You’re a rock star community manager, and business is booming because of your awesome efforts to take full advantage of all social media has to offer. The time is now to fully capitalize on that success, and all your content and conversations are working toward the same goals – to promote your brand and cultivate customer loyalty. Failing to get your message across, however, can sabotage everything. The way you write and how you choose to word your messages makes all the difference. Here are some tips to make sure you’re doing it right.
Be Direct
You know how in relationships it’s important to say exactly what you mean if you want something? How beating around the bush can lead to confusion and hurt feelings? It’s the same with web content. Be direct in your writing. Speak right to your readers as if you’re having an individual conversation with them, and say what you mean. The truth is, they already know that your primary interest is selling them stuff, so there’s no reason to disguise your intentions with clever sentences and allusions. Being direct is the best way to ensure that your message gets across exactly the way you want it to be heard.
Call to Action
A call to action is important for getting the message across because it tells your readers what to do, and hopefully they’ll listen. A call to action is saying something like, “Share this!” or “Like this!” or “Visit this site!” You’re giving them a direct instruction, which is much more likely to stimulate them enough to act on it. Again, you’re being clear about what you want your readers to do, and you’re making it incredibly easy for them to make the jump from reading to doing. If you can’t get your readers to act, then your writing isn’t doing its job well enough.
Conversate
Your readers are individuals, and they’re going to have individual comments, wants, and needs. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to write to those individuals directly. Either in a private message or in response to a public post, make sure you write a reply to every question or comment that you possibly can. Having a real conversation is a great way to get your message across not only to the person you’re speaking with, but to anyone else who can view the conversation on a public forum.
Proofread
It cannot be understated how important proofreading is for rock star community managers. You can’t be amazing at something if you do it sloppily with simple errors and style mistakes. Those errors will turn off your readers and turn the focus away from the actual message at hand. You have to make sure there’s nothing standing in the way of your ability to get your message across, and errors can be major distractions.