Beyond Quippy Copy: Engaging on Social Media

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hi everyone,

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  Welcome to content marketing conference and today's session beyond quippy copy,

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  engaging on social media,

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  I'm Ashley Foster from Atlassian and you can

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  follow me on linkedin and twitter at Ashley false

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  social media has been an essential part of the marketing mix for over a decade.

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  In fact, a survey from statistics found that in 2020,

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  of brands were using Facebook,

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  used Instagram,

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  use linkedin and 53% used Twitter in their campaign efforts

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  and in addition to formal social media roles,

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  many companies are building amplification and advocacy programs with their

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  employees to extend the reach and authenticity of their content.

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  So today I want to share some tried and true ways to write,

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  engaging social media copy for a brand

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  first and foremost, you want to provide value to your audience.

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  Are you sharing tips to help them through their day

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  sharing stories to inspire them on their journey,

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  sending means or gifts to give them a laugh,

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  What do they get out of following you and

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  consuming the content that you create and curate.

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  When you think about sharing something inspiring on social media,

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  you have to ask yourself,

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  what are you trying to inspire?

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  Is it an action?

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  Do you want someone to feel compelled to immediately get up and go do something

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  if so you want that action to make sense in connection to your brand?

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  Alternatively,

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  do you want them to feel an emotion?

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  Do you want them to feel love or trust or hope or gratitude?

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  These emotions become associated with your brand,

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  so you want to be intentional about what

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  you're trying to make someone feel with inspirational content

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  next.

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  You need to balance sharing immediately and being

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  helpful in the feed with Peking Interest.

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  So many feeds get this wrong, they give away the entire point of the article and feed,

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  so readers have no reason to click over to read the full article

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  and this is particularly bad if you're trying

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  to optimize for the click through rate,

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  as many brands do.

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  Alternatively,

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  they don't say anything to get the reader to click over,

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  they don't entice them to keep reading, they just say it,

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  it's a good article.

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  Why

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  what will I learn? How will you help me? Why is it funny?

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  Finally you need to balance being condescending and self deprecating.

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  So again, many feeds get this wrong,

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  they come across as very condescending because

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  they frame every article as required reading

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  for a certain group of people or we've got it all figured out,

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  but here's a primer for people who haven't caught on yet,

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  who wants to feel bad with a brand shaming them on social media.

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  No one

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  on the flip side, some feeds go the opposite direction there too self deprecating,

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  such that it's really uncomfortable to read?

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  Oh,

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  I'm working progress and constantly needing to learn about this topic or

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  oh I know so many people are so much better than me,

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  so I always appreciate the opportunity to learn,

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  You can share your expertise and your growth areas without

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  sounding like a know it all or a downtrodden newbie.

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  So how do you do that?

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  Let's talk about tin troops to write engaging social media copy

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  first short

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  all caps agreement or disagreement.

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  So we've all seen the scenes in a movie where someone yells preach or amen or here here

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  it's a quick, powerful verbal statement. That's something resonates.

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  This same outburst tactic works well when you write on

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  social media and it works for both agreement and disagreement.

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  Popular words include Yes, this truth,

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  yup

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  noted,

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  nope,

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  know and na

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  and as you can see here,

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  Katie Martell shared something on social media talking

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  about garden and I laughed heartily and agreed.

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  Next you can pull a quote directly from the article.

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  This is one of the easiest ways to grab the audience's attention.

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  So as you read,

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  note the quotes or phrases that jump out at you. I call this skimming for the tweet,

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  simply copy and paste the interesting section verbatim into

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  the description area of the social media post.

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  You can see how video did this on linkedin.

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  They pulled the quote.

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  The reason musicians have so much to teach us is that the

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  conditions in which they work are the ideal classroom for these mindsets.

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  I don't know about you but I'm pretty fascinated to read

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  about the line between work and play based on that quote

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  next. You can use cliches or popular agreement or disagreement sentiments.

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  So this trope is closely related to the single word or all

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  caps agreement but it uses phrases that are common in pop culture,

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  for example, louder for the people in the back. Oh, this so much. This

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  well played author, well played

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  here for it.

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  Hard pass.

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  These are all great ways to show that you relate to the content that you're sharing

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  and as you can see here,

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  Aubrey blanche from culture AMP who's very active on twitter shared this.

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  Me,

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  I haven't no friday meetings policy

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  Also me. Why do I have five meetings scheduled on Friday?

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  We've all been there. I know

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  next you can talk about feelings.

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  So some articles or inspiring or surprising or

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  delightful and some events make you feel proud,

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  honor or shocked.

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  There's even a short term hashtag for this which is how something affects you.

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  It's hashtag T FW which stands for that feeling went

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  other freezes in this trope include when a post hits a little too close to home.

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  All the fields with a Z

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  feels like this was written just for me

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  and timely piece.

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  Alternatively you may feel thrilled or honored or excited

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  to see or be included or happy to attend

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  And as you can see here, Caterpillar shared on Facebook,

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  a short video saying thank you were so inspired by all the

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  people who have been working with us as part of their 95th anniversary

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  next you can share a key takeaway or insight from the article

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  so you summarize the biggest thing that the article taught you or

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  how it applies to a current problem or situation that you're facing.

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  This tip is usually best for long form content that may be difficult to skin

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  and it covers a lot of different problems and solutions.

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  And here you can see in this tweet Tableau software, the brand

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  said, what's its role in shaping a data culture?

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  David Clarke believes that starts with trust and a people first mindset.

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  Next you can give a general reason that the article is helpful to read.

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  So this description is very similar to the key takeaway or the insights

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  but differs because it broadly describes the subjects covered in the post.

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  For example, handy tips on scaling agile,

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  great read for marketers looking to overhaul their demand in strategy

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  or quick summary of the challenges of migrating to java eight

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  and as you can see here,

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  carry or shake organ from marketing process shared on linkedin.

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  My latest post for Mark Schaefer tackles tackles

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  some common excuses for creating boring content.

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  I do some quick debunking first and then I

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  offer tips for creating fun effective marketing content.

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  Next you can ask a question

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  People love to feel smart and we're primed to answer when something is asked.

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  So you can pose a discussion question, Start a debate,

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  share a pole to get people talking and keep them engaged directly in the feed.

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  It's also an easy way to tee up content that you want your audience to watch,

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  read or listen to to get the answer.

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  And as you can see here Honeywell, show this,

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  how do the good guys protect you from hackers find out in this podcast,

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  you can also request help solving a problem.

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  So if you need help brainstorming, if you're looking for information,

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  ask your followers for advice or contributions.

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  And sara Evans, a pr strategist has shared these a number of times on twitter,

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  she's got a media opportunity and she needs an expert in

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  the home biking industry to discuss a spike in sales.

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  So she's looking for different requirements,

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  including an industry analyst biking system representative

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  and she tells you what it's for

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  next, use a call to action.

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  So some shares are simply to convey information or give your audience to laugh,

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  but often you want them to do something

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  so tell them exactly what you want them to do.

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  Examples of a C. T.

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  A could include sharing, comment below,

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  tag a friend or colleague or give me a like if

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  you agree and it's generally best to use a single C.

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  T. A.

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  For each post so that you don't overwhelm your

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  audience and it makes it easier to write clear,

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  concise copy and as you can see here Duarte said, hey, we're doing a giveaway,

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  Give us a heart below and post your story and make sure you're tagging Duarte inc

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  and finally tell a personal or background story

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  people want to engage with content that's relatable to their situation,

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  success or challenge.

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  So sharing a funny story about a challenge you faced or heartwarming

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  tale about making a connection is a great way to accomplish this.

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  So Stacy, as she was sharing a post from Atlassian,

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  talked about a quote from her youngest who kept saying all you do is work

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  and it's really hard not to appear that way when everyone is

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  here on linkedin or in their home office all the time.

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  Speaking of linkedin,

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  that last example gives us a jumping off point to

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  talk about how to engage and increase reach on linkedin,

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  it's got some quirks that are a little different from other social platforms.

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  First,

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  you can do long linkedin updates of up to 1300 characters including spaces.

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  So this gives you quite a bit of room to tell that story or

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  share those details beyond the copy that we shared in the previous section.

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  So for example, here's an example from my feet. That's had over 20,000 views over

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  1000 reactions and tens of comments and it says, if you're in my organ,

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  you're having a hard time, please speak up.

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  People are first.

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  So I could have just posted a link to our career site to promote, hey,

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  we're hiring by the way.

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  Instead,

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  I've told a story about a quote from

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  one of the leaders in our organization to demonstrate

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  the type of culture and the type of leadership that we have at it last season.

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  Next Lincoln places a high priority on comments and particularly comments

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  that come within the first hour of publishing the article.

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  It helps drive both the reach and the engagement because it tells the algorithm.

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  Hey, this content is interesting, people are reading it,

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  people are engaging with it

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  so you can gain this a little bit by having a small swat

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  team of folks go in and start commenting as soon as you publish,

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  you cannot gain this by as the author or

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  the poster going in and commenting a bunch yourself

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  Lincoln really likes to see that commenters are engaging

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  not only with the author but with each other.

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  So if we were going to think of this like an equation,

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  it would be the author plus other commenters is good

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  commenters plus other commenters is better,

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  the author

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  plus commenters plus other commenters is best

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  and finally tagging.

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  So to prevent spam,

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  company pages can't interact with personal pages

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  unless the person actively at mentions that company

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  and it can't just be the hashtag.

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  So we see this all the time in our last session feeds,

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  people will tag hashtag zero to talk about our products or

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  hashtag at lassie and team to talk about our conference,

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  but the company page can't comment like or interact with that

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  post at all unless you specifically at mention the page.

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  So if you're building an employee amplification

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  program or an employee advocacy program,

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  make sure your colleagues and employees know that

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  they need to actively tag the company page.

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  You can also tag other people to increase engagement but don't

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  go spamming a bunch of people by tagging all of them.

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  You want to be strategic about this by either noting that they joined you on

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  a panel or attributing a post to them or asking for their specific expertise.

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  And you can see here, I say,

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  I'm working on a conference deck

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  about content strategy and the content playgrounds

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  and it's walking through at mention Atlassian company page.

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  This at last in case study of our Agile micro site and then a parentheses.

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  It was started by at Claire Drummond,

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  who's my colleague who originally launched the site.

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  You can also see that in the first comment,

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  I've used the conference hashtag and I've included a

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  link if people want to attend the session.

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  So if you're running low on characters, if you run out of those 1300 characters,

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  you conclude hashtags at mentions of people and

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  company pages and links in that first comment.

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  So a few final tips,

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  social media is no longer a one way broadcast channel.

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  It's a place to create a two way conversation with your audience.

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  No one likes the partygoer that just talks about themselves all night.

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  They want to be with the person who connects them to

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  the other cool people or cool ideas at the party.

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  So whether you're running a brand account or you're engaging as an employee,

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  think about how to be that connector,

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  next be human.

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  It's obvious when a company account is just copying and pasting

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  links because somebody told them to share on social media.

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  But part of creating that two way conversation is to be human,

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  share real emotions and authentic stories.

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  Give real advice about problems and solutions,

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  Bring your human side to the feet

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  and finally develop your own voice.

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  So part of being human is developing a voice both

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  as a brand and as an individual sharing company content.

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  Are you friendly or sarcastic, helpful or formal?

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  Do you curse

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  understanding how you sound will help you maintain

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  that human feeling across all of your platforms.

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  So I want to end with a final example that brings these things together.

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  This was an example of some valentine's day campaign that we ran from our gear,

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  a twitter handle and we said hashtag valentine's day is almost here.

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  What do you love most about vera

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  tell us? And you might might just get something sweet.

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  And we had a small little animation saying, will you be our gelatin?

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  So here we used a bit of quippy copy that we would typically see to engage in the feed.

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  We use different media types and as you can see we

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  had a little bit of a human voice to it to say

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  br jerry time and it was interactive because we asked people to

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  tell us their answers and then we sent them some swag.

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  Thank you so much for joining me for today's session.

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  Beyond quippy copy, engaging on social media.

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  Again,

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  I'm Ashley Foster from Atlassian and you can find

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  me on linkedin and twitter at Ashley Faas.

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  I hope you enjoy the rest of your content marketing conference.