Writing has evolved over time, advertisements have changed and industries have transformed. The question remains: how will everyone keep up?
The placement location of ad copy has evolved from earlier methods in billboards and magazines. Compared to today, writing copy for social media, emails and websites is more essential than ever. A popular job for new copywriters is writing social media captions and creating eye-catching, informative copy to attract consumers. Each post only gets a few seconds of interaction with the consumer, so when writing for social media, it must be concise.
I currently run the Instagram page for a local restaurant, and thinking of a sentence to describe the intention of the post can be difficult. I’ve learned that simplicity is key. Most of the things I post are food, which will automatically entice the consumer so that takes some of the pressure off. Using the day of the week in the copy to describe the content has been a success because it reinforces the recency of the post.
A lot of the time I think of writing captions like creating a slogan for a billboard. The audience skimming through their Instagram feed is like a car going seventy miles per hour by a billboard on the highway. This encourages me to keep it concise and makes it a little more fun. Thinking of the image on the billboard as the Instagram post, I reflect on ‘what really stands out?’
I’m not writing captions as short as ‘just do it’ or ‘got milk?’ But trying to keep my captions to a ten-word minimum is a goal that I keep in my head. I don’t follow a specific formula, but I try to use attention-grabbing words like ‘STOP,’ and even words to help warrant someone to come eat like ‘reward’ and ‘deserve.’ My job is to make coming in and eating easier for the consumers, so highlighting the specific reason you are sharing something is very helpful.
I am also starting to use short-form video. According to an article written by AOV Up, “Short-form video content has the highest ROI of any social media strategy at 30%.” But how is that related to copywriting? Many short-form videos use a 30-to-50-word script. The script is strategically made to achieve an objective and communicate to your audience. With TikTok surging and Instagram Reels on the rise, short-form video content is tremendously overtaking other forms of content. My goal for the end of the year is to strengthen my skills in that area to stay ahead of the curve and achieve more success.