5 steps for overcoming social media writers block

 

On the surface, writing for social media should be easy. I mean, how hard can it be to write 140 characters (or less), right? The thing is, for those of us that do it for a living—day in, day out—coming up with interesting, witty and entertaining ways to convey complex subject matter in one sentence or less can be quite challenging.

 

If you’re finding yourself lacking inspiration, this blog post by Hootsuite offers some pretty good tips on combatting social media writer’s block—but to be honest, I don’t think they’re necessary. While I’ll be the first to admit that writing for social media is hard, I very rarely encounter writer’s block—primarily because I just write until something good comes out. Here’s my approach, in case something about it might work for you next time you’re dealing with creative constipation:

 

Step 1: Grab a pen and notebook.

I’m not sure why, but there’s something about jotting down ideas on a lined piece of paper that works for me. I very rarely stay in the lines—and I end up doubling my workload by eventually typing everything onto my computer—but it gets my creative juices flowing (and often gets me away from my desk, which is nice).

 

Step 2: Boil down the message.

If you’re writing tweets to promote a 30-page report, there’s no way you can convey everything in 140 characters. That’s why it’s so important to find out precisely what the report is saying—and why people should read it. What can readers find within these 30 pages that they can’t find anywhere else? What major business challenge can it help them solve? What’s in it for them?

 

Step 3: Brainstorm.

Take your boiled-down messages and brainstorm strong words and/or phrases that can make your social media posts more impactful (and, hopefully, a little more entertaining). Don’t overthink it—just write. And write. And write. Until you have a full page of material.

 

Step 4: Write your posts.

Again, don’t let your brain get in the way here. Just dump everything in your head onto paper without worrying about word counts or the total number of posts required. If you require six posts, write 60—six of them are bound to be workable.

 

Step 5: Step away.

If you have the luxury of doing something else (preferably mindless) before your posts are due, I highly encourage you to step away from them and let your brain sit for a bit. Once you return to the posts with fresh eyes, it will be easier to determine which posts are workable—and what tweaks are required to make them stellar.

 

The best thing about writing is that it’s never final—it can be worked and reworked until it conveys the message you need it to convey. So whether you’re writing a social media post or a lengthy whitepaper, don’t get hung up on the words. You can always come back and fix them later.

 

What is your process for writing social media posts? Please share! I’d love to hear.

 

 

The end of the (written) word as we know it?

As someone who prefers writing over speaking any day of the week, one Rosemary O’Connor quote has always resonated with me:

 

“I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

 

If you feel the same way, then you may have a similar reaction to Facebook’s prediction that, in five years’ time, the written word will be out—at least when it comes to social media—and video will become the communication method of choice.

 

According to the social media giant, the number of text updates has already started to diminish, while video is on the rise. As someone who gets clunky in front of a camera—who trips over her words, can’t remember what she wanted to say, and says “like”, “um” and “uh” an embarrassingly inordinate amount of times in one sentence—I can’t imagine a day when I’d ever turn a camera on myself to announce a mundane update in my life.

 

That said, I understand the whole notion of “show, don’t tell”—and while it may be difficult to capture many of life’s personal, spontaneous moments on camera, I definitely see how businesses could start relying more on video when it comes to social media marketing.

 

What do you think? Could the written word eventually become extinct? What would that type of world even LOOK like?

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Mary Meeker’s 2014 Internet Trends Report – An Annual Must Read

If this is not on your reading list already, it should be.  It is insightful, well written, and considered by many as the State of the Union Address for all things Internet.

Here are some highlights:
•    Internet user growth has slowed below 10%; smartphone growth is still strong but slowing. But mobile data traffic is accelerating—up 81% year-over-year—thanks to video, where mobile is now 22% of consumption.
•    Only 30% of the world’s 5.2 billion mobile users have smartphones—still room for growth.
•    There are still more global TV users (5.5 billion) than mobile phone users (5.2 billion).
•    97% of smartphones share OS “made in USA” vs. 5% in pre-iPhone era.
•    Mobile advertising is still underperforming vs. time spent on mobile devices, whereas print is still significantly over performing.
•    About 5 million Bitcoin wallets exist, up 8 times year-over-year.
•    Tinder users “swipe” 800 million times per day, up 21 times year-over-year.
•    66% of U.S. tablet owners are surfing the web while watching TV. 44% are shopping.
•    52% of ESPN’s digital users access only on smartphones and tablets, representing 48% of time spent.
•    China’s mobile Internet users now ~80% of total China Internet users. More critical mass for mobile web than anywhere, and leading mobile commerce revolution.
•    Six of top 10 Internet properties “made in USA”—down from 9 of top 10 last year—with more than 86% of their users outside America. “China rising fast.”

Read the full report here – http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends

4 Social Media Secrets You Can Learn from a Billionaire

Elon Musk is one of my favorite entrepreneurs.  Not only has he hit it out of the park multiple times, the companies he built are downright cool. The two I am referring to here are Tesla and SpaceX (oh yea, he also co-founded PayPal).  On top of this he is also a savvy social media practitioner.

In a recent article in Fast Company, Musk lists 4 lessons we can all benefit from:

1. Own your executive brand – If you don’t somebody else will

2. Humanize your brand

3. Don’t show up and then fall silent

4. Use Twitter as a leadership tool

Learn more about these secrets and read the full article here.

Your Company’s Social Data – Do you have a Clue?

In an informative piece in Social Media Today, Ben Harper discusses how social data must be a core component of your content strategy. He also points to three tools you can use to gather insights in-house. These include:

Followerwonk: Followerwonk allows you to analyze any Twitter audience by age, location, and bio word clouds to give you a flavour of your audience. Combine this with the most influential followers and see who they are and what you do to give yourself a headstart

Unmetric: Unmetric allows you to track your competitors’ social media content and get alerted when there are spikes in engagement levels, allowing you to react or use historical data to plan future activity

Twtrland: this tool allows you to delve into the Twitter data of any profile to see their most influential tweets, top followers, and basic demographics

Read the full article here.

Are you tracking your company social data? If so, what tools are you using?