Every time I meet one-on-one with a business owner, a consistent struggle comes up one way or another, the effort to write a caption for social media.
Many times I have heard, "I write something I hate it, I delete it, I write again and delete it. Get frustrated and don't post at all." OR "I'm afraid that whatever I post is going to screw everything up."
I get it; I'm right there with you, and I want you to realize that you are not alone in this. Somedays I also struggle with what to write on my social media because I'm so inundated in the updates on social media that somedays it is the last thing that I want to talk about. I realize that you are all here for those tidbits that you otherwise don't know and how to make those platforms work for you and not against you. Just like your clientele does not know everything about your industry or your product, they are looking to you to educate them on what you have to offer.
You aren't going to screw everything up unless you write something hurtful to another person that gets shared and goes viral. Does anyone remember the tweet that blew up Justine Sacco's life? Writing things like that is what is going to screw everything up for you.
Here are a few tips to help you through the captioning anxiety:
Remember that people read your captions in their tone, not yours. The tone confusion can happen if you are not posting a video, or they have never interacted with you in person to get a grasp on how you communicate IRL.
Learn how your target market communicates both on and offline and work on ways to communicate with them that way.
Findings have found that our attention span is shorter than that of a goldfish. Get to the point quickly or risk getting scrolled past. Write what you want then go back to edit to make sure you've gotten to the point.
Tweet how you want to be tweeted at or about. Every post you put up and comment response is a reflection of you and your business's customer service culture.
Be yourself. Write in a way to the person that if you meet a follower or customer IRL, they feel like they already know you once you begin talking.
Finding your business's voice takes some time, effort, trial and error, but I am confident that you can do it.