Social media platforms present an interesting challenge for marketers everywhere — with over 1.3 billion active users, sites like Facebook represent a nearly limitless source of new customers.

Traditional marketing tricks don’t always work in the world of social media, as these types of systems revolve around sharing and giving information, not blasting sales messages. So how do you adapt your content for the different social media sites?

Facebook remains one of the biggest social networks on the planet, this is one site you cannot ignore. When writing for Facebook, optimize the shareability of your posts by giving readers new information, linking to useful news stories and adding your own commentary or by constructing fun polls and casual surveys that encourage your Facebook community to interact with one another.

Twitter is a conundrum for many writers, largely because of the very tight character limit. Many first-time Tweeters don’t realize they can include images or links in their posts, so they come to believe it’s a useless platform. Think of your Twitter text as the headline and your visual or linkable content as the bulk of the story and you’ll fly just fine.

Pinterest’s main user base is young to middle-aged women, looking for ideas for decorating, fashion, cooking or gardening. Keep this in mind if you plunge into these waters — these ladies will share your content readily, but you have to give them something they can use. Gear your Pinterest posts to the visual and add something new to spark your readers’ imaginations.

Google Plus functions similarly to Facebook, and although many have predicted its failure time and again, it’s still a viable social media platform. Unlike Facebook, Google Plus provides writers with a variety of formatting options, making social blogging much easier. Save your long posts for your G+ circles and make sure you format them well so they’re simple to read at a glance.

LinkedIn is the premier business social media platform. If your company is involved in B2B, you’ll want to get on this bandwagon. Like in any form of business communication, it’s vital to keep your posts short and to the point so readers don’t miss important information as they skim. Messages geared to your B2B audience will be right on target.

Social Media and social media content won’t be a confusing maze of shares and hashtags if you better understand how to use each platform. Start with one or two and expand outward as interest grows in your company, and you’ll discover that social media copywriting isn’t that scary after all.