If You’re Writing to Everyone, You’re Writing to No One

In efforts to rally support for social change and get the most reach on social media, organisations often write generalised copy, hoping to get everyone’s attention.

The outcome of this style of writing is a post that’s neither here nor there - like a blanket statement.

While the content may be appealing, this spray and pray approach to writing obscures the connection for readers to feel or be engaged.

The result: Your readers skim the first paragraph and move on to the next post.

Not ideal.

Writing on social media is a lot like writing a letter the old-fashioned way. Once you’ve written your message, seal the envelope, you dump it in the postbox, together with hundreds of other letters to be delivered.

But here’s the catch, you forgot to write the recipient’s address so no one gets to read it except yourself.

That’s what it’s like when writing without a specific audience in mind on social media. Your post gets lost along with all the other posts.

So here’s the fix: Know the target audience before writing a post.

This means writing personalised posts that resonate with the audience you want to engage the most.

Their pain points or interests are addressed immediately, and most importantly, you speak their language.

If you want to rally support from the general public for a campaign, personal stories of beneficiaries are one of the ways to connect with the general public.

If you want the attention of potential funders, outline ideas and the bigger picture of your project to showcase its impact and how you plan to scale it.

And if you’re looking to forge strategic partnerships to fill the gaps in your project, make that clear in your post and communicate the support you need to achieve success.

The point is, every post should be written with an intention, including those that are intentionally generic.

So try this: Go to your social media content tracker and create a column titled “Target Audience”. Start listing down which of your posts speak to whom. You’ll be surprised to find that your content might be speaking exclusively to one of your target audiences, neglecting the rest.

Once you’ve identified the issue, write away and, most importantly, write with intention.

Curious on how you can level up your content? Let’s talk!