I’m always talking about communication.

Anybody who has seen my website will know that I help to give brands a voice, to take inanimate companies and give them a real sense of personality. After all, people love to buy things from other people, not faceless organisations.

And so it would be only natural to think that I had a particular interest in or affinity with social media. Entire platforms dedicated to communication, where businesses can just chat with their potential customers – you would think that I would enjoy that a whole lot.

I don’t. The truth is I shudder when a company asks me to ‘do’ their social media.

But it’s a problem with the question, not the platform.

Copywriting Sets The Foundation of Social Media

Like any copywriter, I have to get along with social media. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are important brand-building opportunities.

Some of my copywriting clients have asked me to write Tweets and Facebook posts for them, which I’m always happy to do. I can identify the right balance of posts across a month, covering different areas of the business, capitalising on hashtags and so on. I can also make sure that any mailers or website copy that I’ve written is cross-linked to encourage more traffic.

But that’s not the task that clients want. That’s just the start.

As a copywriter, I can sell things to people with words. I can give your brand a voice.

But for all of the metaphors and creative angles on what I do, I can’t actually bring your brand to life. The only person that can do that is, well, someone alive.

Match Social Media Copywriting With Somebody Social

Whenever a client asks me to ‘do’ their Twitter or Facebook, I tell them no – all I can do is help with it.

I can figure out a strategy that works. I can make sure that your social media fits into your overall communications. I can even write the ongoing posts that mean you don’t have to sit thinking of something clever to say at 3am.

I can make your conversations with customers an extension of your other marketing, taking an active role in building brand equity and – indirectly – driving sales. But if you’re going to be on social media, you need to be way more social than that.

Any business that cares about sales will at least attempt to drive them through social media, and I wouldn’t be much of a copywriter if I wasn’t willing to play a part in that. I can be a social media copywriter. What I am not is a social media manager – that’s a customer services employee that engages your customers and deals with incoming queries.

That’s the other half of the task. One never works properly without the other.

So sure, let me make a start. I’d love to help. But any business that really cares about its customers will make sure that when they get in touch on Facebook or Twitter, there’s a real person worth talking to on the other end of the line.