Effective communication between brands and consumers is determined by many factors. One of these is speaking the same language to ensure understanding. Many marketing specialists recommend that brands use plain English when communicating on social media, because this is the type of language that consumers use when they are on social networking sites.
A key aspect of writing in plain language is avoiding professional jargon that may cause readers to feel excluded. When they fail to understand the brand´s message immediately, they are unlikely to engage with it in any way. However, this should not be taken to the other extreme by trying to write in a typical teenage style, using overly-abbreviated text speak, which could put off older users.
Essentially, brands should strive to use language that will reach the largest possible audience. This means keeping it simple but not too casual and making sure there are no spelling mistakes that could lead users to conclude that the brand doesn´t take much care.
On Twitter, for instance, branded messages can be quite challenging. With a 140-character restriction one may be tempted to abbreviate. One of the best ways to avoid getting things wrong is to simply direct users to another site, where they can see the full information. The 140 characters are enough to include a link to a site and a short call to action that does not resort to text-message style spelling and sounds perfectly fine in English, Business 2 Community says.