Before writing your next post, ask yourself these questions:
- Who am I writing this for? Ideally, it’s the person that is going to engage with your post by liking, sharing or commenting. You’re not off the hook yet…you need to figure out exactly “who” this person is.
- What exactly am I trying to say? If you can’t explain it to a 6 year old, how will anyone else understand it?
- What photo can I use to enhance what I’m trying to say?
- Why am I writing this? It it just to share information or do I want to lead my readers back to my website?
- How will this benefit my social media goals?
- When will I schedule this post to be published?
- Where will I be publishing this post?
Once you’re finished writing up your post, have your image and links ready. Go back and ask yourself the questions again. Does your post make sense?
If it makes sense, go ahead and publish as per your schedule. If it doesn’t quite make sense, revise and ask the questions again.
Good timing. Trying to decide on a topic for next week, actually next few weeks, so I suspect, asking myself these questions, will get me clarification. Thanks.
Roslyn, I have a topic idea for you and was going to email you about it. How to pair jewelry together. I’ll email you later on.
For me as a lifestyle writer, I am generally about sharing information in a way that starts new conversations and stimulates new ways of looking at things. I’ve learned to trust my process and because I combine research of topical issues with personal experience, I believe it is the right time for the right people who read the post. Also, with the Huffington Post where I generally post my articles first, there is a component of their timing that always goes into the mix. For service or product oriented businesses, this is a great list of questions to ask to make sure the post is on target with the overall goals of the business. Thanks for sharing Joe!
Glad you liked it. You are right for products and services it is a real benefit to make sure you are always on point.
Great questions to ask so that we’re clear what we want to accomplish with posts – whether it’s to add value to existing clients / customers or to get a prospect to click on the BUY NOW button.
Yes clarity always makes it easier to get a point across or point to a direction like “Buy Now”.
Hi Joe,
Great tips! I do this all the time I sit down to write a post 🙂 If your post does not make sense to you , then it definately won’t make sense to your reader 🙂
I know what you mean about the making sense. So often my mind gets ahead and when I read over what I have written, I say to myself “What is this”.
Hi Joe, I struggle with this all the time. I need to totally set up my schedule – as I instruct my clients to do. My posts are not well thought out; more off the cuff based on what I’ve seen with clients or a neat idea that came to my head. The ONE post I didn’t use a graphic on – that’s the post one of my influencer friend picked up! Thank you for the reminder and great insight; happy to share your great content.
Glad you have found it useful and thanks for you input.
Great tips! Defining our target audience and being as descriptive as possible are crucial in capturing our audience
Thanks for posting!
Defining the target audience definitely helps in how it should be written and the terms that can be used.
Great tips! Especially I like you said that “If you can’t explain it to a 6 year old, how will anyone else understand it?” That’s so true. Thank you for sharing!
I have that problem sometimes writing it in a simple language, especially when it involves a topic that’s a little more technical.