4 tips on writing for social media | Nick Usborne, Wordtracker

Copywriting professional Nick Usborne says that writing social media content needs to be tackled in a particular way if it's to get noticed. Here he gives four tips on how to go about it.

This article takes advice from Usborne's new book, Popcorn Content: The craft of writing short-form content for social media.

Using the popcorn analogy, he sets the stage by advising readers:

You can imagine yourself at some social event, wandering around, offering people a quick snack from your bowl of popcorn, and joining a few conversations as you make your rounds.

And if you want your popcorn--or your content in the social media you use--"to be the talk of the party," Usborne makes suggestions covering these four points:

1. Give more than you ask.
2. Hook them within the first 5 words.
3. Stick around for the conversation.
4. Understand that the number of connections you build has little to do with the value of the relationships you create.

I'm especially going to be thinking about Nos. 2 and 3.

Usborne concludes:

By thinking about ourselves cruising a party with a bowl of popcorn, we are reminded that building relationships, whatever the venue or media, is about being generous, about pausing long enough to listen, and about giving more than we ask for.