatter and “how-tos” for direct-response. But social media marketing encompasses much more than that.

Here’s our take on the topic.

There are three types of social media copy:

1. Direct-response. A type of social copy meant to inspire the reader to take action. Typically, if you’re putting paid spend behind a post or advertisement, you’ll draft copy that acknowledges a challenge faced by your target and a clear view point of how to resolve it, with a precise and singular call-to-action to drive click through or conversion.   
2. Organic. Casual, conversational, and personal. The purpose of your organic copy is to connect with your customer and bring your brand to life as a true friend to your target market. 
3. Blog. Copy is often drafted with SEO in mind. It comes off long-winded, redundant, mechanical, and all of this adds up to one thing: boring. As social media marketers, we focus on a storytelling style that brings your brand to life and builds strong rapport with your audience down to the very last sentence, in order to strengthen your relationship.

Beginners tend to make copywriting for social more complicated than it needs to be. If we worry less about what the experts say and bring the focus back to social skills, we can boil the art of social copy down to three key principles: 

1. Conversationality. Write like you’re chatting with your best friend. Edit for words you’d never say aloud in a casual conversation. 
2. Personification. Building off conversationality, your social copy should bring your brand to life in a manner that is as human and personality-driven as possible. 
3. Customer-centric. Your social content should be less about you and more about meeting your customer where they are today. For example, at the onset of COVID, hero brands knew their customers wanted more cute puppy content. And needed less buy-my-product-now content. Recognizing this and riding the real-life-wave with your customer will build a lifelong friendship that’s impossible to assign a number to. 

We’re just scratching the surface, but I hope you feel pointed in the right direction. If you want to learn more about social media marketing stuff, join us over on Strong Brand Social.