Thinking about your social media content writing and conversations as authentic manifestations is a solid launchpad. Like Tim Salau, community builder and founder of Mentor & Mentees, said – 

“Your personal brand… needs to be an authentic manifestation of who you are and amplify what you believe.”

This concept will help you to keep your social media content writing real, bearing in mind that people primarily use social media to be social. Often to browse. Rarely to buy, (well, not immediately anyway).

It can help your social media content writing strike the right chords, keeping you on the same track as the sort of face-to-face engagements you’d have with people in bricks and mortar environments.

Imagine that the people you come across on social media every day, and the conversations you have, are literally the online equivalents of walking in to a physical networking event.

Who are those people, and what sort of conversations take place?

Well, some or all of the following scenarios might sound familiar to you –

• Natural gravitation towards and pleasantry passing with people you already know.

• Identification of surface level synergy and a sniff of potential future business or collaboration opportunities with people you don’t know. (You’d arrange a follow up call or meeting with this category of ‘tepid’ new leads.)

• Acknowledgement of lack of business synergy or any immediate potential for future business or collaboration with people you don’t know. (You’d probably exchange business cards with this category of people, and agree to keep each other in mind if anything crops up at a later date.)

• Active avoidance of people you don’t know and would rather avoid. There they are, doing the rounds of the room, shouting about what they do, thrusting their business cards under everybody’s noses, often with an absence of any meaningful conversation whatsoever. (You’re not alone in putting their business cards in the bin as soon as their backs are turned!)

EACH OF THESE CATEGORIES OF PEOPLE (WITH THE LIKELY EXCEPTION OF THE BUSINESS CARD THRUSTERS) ALSO FALL IN TO THE KEY OVERARCHING NETWORKING UMBRELLA – THEY ARE ALL POTENTIAL REFERERS AND INTRODUCERS!

See what I’m getting at here, comparing social media content writing to live networking events?

What’s Meant by Being Engaging with Your Social Media content Writing? 

Being engaging with your social media content writing involves natural, genuine, human tone of voice. Authentic manifestation. Not being a disengaged corporate entity reeling off the party line regardless of any context.

The same ‘know, like and trust’ principle that’s at the core of live networking duplicates online. The more your audience gets to know you, the more they will hopefully like you, with trust following as a bi-product of like.

To get known, liked and trusted, remember these mantras when you’re social media content writing –

• Avoid overt selling – Don’t try cutting corners by churning out the same old sales messages. You’ll soon become disenchanted with lack of engagement. In addition, you can do more harm than good by attracting adverse attention to yourself for pestering, being spammy and too pushy. People really don’t want to see that in their networks.

• Listen and learn – Take notice of what existing and prospective clients feed back to you on social media, and feed their input forwards.

• Stay on-brand – Stay true to your brand tone of voice that also runs through your website and your other public communications, e.g. email marketing, press advertising and mail campaigns. If you don’t, you’ll look incongruous, unprofessional, and you might cause confusion amongst your audiences. They won’t get who you are or what you stand for.

• Celebrate the successes of others – Being nice costs nothing, in real life and on social media. Thank people who share your posts, who get engaged with something you’ve posted, or who recommend you to somebody in their contact pool. Do the same for them in return when you have the opportunity to. Cheer them on and applaud their successes. It will reflect positively on you and it might also attract an increased number of followers who see and like your positive, caring and sharing attitude.

• Be authentic and relatable – We’ve come full circle back to where we started with Tim Salou’s authentic manifestations. It takes a little time to get used to social media content writing in a natural and authentic way. But it will stand you in good stead once you master the technique, attracting others to follow you and to engage with you.

A final word…

Authentic social media content writing and engagement can be your saving grace should you ever drop a faux pas.

It’s perfectly normal for human beings to occasionally make an error. If/when you slip up by posting something that isn’t correct, or by saying something that gets taken the wrong way, your followers are more likely to forgive you and move on if you own your mistake in a genuine manner.

Source

10 Golden Rules Of Personal Branding, by Goldie Chan, Forbes