One of the things I'm really finding as I explore the world of social media, is that the tone of your writing will inevitably become the tone of your relationships.
It's probably not so obvious in shorter posts like tweets, but when you're blogging or writing longer facebook entries, for instance, it's important to use the chatty tone that you would use in a face-to-face conversation. That's how you create a conversation where your reader feels like a trusted, respected friend. It's actually a great way to create some rapport and is more likely to result in an audience that is interested and engaged.
As a copywriter that's a very familiar concept to me, because that conversational tone is one of the keys to successful marketing content. In fact, when writing sales copy, I try to find out how the best salesman would speak to his prospects and replicate that tone of voice. If the audience is made up of engineers or techs the tone might be full of technical terms and jargon, but for the most part it will be chatty and informal.
I also had a conversation with a colleague today about dumbing down your copy. She was worried that her prospects would be insulted if she wrote in a tone beneath their level of comprehension. It's actually quite possible to write simple, readable copy without being patronizing, and it makes good sense to use language that can be understood by the least literate members of your potential audience (I guess what I should have said there was 'it makes good sense to write in a way that anyone can understand'!)
So, if you take anything away from this, just remember to write as if you are having a face-to-face conversation, and you won't go far wrong.
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