Writing a great article and publishing it is half the battle. The next step is getting people to read it. In a sea of articles, how are you going to get readers? One of the most accessible ways is by using social media. There are many platforms writers can use to cross-promote their work for little to no cost. Social media allows you to reach more people and potentially increase the visibility of your work (Özkent).
I am working on a long-form article for Medium.com that discusses how music can be used as medicine. To prepare for publishing, I drafted social media content for different platforms.
For LinkedIn, I created a graphic featuring a vinyl record with the cover art depicting various medications. On LinkedIn, images are most successful when they are colorful and bold because they break patterns in people’s feeds and urge them to stop scrolling (Raymond).
In Raymond’s article on how to create impactful LinkedIn content, two tips are to:
- Connect through personal stories and experiences
- Perfect the hook and CTA for every post
For the copy, I decided to start with a story from my article to personalize the post and hook readers. Then, after promoting the article, include a clear CTA that links to it.
The audience here is other professionals and people searching for knowledge. That is why I included a brief description of my article and the major research topics.
Instagram is a platform people use mainly for aesthetic reasons. They want to see interesting graphics and images. For Instagram, I created two types of content: a standard post and a story post.
I wanted to focus on an image that people would likely repost for its personality, which is why I went for the trendy mock Spotify image.
A factor in the success of an Instagram post is audience engagement (Brandwatch). So, in the caption, I ask questions and speak directly to the reader. The story’s main purpose is to engage users by giving them a space to personalize the content with their responses.
X
For X, your main goal is for people to repost and engage with your content. People on X are looking to share information or topics they find interesting with their followers. For my X post, I focused on elements that will make them more likely to be reposted.
X recommends using graphics that avoid heavy text and ensuring images are clickable links. That is why the main focal point in my image is the CD mockup, and there is a clear CTA that encourages users to click the post.
When it comes to copy, it is best to keep posts as concise as possible and maintain a conversational tone (X). My caption includes a question to maintain the casual, engaging tone, followed by a single sentence describing my article, with a link to the site. Keeping an X post as simple as possible increases the likelihood that someone will repost it.
Resources
X. Organic best practices. X for Business. https://business.x.com/en/basics/organic-best-practices
LAUREN SCOOPO 