Social Media Copywriting Guide With Tips And Examples For E-Commerce Brands

Social media copywriting is used in any e-commerce brand’s digital marketing strategy. With billions of active users across social media platforms, companies consider building a strong presence in these channels. In 2022, over 30 million businesses in the US used social media to promote their products and reach customers.

Just like with your website, one of the crucial aspects of social media marketing is your copy, because it pushes readers to take action. Good social media copy can make a big difference in engagement and conversions, but writing this isn’t as simple as shortening your web content. You also have to tailor your content to each channel.

To help you out, continue reading to learn more about social media copywriting and best practices to create an effective strategy.

Social Media Copywriting In Different Platforms

Social media copywriting can be tricky because several platforms exist, with each having different audiences, content formats, algorithms, and best practices. 

Before anything else, you’ll need to choose a platform based on your positioning and target audience. Instead of trying to be present in every channel, it’s best to identify where you’ll focus your efforts to maximize traffic. Once you’ve figured this out, the next step is understanding how to write copy on each platform.

Check out the differences across social media platforms below to determine which will best fit your marketing strategy and how to write copy for each.

Facebook

Facebook is the world’s largest social media network, with over 3 billion monthly active users globally. It’s an all-around platform that allows you to connect with different people, write posts, and share photos and videos.

• Target Audience: Facebook generally has a broad demographic range, though it appeals particularly to millennials. 
• Content Format: Facebook supports several formats. These include posts that may have text, photos, and videos, as well as livestreams and stories. Short-form and long-form content work for ads on this platform, depending on your goal and chosen format. 
• When Brands Should Use: Given Facebook’s massive reach, it’s a great place for most brands to market their products. You can easily tease upcoming products, demonstrate how to use a product, show before-and-after photos, or even engage with users through polls and general conversation.

Twitter (X)

Twitter was originally known as a microblogging site that allowed users to communicate through short messages called tweets, which are capped at 140 characters. In July 2023, the platform rebranded to X and has since changed its content limitations.

• Target Audience: X generally targets a broad audience, with millennials aged 25 to 34 comprising most of their reach. 
• Content Format: X posts are limited to 280 characters per tweet, supporting text, photos, videos, and GIFs. However, the platform recently launched an update that now allows up to 25,000 characters per tweet for Twitter Blue subscribers. 
• When Brands Should Use: X is suitable for brands looking to build a community and engage in real-time with their audience. It’s also good for posting hot topics, though you’ll need to be strategic with your timing, as posts can quickly get buried among all others.

Instagram

Instagram is a visual-centric social media platform that focuses on sharing photos and videos with different users. It has around 2 billion monthly active users, and it’s the fourth most popular social network globally, providing many opportunities to grow your brand presence.

• Target Audience: Instagram appeals more to the younger demographics, particularly millennial and Gen Z users. 
• Content Format: Instagram posts support photos, videos, or reels (up to 90 seconds) and an accompanying caption with a limit of 2,200 characters. You can host livestreams or post stories of up to 60 seconds, which stay on your feed for 24 hours. 
• When Brands Should Use: Since Instagram is mainly visual, it’s useful for showcasing your products, providing teasers, or promoting user-generated content (UGC). Aside from regular posts, you can add links in your bio and story highlights to your account to provide more content or direct users to specific pages.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is slightly different from other social media platforms because it’s business-oriented. It’s primarily designed to find employment opportunities and network with other professionals. It’s also quickly growing into a relevant marketing channel for many brands.

• Target Audience: LinkedIn’s target audience is mostly professionals, job seekers, business owners or employees, and industry leaders. Millennials make up 60% of the platform’s user base.
• Content Format: LinkedIn content typically includes professional updates, thought leadership articles, and career-related posts. General page posts have a character limit of 3,000 and can be published as ads delivered to your target audience through sponsored content. The platform also supports long-form content through LinkedIn Articles, which allow up to 110,000 characters. 
• When Brands Should Use: LinkedIn is highly valuable for B2B marketing as it allows you to generate leads and build relationships. However, the platform is also becoming more popular for B2C marketing as it allows you to target a unique audience base—professionals with purchasing power.

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website and social media platform where you can watch, upload, like, and comment on videos with other users. With about 2.5 billion users worldwide, YouTube is the second most popular social network—second only to Facebook.

• Target Audience: YouTube has a diverse audience base and is especially popular among users aged 25 to 34.
• Content Format: YouTube mainly supports video-based content and ads. You’ll need to optimize copy through your video title (up to 100 characters) and description (up to 5,000 characters), channel description (up to 1,000 characters), and comments (up to 10,000 characters). 
• When Brands Should Use: YouTube is a great platform to generate brand awareness and drive sales. It works especially well for e-commerce brands with demonstrable products, as you can create different types of video content like product reviews, hauls, and showcases.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a messaging and social networking app that allows you to take photos and videos called snaps, which disappear once viewed by friends and recipients. Beyond this, the platform includes several other features to interact and engage with your audience.

• Target Audience: Snapchat appeals mostly to younger demographics, with 39% of its advertising audience between 18 to 24 years old. 
• Content Format: Snapchat has stories, articles, AR lenses and filters, personalized avatars called Bitmojis, and chat and messaging features. The platform also has a Discover section that curates content for users based on their preferences. 
• When Brands Should Use: Snapchat is ideal for brands targeting Gen Z, given that most users fall within this demographic. Given that snaps disappear after viewing, the platform is especially effective for FOMO tactics. You can create content that gives users access to limited-time sales or a sneak peek at what’s to come, compelling them to take action now to avoid missing out.

TikTok

TikTok is a short-form video platform used to create quick and engaging videos. It gained massive popularity during the pandemic, earning the title of the most downloaded app in 2021 and effectively beating other big names like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. As of the first quarter of 2023, TikTok has accumulated 4.7 billion downloads.

• Target Audience: TikTok has a large audience base. The highest adoption comes from Gen Z, particularly 18 to 24-year-old users. 
• Content Format: TikTok content primarily revolves around short-form videos (15 to 60 seconds), often paired with catchy music and visually appealing effects. Aside from creating effective videos and staying on top of trends, you must also optimize your copy through captions, hashtags, and CTAs.   
• When Brands Should Use: Like YouTube, TikTok is a great marketing channel for brands that can demonstrate their offers, such as e-commerce product brands. What’s unique about TikTok is that it offers the potential for virality through creative videos and compelling copy.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual-sharing platform that allows you to organize images into different categories and share curated pinboards with other users. With 450 million monthly active users, it’s popularly used as a discovery engine for users to find ideas on just about anything, from home decor to recipes to fashion.

• Target Audience: Pinterest is especially popular among younger women. Millennial women aged 25 to 34 comprise their biggest audience segment (28.5%), followed by women aged 18 to 24 (18%). 
• Content Format: Pinterest content is highly visual, so you can post images and infographics and group them into pinboards for cohesion. One advantage of Pinterest over Instagram is that users can click through live links, so you can direct them to your website or specific pages. 
• When Brands Should Use: Pinterest benefits brands aiming to capture new prospects and increase brand awareness. Users go to Pinterest for inspiration, so having a well-curated account with corresponding CTAs can increase opportunities for conversion.

8 Copywriting Tips For Social Media To Boost Engagement

Engagement is one of the most important metrics to track on social media because it determines your reach. The higher your engagement, the more likely users will find your posts, increasing the chance for more conversions. Not sure how to boost engagement or not seeing the results you want? If so, check out these eight tips to help you improve the quality of your copy.

Lead With An Eye-Catching Teaser

Just as you would start with a strong headline in your email or webpage, you should lead your social media posts with an eye-catching teaser. With users constantly scrolling through feeds inundated with content, a good teaser can help you stand out and lure in readers. 

When writing a teaser, adjust your copy and structure it based on the platform and content format. Consider how much readers will see at first glance and before the cutoff so you know how long your copy can be. If you plan to add images or videos to your post, the accompanying caption can also serve as your teaser to draw readers in. 

Here’s an example of The Ordinary teasing their latest product on Facebook. It leads with a visual, featuring the new product and a tagline: “A Hydrating Favorite. Now Fermented”, hinting that their new launch offers a twist to a fan favorite.

Use The PAS Formula

The PAS formula is a copywriting framework that provides a simple structure to create clear and persuasive copy. It’s highly versatile and works in different types of writing, but it is especially effective for social media because it quickly grabs readers’ attention and builds an emotional connection with them. 

PAS consists of three steps, namely:

• Problem. First, you must identify your audience’s problem. Proper research is crucial in this stage, as you’ll need to understand their needs and pain points in detail. Only then will you be able to describe it in a way that resonates with the readers.
• Agitate. The next step is to agitate the problem, which essentially means pouring salt on the wound to intensify the pain identified. Doing this helps provoke the readers to do something, but you must also be cautious not to overdo the agitation. 
• Solution. Finally, after painting the problem vividly and stirring the readers’ emotions, it’s time to present the solution. Introduce your product and explain how it solves the problem, ending with a CTA.

Keep Paragraphs Short

Keeping paragraphs short and straightforward is crucial. Users tend to have shorter attention spans on social media, leaving you with only a few seconds to capture their attention. Aside from this, most people access social media through their mobile phones, so paragraphs naturally appear longer when viewed on a smaller screen. 

To prevent users from scrolling away, break your text into short paragraphs and focus on the main point. Though some platforms may allow you to create longer text, social media copy should generally be snappy and concise to generate immediate engagement through likes, shares, and comments.

For example, this Glossier Instagram post featuring their Storm Lip and Cheek Duo is short and easy to read. It’s broken into multiple paragraphs, with the first introducing the duo, the second briefly talking about each of the products, and the third inviting readers to shop from different stores.

Trigger Emotions

Triggering your audience’s emotions is a great way to make your copy more engaging. To determine what type of emotions to stir, think of your message and what you want readers to feel. In any case, align your language to your brand image and maintain an approachable tone to invite readers. 

Check out this example from Bombas’ Instagram post, which advertises their Pixar collection. It utilizes storytelling and opens up with a familiar scene that resonates with readers. It also highlights the brand’s mission of helping those in need by discussing their initiative to donate clothing for every purchase, further appealing to people’s emotions. The CTA then instructs readers to click the link on their bio.

Add Relevant Hashtags

While they’re not as widely used as they were back then, hashtags remain relevant for social media copy. They categorize your content, helping boost visibility as they make your posts easier to find when users search for related topics. That said, you need to be very selective about what and how many hashtags you include in your copy. 

Hashtags are like keywords in SEO, so you also need to research to identify the best hashtags to use. Ideally, it’s good to use a mix of hashtags—trending vs. less competitive, broad vs. niche. However, remember that you should only use hashtags when relevant and not for the sake of having them on your posts.

Here’s an example of an Instagram post from Overtone, promoting their Cherry Chestnut color depositing mask. The brand uses hashtags like #NaturalREDS, #CherryChestnut, #haircolor, #haircolour, #fallhair to reach users who may be looking for some hair color inspiration or fall hair colors to try out.

Incorporate Visuals

Given how crowded social media platforms can be, adding visuals is necessary to make your copy stand out and attract more readers. Text-only posts won’t have the same impact and are more likely to be ignored when users quickly scroll through their feeds as they blend in with all the other content. For some platforms like Instagram, a good visual strategy may be even more important than copy since it’s more impactful for users. 

Visuals make your copy more eye-catching, memorable, and easier to understand. This has to do with the way humans process and retain visual information more efficiently than text. For reference, studies have found that people process visuals 60,000x faster than text and only remember 20% of what they read compared to 80% of what they see.

Given this human behavior, adding images and videos to your social media posts largely benefits engagement and performance. For example, BuzzSumo found that Facebook posts with images generated 2.3x more engagement than those without. 

Naturally, selecting the right visuals to pair with your copy helps you deliver a cohesive message. Choose those that match your brand identity, tone of voice, audience, and objective. To determine how well your copy performs, track key metrics and adjust as needed until you find what visuals appeal best to your readers.

Be Conversational

Social media copy isn’t meant to be uptight or formal. It should be conversational since its goal is to connect with the audience and build trust. While you may adjust the tone based on your brand voice and the purpose of the message, you should generally maintain an approachable and relatable vibe, as though you were speaking directly to your readers. 

For example, this ad from Tony’s Chocolonely conveys a fun and playful tone that resonates with the brand’s identity as a chocolatier. This makes the ad sound more inviting, making readers want to taste their products.

Add A Clear Call To Action (CTA)

Always remember to include a clear CTA in your social media posts. The CTA is the final element that tells people what to do after reading your message. Without it, you risk losing opportunities for conversion as readers simply drop off, which would be a waste after sustaining their interest.

CTAs can be used to direct readers to take any action, whether to subscribe to your newsletter, comment on your post, start a free trial, get a discount, or take a quiz. Regardless, keep your CTA short and to the point and ensure it’s easy to spot within your copy.

Social Media Copy Examples

Not sure where to start or still not clear about how to create copy for your social media platforms? Check out the examples below for some ideas and inspiration.

Golf Gods

This Facebook ad from Golf Gods is simple and jumps straight to the point, announcing the brand’s Boxing Day Sale. The caption also includes details on what customers expect from the sale, teasing up to 30% off on gloves and up to 70% off sitewide, to convince readers to start shopping through the link provided.

Paka

Paka announces its new product, the Pakacloud, in this Instagram post. Notice that the text is broken into short paragraphs, each focusing on a key point—product features, sign-up link, and available colors. At the bottom, you’ll see a CTA that prompts users to sign up to get the product.

HydroFlask

In this TikTok video, HydroFlask features some of its latest offers, including a limited-edition hibiscus ombre color and a free holiday engraving promotion to customize your tumblers. That said, this post and video lack a clear CTA that tells viewers what to do or where to go if they’re interested in the offers.