Likes. Comments. Shares. Oh my.
Everyone’s hungry for more of them. But how do you get them?
Well I can tell you, there are 3 hacks:
- Dropping comments in your own comments section after you post
- Replying to every comment the second you get one
- Paying for people to like and comment
You can take these away right now, go do 'em and your engagement will grow quicker than…well something that grows fast I dunno.
I can’t think of a cool metaphor.
Anywho.
Hacks are hacks. Use them and you’ll get results quickly. But more often than not, they’re not the results you want.
And down the line you’ll be paying for it.
Because when you stop paying for engagement and you stop replying to every comment, you’ll realise your content sucks so much that no one even cares to read it or engage.
So what do you do when that happens?
You have to learn how to write to engage people. You have to become engaging. You have to become a conversation starter, a feather ruffler, a story teller. A writer.
But you’re already writing.
You’re not bad, but how do you tweak it to get MORE engagement?
There are 3 elements to tweak:
- Your hook
- Your meat
- Your CTA
Dial in on improving these 3 elements of your content.
And soon you’ll become the talk of the town.
But I’m not just gonna leave you hanging.
So let me show you how I tweak each of these 3 elements when I coach founders, when I write my own content and when I ghostwrite for 7 figure CEOs.
Let’s get into it:
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1. Your Hook
If I had £1 for every hook I see…
When I think ‘add this’, ‘remove that’ or ‘change this’, baby…I would be a rich man.
It’s a shame because I can see that the writer has put blood sweat and tears into the content. But it gets ignored. Because the hook sucks so much nobody is compelled to click see more.
Bad content can go viral because the hook is elite.
But elite content will never go viral if the hook is bad.
This is the cruel world of digital writing.
Keep writing crappy hooks and you’ll keep wasting:
- Time
- Effort
- Brainpower
- Resources
Where you could be spending it on growing your biz, serving clients and making cash.
There are 4 trends I see with viral hooks:
- They promise a desired outcome
- They promise it takes little time/effort
- They include numbers
- They start with ‘How to’ or ‘How I’
Let me give you a few examples of some of my most viral hooks:
- ‘How to do 10 hours work in 2 hours:’
- ’How to steal an audience on LinkedIn in 8 simple steps (this is a secret):’
- ’How I make LinkedIn carousels (under 30 minutes):’
- ’3 tips to write concisely (without spending 5 years studying copywriting):’
- ’6 steps to write anything in under 15 minutes (seriously):’
Do you see the pattern?
‘How to {desired outcome} in {little time/effort}’
‘X tips to {desired outcome} in {little time/effort}’
Promise to give your reader their desired outcome in as little effort as realistically possible and they are putty in your hands.
Your reader is a gooey mess.
Because you’ve compelled them to do one thing:
Click ‘see more’.
WARNING: if you make this promise, you better back it up. Otherwise, you’ll be known as a Clickbaiter. And nobody wants that.
Here’s a helpful tweet from Nicolas Cole with 6 ways to “hook” your reader:
Writing Tip:Make the first sentence of any new section a single-sentence opener.
2. Your Meat
No, I don’t mean beef.
I don’t mean any meat actually.
When I say meat, I refer to this section of a post:
The meat of your content is where you’re delivering everything you promised in the hook of your post.
And the one and only goal of this section is simple:
Keep your reader moving from one line to the next line to the next line to the next line to the next line.
Until they get to the CTA.
But the most common mistake I see people make here…
They waffle on and they don’t write concisely.
So when your reader starts reading, they’re overwhelmed with:
- Connective words that have no place being there
- Long drawn out sentences
- Confusing jargon
This happens a lot because most people are taught how to write in school.
And we are all taught to hit a word count with essays. So we waffle on and fill space with pointless crap that doesn’t add anything. Social media is different.
On social media, you write:
- Direct
- Intentionally
- With purpose
There’s no time for ‘just’ and ‘also’ and ‘I think that’.
Say what it is, how it is.
Here’s an example, so you see what I mean:
‘I went to the store and as I arrived I realised that I did not want a chocolate bar but I actually wanted a packet of sweets.’
Now, lets cut the crap out of this.
‘I went to the store. But I didn’t want chocolate. I wanted sweets.’
See how much more powerful that is?
And how much easier it is to read?
It’s engaging. It makes you feel something. But all it talks about is buying sweets at the store.
We went from 27 words to 13. Over 50% of the copy, cut out.
That is how you save your reader time and get them moving.
From one line, to the next.
TIP: don’t worry about waffling on your first draft. Try to write your content ahead of time, so you can revisit it a day or so later and cut the crap out of it.
3. Your CTA
I see loads of posts that just…end.
They don’t get the reader to feel anything. They don’t ignite any conversation. They don’t ruffle any feathers.
But I get it, it kinda feels…awkward?
You write your content, you say your bit and that’s it right?
If people like it, they’ll engage?
Wrong.
People (humans) are funny creatures. We have to be told what to do. Where to go.
Otherwise we find our own way there which could be longer, shorter or just wrong all together.
Think about it - why are there road signs?
So people get to the place they wanna get to, right?
Well think about the last few lines of your content as a road sign, or a map.
You’ve done the hard work:
- Written a compelling hook
- Written engaging meat (lol)
- Got them to read the lot
You’ve got your reader in the palm of your hand.
Now, what you want them to do or feel is completely up to you.
Do you want them to:
- Feel motivated?
- Feel challenged?
- Feel entertained?
You can do any of these things with the end of your content.
Here’s an example of how I motivate my reader:
But what if you want something more tangible from your content?
What if you want:
- Newsletter subscribers
- A booked call with a prospect
- Someone to buy your digital product
Not many people are gonna do it out of good will.
So, ask them. Sign post it.
Here’s how I get newsletter subscribers from my content:
Whatever you want from your reader - a tangible result or a feeling:
Make sure to ask them.
Invite your reader to do something.
TIP: make use of ‘P.S.’. It feels pretty old school. But it works so well to draw attention to a CTA. And it separates it from the rest of the content. So you have free roam to go wild there.
TL;DR:
Tweak your writing to get more engagement by:
- Writing hooks that make big promises with little effort
- Writing meat that is to the point, concisely, cutting the crap
- Writing CTAs that clearly signpost what you want your reader to do
Do this and you won't be hungry anymore.
You'll be stuffed full of likes, comments and shares. Oh my.
That's all for this week. I hope you enjoyed reading.
See you next week.
Cheers,
Matt
P.S. I’ve closed spots for my 1:1 Digital Writer Coaching program right now.
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Everything I provide in my 1:1 Coaching program, but in a community setting.
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