Vocabulary

CHOOSE YOUR WORDS CAREFULLY AND INTENTIONALLY.

  • What words will capture the audiences attention the quickest?

  • Which word will make the greatest impact?

  • What is the best way to phrase you message to get the audience to do what you want them to do?

  • What words and details are unnecessary and don’t ADD VALUE?

Like each scene in a movie is used to further the plot and nothing is shown without reason (thank you Film Studies 220) so should each word in your posts on social media…

I rarely ever post my first draft. It can always be better.

I re-read and re-work. It is important to make sure nothing in your message could be misinterpreted. Say what you mean and mean what you say. Don’t be vague… (unless that’s an intentional tactic you are using to get a post click.)

Provide specific details, but only the relevant ones.

Make sure your post has a clear call to action (this is going to have to be it’s own blog.) Don’t be boring, but don’t use too complex of words either, remember the audience you’re writing too. Especially with repetitive posts, a thesaurus is your best friend. Use it! Look up synonyms on words you can replace.

On Twitter this is especially important! You only have 140 characters to convey you message – there’s no room for fluffy writing of gimmicks. Often times to get to 140 characters I have to rewrite and rework a phrase 10 times over. I typically start with writing what I want to write, all details included, ignoring the character limit and then go from there…

When it comes to condensing for character limits, think:

Are there any words that can be made contractions?

There is = there’s. We are = we’re.

Does your phrase contain the word and?

Use & or + instead.

Are there any words that can be abbreviated?

I don’t like to use abbreviations unless necessary

with = w, tomorrow = tmrw, tonight = tn, did you know = DYK

Are there any long phrases that could be one hashtag?

Nourish Passion For Life = 24 characters.

#NourishPassionForLife = 22 characters.

Sometimes 2 characters is all you need!

Can you change context or tense to eliminate words?

Is there a synonym for this word?

Last step, read your post out loud… and then post!