I was recently asked a question by someone curious about what I do:
"How long does it take you to write a Tweet (X post these days) - and what do you charge for that?"
I would imagine many businesses have pondered this too. If you’re paying for social media copywriting, you may wonder exactly where your money is going.
I mean really….how long does it genuinely take to write the 280 characters of a timeline post for X? Or a Facebook post?
But here’s the thing. Reputations can be won and lost on those 280 characters.
We’re Social Media Addicts
Around 250 million people visit X every day. More than 2 billion people use Facebook daily.
Tweet or post the ‘wrong’ thing and your hard-earned professionalism takes a serious nose-dive on a potentially massive scale.
But even the biggest brands in the world get it wrong sometimes.
When Social Media Copywriting Goes Wrong
Just check out these couple of Aussie brand social media gaffes and campaign backfires.
Asking people to ‘fill in the blanks’, Aldi? You were asking for it!
Global brands are no strangers to gaffes either - Burger King, Audi, Mastercard all make this fails list.
So how do you get it right?
Social media: Copywriting with a single voice
Successful social media copywriting should always mirror the tone used on a company website. A single cohesive voice, speaking the same language.
And this is where the real skill lies. X posts – and Facebook posts – need to be short, snappy, attention grabbing nuggets. Because we don’t leisurely browse posts and read every single thing. We speedily scroll through them.
As a freelance copywriter that creates social media content it’s my job to condense everything you want to say into small chunks that are designed to always capture the attention of your audiences, whilst simultaneously building your brand and protecting and enhancing your online reputation.
Trust = followers = conversation = conversion
Trust and loyalty is earned through carefully created tweets and social posts. Your followers have an expectation, they’ve bought into your brand, are ready to engage and they’re waiting to be rewarded. It’s your real-time, instant opportunity to build relationships. And this is why it’s so important to get it right.
The customer stream of one of my clients is now largely generated through online self-referral – all thanks to a highly responsive and progressive approach to the digital age, with the right expert support to harness the opportunities social media offers.
So whilst it may seem ‘easy’ to just write an X post, Instagram reply, TikTok caption, or a ‘simple’ Facebook post, it’s not actually as straightforward as it appears when you consider what is riding on relatively few words.
You’re not just paying for someone to ‘write a tweet’. You’re paying for the expertise, skill and knowledge of someone who knows exactly what to say, when to say it and how to say it, to maximise customer conversation and ultimately, conversion.
Want scroll-stopping social media copy?
Find out more about my copywriting services to see how I could help you.