10.2: Key themes and techniques for writing social media

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Social media work. (Unsplash free-to-use license; Corinne Kutz)

Creating social media content begins with the written word. Any of the previously introduced templates in this text may be of help including hard and feature news templates, audio scripts, video scripts, and even the news release template, as it serves to deliver information strategically in such a way that journalists might do a news story on the topic. PR efforts using social media often have the same goal and present key information in roughly the same order as a classic news release.

This section includes key themes and techniques for writing social media messages. It focuses first on general concepts before discussing best practices for writing for text-based vs. video-based social media platforms.

Creating social media messages 

The goal of creating social media messages is not only to reach your audience, but also to achieve an intended effect. Proper grammar and punctuation are important in social media writing, as is accuracy. A careless error could undermine the credibility of your news content or your brand. Here are a few other factors to consider when creating social media messages:

• Engagement, engagement, engagement. Social media messages need to motivate the audience to engage with the content so deeply that they feel a greater connection with the brand or news outlet that published them. Several strategies can encourage engagement, such as responding quickly to feedback from audience members, creating contests, and inviting the audience to respond to a question. Including photos and videos in social media posts substantially increases engagement, as does integrating trending topics.¹ 
  
  All of these techniques require careful consideration and research that will pay off if the trending topics, related hashtags, etc. are chosen wisely.
   
• Consistency. The core message needs to be articulated across all social media platforms in a consistent way that conveys a unified voice. The message also needs to reflect the brand image; in other words, it should reinforce the brand “feel” or personality. The same goes for news content. News organizations should have a consistent tone appropriate for engaging their target audience. Straying too far from that tone can bore, annoy or even alienate readers.
   
• Concise writing. Similar to news writing, social media writing is straightforward. Because you’re competing against countless other messages in the social media sphere, you do not have much time or space to capture the audience’s attention. Make one point. Make it clear. Make it compelling. Move on to the next message or to "response mode," which is the stance a media organization takes on social media once a campaign or major story is launched. In response mode, those authorized to post to branded social media accounts monitor social media content related to the campaign and to the broader brand identity and answer users directly if necessary.
   
• Personality, presence and popular sounds are the keys to creating good TikTok and other short-form videos. Since social video posts are short and users may scroll past them at any time, the best strategic approach to being heard and understood is to focus as much on the person presenting the message as the message itself. The face of a TikTok or related campaign should be someone who is recognizable, not unappealing, but not necessarily classically attractive. The individual or individuals should have a great stage presence, which means they should be charismatic enough to hold someone's attention in interpersonal space. Additionally, those crafting posts should keep track of trending sounds including music, sound effects, spoken word memes, key hashtags and even visual cues that carry meaning for audiences.?
  
  So much of TikTok, and to a lesser extent other social media platforms, is filled with insider references that those who spend quite a bit of time on the platform might recognize before others. Those who plan a TikTok or Instagram video strategy of anywhere from one to a series of posts should keep in mind that the sound and video capture viewers' attention first. These must be selected with care and with foreknowledge for the post to be viewed much at all. Great writing in the wild realm of social video should be brief, engaging and knowledgeable of trends without being so vague as to annoy users.
  
  Nothing is more annoying on TikTok than when a user posts a reference to something they claim everyone should know that is in no way viral or well known.

Successful social media campaign

An example of a successful social media campaign that included a compelling overarching message, great writing, engaging content, outstanding brand partnerships with engaging, talented individuals, and the use of relevant hashtags was Apple's 2023 #ShotOniPhone campaign. 

A detailed breakdown of why this campaign was considered so successful can be found at The Brand Hopper. It is included as a prime example of how the best social media campaigns are run.

Apple is no stranger to viral marketing campaigns. What made the #ShotOniPhone campaign compelling was that it spoke to an assumption users already had, that is, that Apple's iPhones tend to shoot high quality photos under most conditions. The campaign also signaled that the brand was paying attention to a key feature of any smartphone, i.e. its ability to take great photos and shoot great video.

Critics have pointed out that Apple's iPhone did not take great photos in low light at the time and that what made the commercials for the campaign great were techniques out of reach for most regular iPhone users, and yet what the campaign conveyed was that the technology of an iPhone's camera was good enough to take professional quality video and photos under those professional circumstances.

In other words a smartphone camera in 2015 when paired with the right tools and talented individuals could function almost as well as a high-end camera capable of capturing still and video images.

The challenge that accompanied the advertising and social media campaigns encouraged regular users of the hardware to submit their content. The brand worked with influencers to trade off of their personalities and talents in terms of on-camera presence.

This campaign started with the iPhone 6s, and various references to the campaign and reboots of the concept and challenge have continued over the past decade.

There is not a key theme covered in this section that was not accounted for in that campaign. It was engaging on various social media platforms and on a contest website. It was consistent with Apple's brand message, with the tone of its advertising to millennials, with user data regarding which smartphone features are the most important, with concise messages in social media posts, legacy media ad campaigns, and billboards that often bore only the message "Shot on iPhone." The campaign serves as a prime example of how strategy informs practice in professional social media efforts.

To return to a text-focused viewpoint, what matters most is that the messages in a social media campaign are interesting, clear, coherent and engaging in and of themselves and that they all contribute significantly to a unified strategy.

The Art of Clarity section appearing next centers on crafting a thread of messages, including photos and videos, that might appear on X, on Threads, on TikTok or on Instagram.

1. Redsicker, P. (2014). Social photos generate more engagement: New research. Social Media Examiner. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/p...ment-research/