The Six C’s, Not the Seven Seas!

 

I feel like the six C’s of effective writing for social media listed in Karen Freberg’s “Social Media for Strategic Communication” are extraordinarily obvious. That is, if you know anything or have read anything about social media. Maybe if this was the first information on social media for someone with no experience using any platform who suddenly wants to gain a following. The six C’s are content, community, culture, conversation, creativity and connection.

Content is about making sure what you are sharing is relevant and that people will care about the information you're sharing. But it is also about the writing. 

Community is developed when people share common interests with the content you are creating. Which can create loyalty to you and maintain your image. 

Culture is created by this community to develop standards of how people behave. This often leads to your community defending you from non-community member hate. 

Conversation is ensuring that you aren’t simply advertising through a one way medium, but encouraging interaction and open communication. 

Creativity is similar to content in that the uniqueness of your content will likely get you noticed more than just another story or just another person posting the same thing as everyone else. 

Connection is what will truly help you build your profile. This builds community through conversation that leads to relationships making you someone who cares rather than just another popular person on the internet. 

However each of these aspects don’t pertain solely to social media. The six C’s are public relations and personal branding concepts as well. If you want to get noticed at your job, these will all likely be used in some way. So while maybe the six C’s are obvious for social media users, they may not be obvious to the average person trying to push their way to the top of the employment food chain.