I remember my first social media post like it was yesterday. Don't worry...it was terrible (the whole account was).
Now, I've got 500k+ followers across my socials and run a six-figure social media copywriting agency. Plus, I've coached ~120 students on how to do the same.
Along the way, I made tons of mistakes and learned a few best practices. In this article, I'm here to save you from my pitfalls by sharing them.
Social media — like most things in life — is an algorithm that can be hacked. To do that, you need great copy, the right mix of content, and enough reach for your content to have impact.
You can BUY retweets for all it matters. Garbage content won't get you results no matter how much you promote it.
Everyone on social media is growing a personal brand. So, there are distinctions between each creator's writing style — word choice, tone, and organization are somewhat specific to the individual.
That said, you don't need to reinvent the wheel to write great copy. You'll notice a lot of social media creators have a specific formula they use that's proven to get results.
Every successful creator I know (myself included) modeled what's already working.
Start by finding creators in your niche. You can look at the ones with 100k+ followers, but be careful not to model after their platitudes.
You'll never build an audience from zero with social media posts like this, even though Justin Welsh gets engagement:
You're better off looking at guys like Dave. He's new to the game, so he's posting more original content.
And his Tweets are getting some solid engagement (for his follower count).
Then, download the Tweet Hunter X Chrome extension. Use it to find and save high-performing Tweets from these creators.
Save them in a swipe file. Take their structure as inspiration for your own posts. That's what I did when I first started my account.
Meanwhile, study copywriting fundamentals. Get better at copywriting by reading books like Cashvertising and studying what makes certain creators great.
There are three types of social media content you need to focus on to grow your audience: personal, authority, and growth content.
This is the exact content mix I use for all of my Twitter clients. And it works like a charm every time.
If tree fell in the forest with nobody around to hear it, did it really make a sound?
You might argue, "Yes."
I'd argue, "Who cares?"
You need to build an audience for your content to have impact. In this day and age, you'll have to use a combination of organic and paid tactics to grow your reach.
When you combine paid engagement with an organically growing brand and killer social posts, you've got a recipe for success.
99% of the time, someone's social media copy isn't performing the way they want it to because their headlines need work.
Every element of a post is important, but your headlines are the first thing they'll see. And 80% of readers won't make it past them.
You want to optimize your headline for:
Your target audience wants to do as little work as possible. Out of all the customer pain points, this is the most pressing. So, when writing copy, you also want to minimize the perceived effort on their end.
I'll break down a tweet and LinkedIn post that performed well recently.
"47 sentences that'll make you more money than a 4-year business degree."
And, the fact that '47 sentences' is considerably lower effort (and obviously cheaper) than a 4-year degree, there's a low perceived effort.
No wonder it got ~500 engagements.
It isn’t short. There's just a shortage of compelling copy.
The biggest misconception among content creators is that people don't want to read long-form content.
It's true that the average copy length has gone down in recent years. But it's also true that long-form copy gets far more engagement when done right.
I wrote a tweet about 3 mindset shits you have to go through to get to $100,000/month online. And I wasn't worried about character limits.
First, the headline locks them in. It follows all the rules I described above, so readers know they can gear up for something valuable.
Now, I've got my foot in the door.
Once they're past the headline, each line has to keep them reading. I do everything to make the text compelling.
Now, they're hooked.
In steps 2 and 3, I continue to use simple language, but I lead with my insights. While going from $0 to $1 is where my readers are currently at, I need to frame '$1 to $10,000' as an achievable goal to keep them reading.
By explaining the concept of "leverage," I've made the process from $0 to $100k/month seem reasonable to an audience who probably thinks that's ridiculous.
On text-based social media platforms, coining your own terms is a huge part of building a loyal audience and keeping your brand voice consistent.
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A word I use fairly consistently is "full-stack creator" — a term that describes the sales, marketing, and audience-building skills required to make it in today's creator economy. It’s in my bio and countless social media posts across my YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.
I also create catchy names for different social media copywriting frameworks I come up with, like the Content Cocaine Framework.
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That said, keep it simple. 54% of America reads below a sixth-grade level.
If nobody can relate to you, they'll never want to join you on your journey. We don’t need another Kardashian — nobody cares about your lavish lifestyle or fancy car.
Here's my story on how I went from college dropout to over $50,000/month:
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Post content like that, and I guarantee you'll earn more respect.
Side note: Most great stories revolve around transformation. That's why I keep this story as my pinned tweet as well — I want it to be everyone's first impression of me.
Think about where you were 2 years ago. Then, bridge the gap between then and now.
Make your resilience a huge part of your online identity.
This is a tweet:
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But, it was originally an Instagram post.
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One day, it might be a TikTok.
Facebook isn't my cup of tea, but it could easily be a Facebook post, too.
More social media platforms = more engagement. Simple as that.
No matter how well a piece of content performs, it'll eventually die out. That's why I save every piece of content that goes viral into a separate file with plans to replace it.
There's no shame in this. More than likely, nobody will notice. If they do, they won't care.
Resist the urge to start with multiple social media channels. Your competition on each is giving it 100% — you'll never beat them if you're maxing at 50% on a good day. And that's what you'll be doing if you're too distracted trying to figure out different channels.
As a beginner, diversification is your enemy. Get really good at building an audience on one social media platform, then slowly start taking them to the others.
Social media copywriting is why I get up in the morning. I love it so much I write emails to 11,000+ people about it. Sign up to be one of them.
I show you how to build a high-paying creative business without doing work you hate.
