Social Media Writing Sin #1 – Texting Like a Teenager
Social Media Writing Sin #2 – Misspelling and Mistyping
Social Media Writing Sin #3 – Keywording Instead of Writing
Social Media Writing Sin #5 – Streaming and Spewing
Streaming
Because social media is a conversation, it's easy to start writing as if everyone "out there" is actually "in here" – right in your brain, following along with your train of thought. Or, if they're not right "in here," surely they've been reading all of your conversations as they've unfolded – haven't they?
Of course that's not the case, and it can make your stream-of-consciousness updates pretty indecipherable to someone who is just discovering you on a social network.
Your social network profile page (and everywhere else you display your updates, e.g., a Twitter feed on your blog or website) may be someone's very first impression of you. What will they find there?
Spewing
Twitter has gotten a pretty bad rap from people who say they have no interest in hearing what their friends or colleagues ate for breakfast. And that's understandable when some people spew out overly personal updates or drawn-out private conversations.
As with everything else, balance is the key.
Warning: Indulging in this two-headed social media writing sin can made your reader feel excluded and disconnected.
Social Media Writing Sin #4 – Baiting and Switching
There are two ways I've witnessed a "bait and switch" in social media writing:
1. An attention-grabbing headline with a story that fails to deliver
I once clicked on a link to what sounded like a breaking news story. When I got to the page, I read all about how if there were such a crisis, it would be really important to have a great website (this person happened to build websites).
Getting attention is one thing – keeping it is another.
2. Taking credit where it isn't due
As Andrea J. Lee puts it, experts (yes, that's you!) have an opportunity and a responsibility to serve as the Google for your audience. You can be leading them to the best and most relevant content that will help with their specific challenges. And our social networks are designed for precisely this kind of sharing.
And yet, when you post a headline with a link, your readers are going to assume you are the author of both. In my view, this is a form of plagiarism, even if it's only for a second (the time it takes someone to click through and realize you're not the author of the post you're linking to).
Warning: Indulging in this social media writing sin can make you stand out for all the wrong reasons. Readers will remember you as the one who "tricked" them into clicking to a page that was either misleading, disappointing or someone else's work.
Social Media Writing Sin #3 – Keywording Instead of Writing
If you've been reading this Content Mastery Guide blog for awhile, you know where I stand on search engine optimization (SEO). After all, this series is all about social media writing, and social media is all about building a network of people who enjoy reading and sharing your work with their networks.
Yet, I also know there is lots to be said for using SEO techniques to get your work into the hands of more people who need it.
While it's important to use the same language your ideal client might type into a search engine, SEO should never come at the expense of quality writing.
Trying to force particular keywords into a blog post or title can result in awkward (or just plain bad) writing – especially if you're trying to slip them in after the post is written.
Writing for the search engines, trying to get clicks or traffic at any cost, defeats the purpose of content marketing because you will repel your reader instead of attracting them. What is the gain of getting more clicks if people only leave again because you've failed to make a meaningful connection with your writing?
Warning: Indulging in this social media writing sin will diminish the quality of your content, and can make the writing process much more difficult and time-consuming for you.
Social Media Writing Sin #2 – Misspelling and Mistyping
It's no secret that I am committed to the quality of your content. And that includes the quality of your social media writing.
Your social media posts have a job to do – whether it's to attract new followers who share your way of thinking, deepen your relationships with your community, or invite people to take an action or click on a link.
Typos are embarrassing enough, whether they're caused by spelling errors, commonly misused words, or just a slip of the keys. Combined with grammatical errors or confusing sentence fragments, these writing issues can cause needless embarrassment, lost readers or damage to your reputation or credibility.