10: Writing for Social Media
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- 247610
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- Strategizing social media
- Key themes and techniques for writing social media content
- Crafting professional social media threads
Key portions of this chapter are adapted from Writing for Strategic Communication Industries by Jasmine Roberts, which was published under a CC-BY, non-commercial license. If you wish to reproduce this chapter for commercial purposes, please contact the original author for permission. Otherwise, when publishing, please recognize both Jasmine Roberts and the authors of this text.
Writing professionally for social media is a challenging task, but social media platforms are the fastest growing interpersonal and mass media channels the world has ever seen, so it is essential for mass media professionals to know how to write for social media. Whether your goal is to become an influencer and grow your own audience before a larger media entity hires you for access to your audience or you plan to work for a professional media outlet using social media to attract audiences to your content, you will need to take all that you know about writing for text-focused and audiovisual media and apply it well to attract and hold an audience.
Social media users and platforms are notoriously fickle, that is they change their interests and their minds often. Social media platforms are known for contributing to an overall decrease in attention spans. Writing in this environment requires focus, personality, creativity, knowledge of trends, and the ability to give audiences what they want without devolving into pure pandering.
Social media background
Social media are communications platforms that allow people to share personal content, news and other information that they feel others should know. The term "social media" calls to mind sites and apps such as TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc.; however, there are many other forms of social media where people share text, photos, videos, music, podcasts, discussions, and ideas. YouTube, Vimeo, and other video sharing sites are platforms for social media. Blogging platforms and social bookmarking sites such as Reddit are also social media in that they enable people to share and converse across time and space with anyone else who has access.
Social media are everyday communication tools. Many brands use social media to expand the reach of their marketing and public relations efforts. Organizations often use social media to enhance brand awareness, roll out promotions, and drive website traffic. Social media also provide opportunities to develop relationships with audiences through engagement. Valentini and Kruckeberg (2012) note that “social media provide a relatively inexpensive means to communicate with, and, more importantly, to enter into a dialogue with strategic publics.”1
Several characteristics differentiate social media from what are often referred to as legacy media.
Legacy media is a general term for mass media platforms that were popular before widespread adoption of the internet. Although they originated in analog forms, most legacy media platforms, including books, newspapers, magazines, film, radio, television, etc., can now be found in digital forms as well.
Social media platforms are unique in that they are both interpersonal and mass media platforms. Every user on a social media platform has the opportunity to be both a media consumer and content creator themselves with the possibility of reaching hundreds, thousands, and occasionally millions of other users. In other words, social media platforms are hubs of two-way communication where those who primarily consume media and those who publish content professionally are on relatively equal footing.
Having noted, that it is important to understand that mass media outlets and anyone else who wishes to be influential on a social media platform often pay to promote their content so that they are ensured of reaching an audience. As users and creators of social media content, professional media writers need to be awake to the fact that not all "viral" content reaches audiences organically, i.e. based on word of mouth.
It may seem obvious that word of mouth means the promotion of content, whether it is social media or mass media content, where users communicate it to one another by talking about it in person, sharing physical media, sharing, tagging, re-posting, etc. on social media. What is less obvious is that this is a major area of academic research. What makes word of mouth marketing so fascinating is that it connects mass communication and interpersonal communication. It is no wonder that social media platforms are ripe for word-of-mouth promotion. This connection is what social media were made for.
Legacy media platforms produce content with the intention of reaching mass audiences, primarily in a one-to-many model of communication. In other words, the mass media outlet is a single source reaching (hopefully) a mass audience.
On social media, people can build their own brands on Instagram or TikTok. They can share their thoughts on issues in depth in blogs or vlogs. Social media enable users to be active participants in the communication processes of major brands and larger media companies. Audiences may be more engaged with brand messages on social media because they can provide feedback and expect to be heard and possibly responded to or even roasted.
Another characteristic of social media is that it gives instantaneous communication. Audiences do not have to wait until scheduled news broadcasts to receive information because reporters and media outlets can bring the news directly to social media platforms. Furthermore, people can easily share and post news content to their followers. Social media also foster a sense of interconnectedness and community by bringing people across the globe together online.
Learning how to write for social media means learning to take all of the lessons learned from legacy media about writing clearly -- using professional grammar and style, writing conversationally and referencing images where appropriate -- and applying them in spaces where information flows at breakneck speeds and where fan bases can be grown and lost in a matter of days rather than years.
This chapter introduces some strategies for writing for social media, discusses key terms and techniques and covers why it is essential to bring a mindset of professionalism to these spaces where often anything goes.
1. Valentini, C., Kruckeberg, D., & Starck, K. (2012). Public relations and community: A persistent covenant. Public Relations Review, 38(5), 873-879.