Social Media Writing – 6 Rules to Break

Follow the Rules

Grammar rules, love them or hate them, you know you’re supposed to follow them. It’s more than just following the rules to follow the rules of course. Sticking to the basic grammar rules gives your content a sense of authority, which is especially important if you’re a business wanting to promote your brand. It shows you care about what you’re telling your readers, that you’ve taken the time to craft your story. Grammar rules are the base for clear, concise language. This is true for all forms of writing, yes, even social media writing.

In my article, Social Media Grammar – Check Yourself, I talk about the importance of grammatical correctness in social media writing and how it can affect your image – personal and brand. I think it’s important to note that you don’t have to know all the rules by heart. Who does? Just understand the basics. Sometimes you know something isn’t “right” just by reading it. You may not know exactly why, but you just know. Pay attention to that!

In the article, I also talk about some easy ways you can check yourself, make sure your content is grammatically correct, free of glaring typos and general mishaps. You know – using you’re vs. your and it’s vs. its correctly. Holding the grammar police at bay if you will. Because, they will be more than happy to point out your snafus.

Don’t Follow ALL the Rules

Now, here’s the tricky, but fun part, about social media writing – you can break some of the rules! You still need to understand the differences between their, they’re or there and too or to; ensure there are no misspellings and typos and that you’re following punctuation rules. But you can get wild and crazy and not spell out numbers between less than 10. Your English teacher may gasp, but it’s true, you can set aside some of the old grammar rules to help with readability, engagement and tone.

Social media is conversational, people are engaging using natural language. Plus, people are scanning posts quickly. This means it’s important to make your text as digestible as possible with a quick glance. For the sake of social media, here are some grammar rules you can break.

6 Grammar Rules to Break

1. Write out numbers smaller than 10.
   Toss this one to the curb and use numbers! This improves readability, allowing the reader to scan quickly.
   
2. Don’t use sentence fragments.
   In social media writing, it’s OK to use them, but be strategic in how you use them, so they make sense. You don’t want it to just be a stream of randomness. You still need to makes sense.
   
3. Never start a sentence with a conjunction.
   In conversational language, we tend to begin sentences with conjunctions, such as but or and, so it makes sense to do so in social media writing. Remember, it’s all about having a conversation with your audience.
   
4. Never end a sentence with a preposition.
   Prepo…what? Prepositions are short words (at, in, on) that are used to show position, location, direction and time. It’s often hard to avoid this old rule without re-writing your sentence completely. For social media writing, don’t stress about it.
   
5. Avoid using slang.
   To keep the language casual, natural, it’s OK to use slang in social media. Just be intentional and know your audience.
   
6. Do not use contractions.
   You don’t avoid contractions in conversation, don’t avoid them in social media. It can make your post sound stuffy and clunky. Readers need to be able to quickly scan your posts as you’re competing with thousands of others.

Social Media Writing is Conversational

Here’s the ultimate takeaway – when it comes to writing for social media, you want it to be conversational, engaging and easily digestible for your audience. This doesn’t mean tossing all grammar rule aside.

Correct spelling and word usage is important for your brand’s sense of authority and conveying a feeling of trust. You’re an authority, so act like one. At the same time, you don’t want to sound like a robot. So be casual, find your brand’s true tone and voice and enjoy breaking a few rules!

Need more tips for social media writing for your business? Check out, 10 Tips for Social Media Writing.