Proven Methods for Ghostwriting a Better Social Media Status

It’s hard to believe that an image, or even a few words, can greatly impact your business. But according to research from Salesforce, 90% of consumers trust the recommendations of friends and family on social media over any other form of advertising. That’s why businesses have someone to ghostwrite status updates for their brand’s social media account – it can have such an incredible impact on a business – both in terms of reach and engagement with potential customers, as well as strengthening a brand’s perceived authority.

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There are plenty of reasons why it’s valuable and helpful to know how to ghostwrite social media statuses. If you ARE tasked with ghostwriting social media posts for a client, there are proven methods that will make your job easier. These tips will help you craft a more personal and authentic status without having to worry about sounding too informal or unprofessional. Here are ways to ensure that your ghostwritten social media statuses will be worth the time and effort you put into it and more than just a good idea in theory. Plus, the reader will likely be impressed with your writing skills as well!

Implement social media strategy
Any business that wants to have an impact on social media needs to have a strategy in place. This means understanding who the target audience is, what kind of content they want to see and how often they want to see it. Once your client has that figured out, you can start creating content that appeals to them by asking for engagement data from each platform. But don't stop there! You also need to make sure they're monitoring social activity and engaging with their audience regularly. The best way to do this is to communicate with the social media manager or social media expert the company has. Together with the social manager, you can curate some incredible content. 

Post statuses that won't fail
When it comes to social media, businesses need to be careful about what they post. A single status update can make or break a brand. That's why it's important to have a ghostwriter who understands social media and knows how to write engaging content. Here are some proven methods of ghostwriting for a better social media status:

FACEBOOK
Content on Facebook should be entertaining, shareable, and informative. When you ghostwrite, you take on the persona of the brand and write as if you are the business, no different than any other writing you've done with other clients. This ensures that the content is on-brand and aligned with the company’s voice. Additionally, you can save time by batch-creating content. You can sit down and write a month’s worth of posts in one sitting. Also, keep these things in mind:

• The best performing content is video. When running a Facebook campaign, varying your posts' types is more effective, so use photos, infographics, text, gifs, memes, blog posts, press releases, links, and the like.
• In general, short posts perform better on social media than long ones. The ideal length for a post is between 40 and 80 characters.
• People are more likely to engage when you ask them for their opinion or feedback.
• Regardless of the relevance to your brand, post interesting content on Facebook, because its audience has a low tolerance for blatant self-promotion, which means if you want to keep your followers engaged, don't be afraid to post about other things than solely the business. Stick to topics that are relevant to the niche.
• Include graphics so people have something to actually look at while they skim through the articles. Text can just be overlooked. Regardless of whether you are publishing a post with just text, Facebook makes it easy to turn it into a graphic.

TWITTER
A social media post is only as good as its content. If you don’t have anything interesting to say, the post will be quickly forgotten. If you post on Twitter, your words must be succinct and easy to comprehend, given the character limit. Here are several tips to help you write better social media content or tweets:

• To really succeed on Twitter, post the most engaging part of the tweet first and try to drive the reader to the rest of the message. Begin the tweet with the most important information to grab the reader's attention.
• Users seem to appreciate tweets with 240+ characters - if you need more than 280 characters, create a thread or link to a blog post.
• Using a free tool like Bitly, will shorten your URL and save space.

INSTAGRAM
A great social media post on Instagram is all about the content. But what if you don't have the time or creative juices to write something compelling? Instagram is primarily about visual content. To encourage an interactive experience with your content, your words matter. Here are some tips for that:

• As Instagram allows for up to 2,200 characters, let your introduction really. Though no more than 125 characters will show beneath your photo, make sure to entice your audience to click more by offering an enticing photo.
• Using emojis to catch some attention. Emojis have proven to be incredibly effective on Instagram.
• Be relevant with your hashtags. You are allowed to use up to 30 hashtags, but don't just use the ones that are currently trending. Use a mix of popular, broad hashtags as well as niche-specific ones, along with a few branded ones.
• You need to break up long paragraphs on Instagram. The app is still a little finicky about this. To add a space between paragraphs, you must hit Enter, then add another space before taping Enter again. But the extra step is worth it since large blocks of text can be difficult to read.

LINKEDIN
LinkedIn is an online network where business professionals and brands share industry insights, news, and updates. It’s no secret that content is key to success on LinkedIn. Here are a few tips to take a client's LinkedIn presence to the next level:

• Articles and blog posts on long-form content do well on LinkedIn. To best interact with the audience, you'll have to invest more time and take your message slowly. As always, remember to stay organized and professional.
• Fill up your posts with hashtags. You can put relevant hashtags on a LinkedIn post, but they're better placed at the end, not all over it.
• Professionals usually share industry updates, studies, research, infographics, and infographics. If you're posting content, ensure it's branded so that you get credit when it's shared.

PINTEREST
In a lot of ways, the aim of Pinterest is to highlight the image rather than the text. Having said that, the right description can make all the difference! Creating posts on Pinterest should reflect the image, not describe it. Just as you would with other social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, think about what you want your post to accomplish before writing it. Use Pinterest’s search feature to find pins related to your topic and take inspiration from them. Here are some other great tips for ghostwriting pins:

• You are allowed to use up to 500 characters in a post, but try not to overdo it. It's a good idea to be detailed and use relevant keywords in the description.
• Strive for a professional tone with your writing. Jargon and abbreviations are not well-received on Pinterest. Be mindful of your grammar and punctuation and use an informal yet professional tone. Contrary to popular belief, Pinterest isn't just teenagers looking for images that appeal.
• Hashtags are optional (but useful). A few years ago, hashtags were viewed as a no-no on Pinterest. As of now, hashtags can now be searched and appear in chronological order. However, Pinterest is still largely driven by keywords, not hashtags, which means that results containing keywords will be displayed without hashtags. Since hashtags also function as keywords, pinning them doesn't harm.

Wrapping up
There's no shame in admitting that you need help when it comes to ghostwriting for social media. If you're already ghostwriting, view this task as micro writing! As a ghostwriter, capture the brand's voice like always and turn your ideas into engaging posts that will reach new audiences and increase engagement! Are you ready to ghostwrite some social media updates now?

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