One of the most important aspects of writing for social media is that the writing will motivate people.

It’s simply not enough for it to be good writing. You could tell the most beautiful story in the world, but if it doesn’t get people to take action, the writing is a complete failure. While likes, comments and shares are nice, your goal should be to get fans to take actions that lead to accomplishing business objectives.

So what can you do to improve your writing towards that goal? Let’s look at some things I do.

Know who your audience is

The first step to motivate fans toward action is to know them. Find an image that represents them as a person. Drill down to their most basic wants and needs. Write them out as if they’re a character you know intimately.

And if that’s not enough to get you into their mind, sit down and talk with someone who represents your audience well. Just chat with them and get to know them as an individual rather than as that representative.

Seeing your audience as an individual helps you direct posts to them that connect with what is important to them. It will also make clear what might not be the right tone or the right subject matter. In other words, if you want to make fewer mistakes, think about talking with this person and what just won’t hit with them. But more importantly, you’ll know exactly what will hit.

Write with authentic emotions

Fans can smell anything inauthentic. They won’t necessarily be able to tell you what is wrong with copy, but they’ll know that it’s off. If something feels off, fans won’t do anything with it. This is part of the reason why AI cannot do effective social media on its own yet.

How can you make it more authentic? It starts with emotion.

What kind of emotion does the copy need? Think of what will improve it and what will make people connect with it. That connection can be the first step towards what it takes to motivate action.

Once you’ve determined that emotion, manufacture it within yourself. Remember a moment in time or look at photos that are related to that emotion. You don’t want to get yourself completely lost within that emotion. You just want to get it strong enough to be used for what you need. Get to a slow burn rather than an all-encompassing fire. And then write whatever it is.

Use a clear call-to-action

This seems so simple and yet…

I just heard someone say that they don’t get a lot of sales. Naturally, I looked at their social media, suspecting that was the problem. It was. They rarely posted about how to buy from them, and when they did, there was no clear call to actually buy from them. So their sales remained stagnant because only a handful of people knew about the opportunities to buy from them. Naturally, that meant that only a handful of people would buy from them.

You can’t motivate people to do anything if you are not asking them for some kind of action. If all you tell them is a nice story, then they’ll engage with that nice story and then move on with their day. If you tell them a nice story and then tell them how they can contribute, they’re more likely to actually take an action.

It’s so simple and yet I still see loads of people not including that ask.

Give a why

I’ve already documented my hatred of Giving Tuesday. One of my biggest issues with it is that so many organizations spend the day asking for money with no reasons behind it. I don’t know how anyone thinks that will be effective.

What is the why behind your organization? Show it through stories and anecdotes. Sprinkle it all over your social media. And make sure that anytime you have an ask, there is a why connected to it. If a fan knows why, it’s easier to motivate them to action. So don’t leave it behind and expect your fans to fill in that blank. Always be shouting it loud and proud.

Don’t give up

Sometimes fans need to hear a message multiple times to take action. So if you only post it once and you don’t get the results you wanted, keep going. Take the information you’ve learned from that particular post and use it to make the message better next time. And take the information from that post to make the next one better. And so on and so on.

The most important thing is that you keep learning from your audience so you can give them what they need to take action. The more you listen and keep trying, the more likely it is that you will get what you need as well.

What do you do to get your audience to take action?