There are many instances when you might need to connect with a massive number of people
about a topic. While you could choose to educate them in many ways, one popular and effective
method is the public service announcement or PSA. A PSA allows you the opportunity to
educate, inspire and make a difference in the lives of your audience members by highlighting a
subject you find important.
What is a public service announcement?
A public service announcement, or PSA, is a message shared with the general public that raises
awareness about an issue. Although most public service announcements have the overarching
goal of informing their audience, a PSA may also serve to inspire the public to take action or
make a change. Here are a few common topics for public service announcements:
Health
Wellness
Safety
A PSA is usually informative and educational, but can also be inspiring and motivating. Many
times, celebrities and influencers help deliver the PSA so that the public pays more attention to
the message.
How to write a public service announcement (PSA)
Follow these steps to create a public service announcement:
1. Decide on your topic
There may be a lot of issues about which you're passionate. Think hard about what is currently
the most pressing and pertinent issue and decide which topic you can develop a PSA about that
will have a large impact on the public. Choosing a specific topic can help you develop a PSA
that is clear and focused, which can help your audience understand what you're saying and what
actions they can take.
To choose your topic, you may partner with a charity or other organization that you've formed a
relationship with and already support.
2. Do thorough research
Thorough research can help you explain your cause and call to action accurately. Here are some
areas about which you may research before you write your PSA:
Topic background information
Specific facts and statistics
The impact of the issue on relevant communities or environments
References to which the audience can relate
Why the audience should care
What action the audience can take
3. Understand your intended audience
If possible, perform market research to understand which individuals to target with your PSA
and how to present the information in a way that is most likely to affect those individuals. You
can consider the following possible target demographic information when selecting your target
audience:
Age
Gender
Religion
Ethnicity
Lifestyle
Location
Keep in mind that you might also need to rely on your audience to spread the message to others.
The more an audience feels they can relate to your message, the more likely they are to share it
with others who may hold the same sentiments.
4. Explore ways to capture your audience's attention
It's important to capture your audience's attention quickly and hold on to it for the duration of
your PSA. The tactics used to gain attention may vary depending on your intended audience.
Here are a few elements to consider including in your script to gain attention:
Visual elements
Humor
Emotional language
Suspense
Surprise
5. Write a PSA script
After completing your research and deciding on your PSA strategy, you can write the script.
Here are a few guidelines to consider:
Aim for a length of approximately 30 seconds
Sharing five to seven statements about your topic
Use your research on the topic and your target audience to guide your content
Developing a PSA can take a lot of time so, before you finalize it, make sure the content in your
script is current and accurate. It's okay if you have to revise many times over to make sure your
message is clear and that you're covering everything you want to share.
Next steps for your PSA
After writing your PSA, you can produce it by partnering with other talented creatives or
individuals who care about the same cause. Here are the next steps you can take to transform
your idea from a script into a final product:
1. Create a storyboard for your script
A storyboard is a visualization that shows your plan for a narrative. If your public service
announcement is going to be filmed, as opposed to aired on the radio, you'll need to assign each
part of your script a visual representation.
For example, you may use the following visual path:
Begin with voiceover, accompanied by written text on a black background
Transition to a film scene, featuring dialogue between two people
End with visuals of statistics and a phone number for more information
It can be helpful to build your storyboard sequentially so you know where certain parts of the
script fit in the final PSA.
2. Film and edit your public service announcement
Once you have your script and storyboard ready, start filming your public service announcement.
Allow yourself enough time to complete multiple takes so your editing process goes smoothly.
Review the scenes and refer to your script and storyboard often to ensure you capture everything.
Next, you may either edit the PSA yourself or hire a professional editor with whom you can
collaborate. During the editing process, you can establish the order of the footage, add graphics,
incorporate voiceovers and create a polished final product.
3. Review your PSA
Consider having someone uninvolved in the process view the public service announcement to
see if it makes sense. You can also determine if they have any questions, then decide whether to
address those questions with further editing or re-shoots. The opinion of someone in the role of
an objective viewer is invaluable in making sure your message is clear, inspiring and convincing.
4. Air and analyze the effectiveness of your PSA
You can release your PSA to the public, then analyze it to understand how well it performs. If
you have a website you're encouraging someone to visit, see if there is an increase in website
visitors during certain periods. If you are asking for donations for an environmental cause, see if
you notice an uptick in contributions after your PSA airs.
After you analyze it, you can tweak your PSA to make sure you're reaching the right people at
the right time and with the right message. You also use this information to decide how to
increase awareness further or what to focus on next time you create a PSA.
Benefits of a PSA
Here are a few reasons you might consider creating a PSA:
They can create change. A well-written and thoughtfully produced PSA can bring about wide
exposure, benefiting both your organization and the communities it supports.
They can be cost-effective. Many organizations that create PSAs work with limited budgets.
While there may be costs associated with writing, production and research, PSAs also offer the
availability to create content for relatively low costs and to and present information online for
free.
They provide an opportunity for creativity. PSAs may be most effective when they use creativity
to capture viewer attention. This can make creating a PSA a fun and creative project on which to
work.
Newsworthiness
Before your company decides to make an announcement, you must make sure it’s newsworthy.
Otherwise, you aren’t writing an effective press release. One of the most important questions to
ask yourself is if anyone outside your company will care about the news you’re releasing.
Headline
Your news release headline should be interesting and compelling to draw in readers. You should
use action verbs. Make sure the headline captures the main idea of your news release so it grabs
the attention of busy journalists who skim headlines for news they want to report on.
Body
The first paragraph(s) should answer the “5Ws and H” – Who, What, When, Where, Why, and
How. The following paragraphs should expound and give supporting details, including at least
one quote from someone – preferably an executive – at your company. You should say the most
important information right away. Reporters follow the inverted pyramid when they write a news
article, so you should write news releases in this format as well.
Length
A news release shouldn’t be more than a page in length. You should write it in such a way that
makes it simple for a news outlet to copy and paste the news in the space they have for your
story. This is also why the inverted pyramid comes in so handy; journalists cut the least
important information first from the release.
Quotes
To write an effective news release, the quotations you include should add to the release and
enhance it. Quotations should be informative and not something that appears elsewhere, like on
the website or in brochures. It’s best that a quote provides opinion.
Boilerplate
Be sure to include your company’s boilerplate in the news release. It’s a short “about” section
that follows the main body of the release. It provides background information about the entity
issuing the news.
Contact information
Don’t forget to provide the best way for journalists to reach you if they need additional
information or want to interview someone in your company.
Having a newsworthy angle is one of the most important parts of writing an effective news
release. Without that angle, reporters won’t care what you’re trying to pitch them. Your news
release should give journalists everything they need to write a story that will interest their
readers. And keep in mind, you should be writing news releases for the right audience: reporters
and consumers – not for the boardroom.
A bonus tip: Once you’ve written an effective news release following the tips above, be sure
you’re sending it to the correct reporters. You don’t want to send a business story to the
entertainment reporter. You won’t gain the media coverage you desire. Better yet? Build
relationships with reporters at the key outlets you seek to gain media coverage. When you send
them a well-written and appropriate news release, they recognize that you won’t waste their time
and may come to you when they need a source for a story.
7 Social Media Content Writing Tips
By Melonie Dodaro
The ever-changing social platform algorithms make it increasingly harder to generate
engagement with your social media posts. By applying some simple writing tips, however, you
can make your message more appealing to more people.
If you invest time, effort and money into posting on social media, I’m sure you want to get a
good return on your investment. That return should see you meeting, or exceeding, the goals
you’ve identified for each platform - but if you post without a social media strategy, which
outlines how each platform will help you accomplish your business goals, many of your efforts
will be wasted.
Having a social media strategy and action plan, based on your unique business goals, resources
and available time, is essential to your success.
Yet even with a well laid out action plan, you still need to create social media posts and content
that speak to your identified audience, and inspire them to take action.
In this post, I’ll share seven social media content writing tips for creating posts that get the
attention of your target audience, and inspire engagement.
1. Do your research
If you want your audience to notice and engage with your social posts, you need to make them
highly relevant to your target group.
The more relevant your posts are, the more success you will have - but relevance, in general, is
not enough. You need to take the time to truly understand your audience. Start with the general
demographic information and then go deeper.
What needs, obstacles or challenges do they have? Pick a need or challenge that might be a high
priority for them right now, then develop content and social media posts which provide them
with a solution.
PRO TIP: To connect with your audience on an emotional level, share success stories from your
previous satisfied customers. This will help them envision their own success as a result of using
your product or solution, and make them feel positive about you.
2. Speak their language
Take your research further and learn what language your ideal clients use to communicate their
needs or challenges. Use this language when writing your posts to ensure your content resonates
with your audience. This will help to show them that you truly understand them and their
challenges.
For example, a post you write on LinkedIn for senior-level executives will read very different to
a post you write on Facebook for new moms. Not only do these two groups of people have
different challenges and points of view, but their language – the exact phrasing they use to speak
about their needs and challenges – differs significantly also.
3. Develop your voice
Although you should write social media posts in the language of your target audience, the overall
message should be written in your own voice.
Your voice (or your brand voice) refers to the personality and emotion infused into all your
marketing activities and social interactions online - you create that voice with the language and
tone you use when writing your content or interacting with your audience.
This voice is primarily influenced by your or your company’s personality - your ‘why’ story and
the language used by your ideal customers.
This voice needs to be consistent throughout the content you create and the posts you share on
social platforms, as well as any engagement you have on those networks.
This consistency will help your audience connect with you emotionally, as well as build trust,
and identify your social media posts as yours.
4. Be positive
This doesn’t mean every post needs to be happy - there’s a huge difference between positive and
happy. You want your audience to be excited, and inspired by your posts, and that doesn’t
always mean happy posts.
In some of your posts, you may choose to share your opinion or take a stand on something
important to you and your brand. But there’s a difference between taking a stand and attacking or
criticizing others.
A lot of schoolyard-style bullying happens on social media. Don’t engage with it.
Whatever you do, avoid criticizing anyone (or any business) publicly. Criticizing others is not
only unprofessional but also dangerous - it can draw more negative people to your page, and can
hurt any trust or credibility you’ve built with your existing followers.
5. Keep it short and simple
People value their time. If you want your audience to give you their attention, you need to show
that you value their time also.
Great ways to do this include:
Making your content and posts easy to read by writing at an eighth-grade reading level
Using headings, bullets and lists where possible to make your content or posts easier to scan
Keeping paragraphs to only two or three sentences
Being as succinct as possible when writing on your topic
6. Use images and videos
Use images, graphics and videos to tell a story where possible. Visual content is more engaging,
and can often tell the story quicker and more succinctly than words alone. In fact, an image or
video can often stand alone in social media posts while still conveying the full message to your
audience.
Keep in mind that video, in particular, can better enable you to connect with your audience on a
deeper level. People respond well to video, as it can humanize you and enable them to get to
know you more intimately.
Most platforms have live video features, which can greatly benefit you. An unscripted live video
can make you feel vulnerable, but that vulnerability will give your video a level of authenticity,
which is often lacking in high-quality marketing videos. Those slick marketing videos are more
likely to be ignored than a live video featuring you authentic self.
For best results, optimize each piece of visual content for the platform you’re posting it on to
ensure your message is being shared, and that you look professional.
7. Add a call to action
At the end of your content or social posts, consider prompting your audience with what you
action you’d like them to take next by including a call to action (CTA). Without one, most
people won’t take any action after reading your content, even if they enjoyed it and derived value
from it.
CTAs come in different forms and have different purposes. For example, you can motivate your
audience to take actions with these CTAs:
Ask them to like or share your social media posts
Ask a question they can answer in the comments
Direct them to another piece of content
Send them to a landing page
Direct them to your website
Get them to subscribe to your newsletter
Ask them to connect with you on other social media channels
Increase your success with these social media content writing
The competition for your audience’s time and attention can be fierce. The secret to being
successful is to not compete, but rather to set yourself apart from the crowd by creating and
sharing content and social posts your audience will want to consume.
You can bond with your audience over your content by ensuring that everything you write is
created with their wants and needs in mind. Do your research and get to know who they are, and
what they need and/or want most. Speak to them using their language, consistently conveyed in
your brand’s voice.
Keep your content and social posts positive (not to be confused with happy), and ensure they’re
easy for your audience to consume. And look to add images, videos and CTAs to increase your
content’s effectiveness - and drive measurable results.
