Writing and Social: Why the Written Word Is Your Marketing Advantage

Do you write content for your business?

Are you looking to improve the quality of your writing and your storytelling skills?

To explore why the written word matters in social media, I interview Ann Handley for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.
More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It's designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Ann Handley, the co-author of Content Rules and chief content officer at MarketingProfs—providing training and education to empower both large and small business marketers. Her newest book is called Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.

Ann shares why she decided to write a book for marketers about writing.

You'll discover how to improve your writing for social media.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!
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Here are some of the things you'll discover in this show:
Writing and Social
What led Ann to write this book

Ann explains that she wrote Everybody Writes because she looked for that book, and it didn't exist.

She wanted a book that was part writing guide geared toward marketers, part handbook on good sportsmanship in content marketing and part reliable desk companion for people creating content on behalf of brands and companies. So she wrote it!

Ann wrote her first book, Content Rules, four years ago with C.C. Chapman. That was the beginning of the conversation about content marketing. These days, she explains, being able to write well is a necessity.

Everybody Writes came out of Ann’s love for good writing and her desire to see marketers do a better job with their content.

Listen to the show to learn more about Ann's first book, Content Rules.

Why the written word is so important to marketers

Ann explains that since we're all publishers in this age of technology, our words become our ambassadors. Our writing conveys a lot of things about us. It can make us seem warm, fun, competent and trustworthy. But it can also make us seem boring, humdrum and confused.

Choosing the right words to tell our story is really important, especially when you want to connect with your customers. In a world where we all have a platform, whether it's a blog or a website, words matter now more than ever.

Listen to the show to hear what people said to Ann when she told them she was writing a book on writing.

What non-writers need to know about writing

Ann believes we are all writers. If you have a website, work in marketing or post on social media, you're a writer. To learn to craft better content, just develop the necessary writing muscles.

Ann talks about a story she tells in the book. As a non-athlete, she could never do a pull-up or a push-up. About a year ago, Ann started working with a personal trainer and then four months ago, she did a push-up. It's just like writing. If you want to get better at writing, or at push-ups, you just need practice.

Everyone is capable of becoming a better writer.

Listen to the show to learn what keeps people from believing they can write.

How to develop writing muscles

To get better at writing, you need to make it a priority. One tip Ann emphasizes is to give yourself permission to write badly and then fix what you've written. The main thing with writing content is to start somewhere. Write anything, and then edit it well.

Listen to the show to discover what voice-to-text tools you can use to create early drafts of your content.

Why stories are important and how to tell good ones

All humans like a good story. The way you can tell if your story is good, Ann says, is as soon as you get into telling it,