Copywriting (for social media)

Copywriting for social media is the craft of writing text that makes someone scrolling the feed stop, understand and act. It isn't 'writing well' in the classroom sense: it's choosing the right words for someone whose thumb is already poised to move on. It applies to a carousel's first slide, to the caption under a photo of a fresh blow-dry, to the post about today's menu. Few words, but chosen ones.

It matters because on social media nobody's looking for you: they come across you by chance, between a recipe video and a meme. You have a fraction of a second to give them a reason to slow down. A beautiful photo captioned 'New treatment available' slides right by; the same photo captioned 'Hair damaged after summer at the beach? Here's what I do in the salon' speaks to someone specific. Copy is what turns an image into a message, and a message into a person messaging you.

In practice the text works across three pieces. The hook: the first line or the first slide, which has to name a problem or curiosity of the reader's, not your own name. The body: what you explain or tell, in short, concrete sentences, ideally with a real example. The close: what you want to happen next, said simply, like 'DM me' or 'book via the link'. Without a hook nobody reaches the end; without a close, whoever got there doesn't know what to do.

For a small business, the good news is you already have the material: it's the questions people ask you every day in the shop. 'How long does it last?', 'Does it hurt?', 'Can I bring the kids?', 'Why does it cost that much?'. Reported almost word for word, those lines work better than any slogan, because they use the customer's exact words. All that's left is keeping a recognisable voice: if you're direct and a bit cheeky in person, don't write posts that sound like a press release. Even when you get help from a tool like Carosell, the tone is still your call.