3 tips to instantly improve your social media content

As a business using social media to reach potential customers, there are unwritten rules you must follow if you want your content to connect. 

Anything you post on social media has to be created or optimized for the behavior of users.

And for the most part, that behavior involves scrolling through social media feeds at hyper-speed and listening to videos with the sound off.

Why? Because social is mobile. We’re all on our phones when we browse social media, and we’re looking for a fun mental break.

With these principles in mind, here are a couple of quick fixes you can make to your existing content to improve the odds that your posts will grab attention.

This is design and copywriting for the social media age.

1. KEEP YOUR COPY SIMPLE AND CONCISE.

If you want to be successful on social media, you must focus on making the text of your posts brief and to-the-point. A good rule of thumb is to keep your text to 1-2 lines, max. 

Too much text on social media will cause eyes to glaze over, the brain to go, "this looks like work," and thumbs to keep on scrolling.

Think about it: even in blog posts, you rarely see long paragraphs anymore. (My own are usually 1-2 sentences!) Our attention spans are shorter than ever before, and the way you write copy can influence whether someone decides to keep reading.

This also means you need to kill the jargon. If your copy sounds overly technical, look for ways to trim and simplify. This advice applies even if your audience is highly educated and has the vocabulary to completely grasp what you're saying.

Just because they can, doesn't mean they'll bother to.

Ask yourself: 

• Can I say this in fewer words? (The answer is almost always yes.)

• Can I swap any 'fluffy' words for higher-impact ones?

• Am I using any overly technical words or jargon?

• Can I add more line breaks to make this less of a word wall?

Keeping it short and punchy will ensure more people stop scrolling on their phones long enough to actually see what you've got to say.

2. PACK A PUNCH RIGHT AWAY.

With social media feeds, you can't afford a long build-up. Get to the point right away, or include an emotional hook or surprise in the first few words or seconds.

Remember: you have 0.5-2 seconds to capture attention on social media, depending on the platform.

Most people pick up their phones in stolen moments while bored at work, commuting, or sitting around the house. They're scrolling at breakneck pace in search of entertainment or inspiration. What's going to make them stop scrolling and pay attention to your content?

This goes for all aspects of social media creative: text and headlines, images, and videos.

And it's one of the reasons why video created for other channels often doesn't perform well on social media. Professionally shot and edited video created for other corporate initiatives will often have 7 or 8 seconds of intro, usually in the form of an art card with the logo or title.

This will kill your engagement on social! Real talk: would you actually sit through those 7-8 seconds, or would you keep on scrolling? Don't let social media be an afterthought when you're creating new content - plan for it from the very beginning.

Ask yourself:

• Does this capture my attention in the first few words or seconds?

• Do I immediately understand what this is about, or at least why I might want to stop and watch?

3. INCREASE THE FONT SIZE OF TEXT IN YOUR IMAGES.

One of the biggest (and easiest to fix) mistakes I still frequently see brands make is posting graphics with text that's too small to read on mobile devices. Most social media images are created using software on a desktop computer. But if you don't test it out on a mobile device, you could end up creating something you need binoculars to read.

Remember: social is mobile.

95.1% of Facebook users use their mobile devices to access the site.

Don't let mobile become an afterthought. How your images look and read on tiny screens should become the first thing you consider when designing new social media graphics.

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Above all, empathy is key. You have to be in the headspace of your ideal customer to understand what they need to hear, see, or read in that moment.

Create from that place of empathy and your content is much more likely to succeed.