When I used to be 14, I failed a very important English literature test at my highschool. I only scored 28 out of 100, a result that severely affected my confidence in my writing skills. Years later, even after doing well at university, I still considered myself as a nasty author. Despite this insecurity, I at all times wanted to put in writing a blog but didn’t know methods to start. I asked a food blogger friend for advice, but as a substitute of offering encouraging suggestions, she simply told me to “use WordPress” and suggested that I probably would not make it as a author.
I could understand why she thought that. While I’m a foodie at heart, if I had tried to put in writing a food blog it might need been too restrictive because I do not eat animal organs, caviar, and a variety of raw foods. If I had blogged about fashion, my readers would have quickly grown bored with hearing about my white shirts and blue suits. A couple of friends suggested that I concentrate on my core skills – finance and investing – but which will have conflicted with my banking job on the time. Anyway, I still had no idea what WordPress was and put my blogging ambitions on hold for some time.
Fortunately, my interest in publishing my ideas online never completely disappeared. In 2015, I had some free time during Chinese New Year in Hong Kong and convinced myself to publish my first LinkedIn article. It took me three days to take into consideration what to put in writing because I kept asking myself, “What is there to share that isn’t already on social media?”
After I finally wrote the article, doubts about my very own English skills caused me to maintain revising it. When I worked up the courage to hit the “Post” button on LinkedIn, I frightened about how my contacts – about 300 on the time – would view me. Would they laugh at me?
My LinkedIn post was titled “I failed my math test.” Yes, I failed math the 12 months before I failed English. For my very first social media article, I got about 100 views and 7 likes. I used to be overjoyed because after I was at school my essays often only had two views: one from my teacher and the opposite from me. Neither of us liked what we read!
As my articles received an increasing number of views and likes over the previous couple of years, things began to alter. My American friend Diana Wu David, who worked in a senior position on the magazine for a few years, recently complimented me on my excellent writing. Although I get a lot praise now and again, the 14-year-old boy who failed his literature exam still haunts me today, but he also motivates me to alter the way in which I communicate with my followers on LinkedIn. to further improve.
After writing on the platform for greater than six years, I’ve realized that social media readers care more about your content than your language skills. So if English isn’t your strength or your native language, you mustn’t take this path to heart.
If you wish to pursue writing, you can contribute articles to trade publications in your industry, but publishing on social media is less complicated and might enable you to reach a wider audience. You can start on LinkedIn or select one other channel that suits your needs. No matter the platform, becoming your personal publisher gives you the ability to make a decision what you publish and when.
Here are my top five suggestions for creating engaging social media content, based on my successes and failures on LinkedIn since I began.
1. Tell a private story with universal applicability
Our brains are wired to be drawn to narratives, so consider telling stories in your social media posts. Whether they’re Cinderella-style fables or Mission Impossible movies, all stories have these three core elements: (1) setting, (2) conflict, and (3) resolution.
But stories do not have to be long. The shortest sentence, commonly attributed to US creator Ernest Hemingway, consists of just six words: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Personal stories which might be relevant to the lives of your contacts often rating high on social media good effect. It’s your story, so nobody can say whether it’s right or unsuitable.
2. Always provide readers with value
Getting upgraded to business or firstclass on a flight may make you are feeling euphoric, but writing a post about it won’t do much on your followers.
To construct your brand, it is best to at all times add value and not only post in regards to the basic facts of an event. If you wish to write in regards to the great food you only ate, go behind the scenes. Talk to the chef and take photos of the kitchen. If you wish to post about your trip abroad, mention a neighborhood friend you met during your trip and tell people what you talked about.
3. Start your social media posts energetically
According to a Microsoft studyBefore the age of social media, the common adult attention span was 12 seconds, but by 2015 it had dropped to simply eight seconds – shorter than that of a goldfish. You should grab the reader’s attention together with your first sentence.
I once wrote two LinkedIn articles a few Singapore street food vendor who won a Michelin star and posted them a day apart with similar content apart from the primary sentence. Which introduction do you favor?
“Congratulations to Mr. Chan Hon Meng who was awarded a Michelin star for his chicken noodles. . . ” or “He has been working 100 hours a week for 30 years; For the past eight years he has sold chicken noodles for less than $2 a plate.”
The first post received around 700 likes, which is loads by LinkedIn standards. But the second event attracted greater than 90,000 people. This just goes to indicate how powerful it’s to start out your post with a bang.
4. Use dialogue
Try to make use of conversations inside stories to bring events to life and draw the reader into your world. The dialogues that I include in my stories often revolve around on a regular basis situations. Several of my LinkedIn readers have told me that these conversations help them visualize the settings or scenarios I describe.
In the next example from LinkedIn, I used dialogue for instance how impressed I used to be with the service on the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong. As I entered the hotel’s large club lounge and before I sat down, the service agent asked:
“Red wine?”
“Yes,” I replied, pleasantly surprised.
“Shiraz?”
“Wow! You remember my order from yesterday!”
I then described the cheerfulness and willingness to go the additional mile of Warren, who had recently arrived in Hong Kong from Mauritius to work within the hotel industry. But my readers could see it for themselves because they were drawn into our conversation.
5. Do interesting things offline
It’s difficult to publish original and interesting stories and pictures when you’re not doing anything compelling in your offline life. Only by consistently trying latest things are you able to gain latest experiences and perspectives to share together with your social media audience.
Over the past few years, I’ve talked to small shop owners to search out out their stories, taken videography courses, and tried out audio chat apps once they were still in beta. You should select your personal latest adventures and create your content based on them. Producing content for social media remains to be not at all times easy for me, but I even have learned many lessons.
In the ultimate a part of the “How to Master Social Media” series, I explain methods to construct your following on LinkedIn.
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