Parents used to say that social media content was damaging our brains and causing our focus to diminish.
Well, Mom and Dad, you were absolutely right.
We used to be able to read entire novels in just a few days and now we barely have the attention span to read an entire news article. This isn’t just the problem of a few, however, it’s an interesting case of devolution that has impacted basically everyone born into this technologically advanced society.
In fact, a study by the University of Denmark says that our attention spans will only continue to shrink as more and more information becomes available for our brains to process. This distraction inflation has caused a significant change in the way that we absorb information. People no longer take the time to read long news articles or listen to in-depth reports. Now, the transfer of information is primarily accomplished through one way: Scanning.
Scanning is the movement of the eyes across a given piece of content in a matter of seconds in order to efficiently extract as much information as possible.
Think about how you or someone you know uses social media. They often quickly scroll through their feed without taking the time to read every single word on the page/post. Our brains have been trained to synthesize information by scanning from top to bottom and left to right in rapid motion.
After that, the brain takes all of the pieces of information it receives and puts them into one message. This process happens in less than a second and has allowed us to take in massive amounts of information at a time without any mental overload.
Social Media Content for Businesses
Businesses should consider the type of cognitive pattern above when creating social media content. There’s a reason that articles are some of the least engaged with the type of content that one can post on social media.
The days of posting “industry-related” articles are over and have been replaced by clear, punctual, visually appealing graphics. Your business’s content should be able to not only represent your business in terms of brand recognition but also deliver a quick one-two punch of concise copy.
If done correctly, your audience should be able to scroll through their social media, spend half a second on your content, and still recognize your brand and absorb your message. The less work that your audience needs to do in order to comprehend your social media content, the better.
Trust me, we know a thing or two about social media and are also rather lazy. After all, we created the world’s best social media automation tool (if we do say so ourselves).
Now, this type of social media content creation is much easier said than done and often takes a little while to experiment and see which styles, designs, and messaging that your audience likes best. If you don’t have amazing graphic design or content creation skills, I recommend investing in someone who does.
If you don’t already know, here are a few ideas to help:
- Cheap and talented contractors on websites such as UpWork and Fiverr
- Use Canva to find beautiful templates to edit and publish
- Re-share other content from brands you love and support (but aren’t competitors)
Make sure that your copy on each post is strong, impactful, valuable, and most importantly concise.
Don’t believe us? Take a look at some of your favorite successful social media accounts. Words are limited, graphics are concise, and messaging is clear.
It’s not rocket science, but it is neuroscience that makes the best social media content so successful. Get started with Evergreen today to make sure that your social media has the content it needs to succeed. And if you still need help, we are here for just that reason. So jump on over to schedule a call with us.
