We all know how it is; each and every morning you flick through reams and reams of social media feeds to find the stuff that interests you. You might swipe past hundreds of tweets before you actually click on something to see if anyone else has interacted with it, or if the associated hashtag is worth taking a look at.
Just because you’re following a brand, it doesn’t mean you actually listen to what they have to say each and every time they say it.
And this is something that even we as marketers can easily forget.
Getting that follow in the first place isn’t enough; impressions aren’t enough; actually getting people to stop, digest and act on your message is the only positive result from your digital spend.
Now the ideal result is that your customers are so invested in the brand that they religiously monitor and interact with the content you put out (brand advocates). But let’s be honest, this isn’t going to happen that often, so you need to make sure that what you put out counts. That what you put out stands above all of the other messages your target market is going to hear that day. One of the ingredients to success is therefore making sure that you grab the attention of those users; they simply won’t accept mundane content any more.
Being different certainly helps. It’s no surprise that the most innovative content, whether it’s on a blog or Twitter, is the most successful at ‘going viral’ and delivering results. And you probably know this already, but it’s certainly worth the reminder. People will stop scrolling when they see something that intrigues them.
We’re Skimmers Not Readers
Having said that, many traditional messages will work too. If you or your client has a sale on, then that’s the message you need to get across. Don’t beat around the bush – tell potential customers exactly why they should be doing business with you or your client. Content that takes too long to get to the point is often simply abandoned part way through. Think about how often you read an article or other piece of content and properly read it. It’s likely not all that often – people like to skim, and you should be catering to that. And this requires good writers too – you need maximum impact with the smallest amount of waffle to be successful.
In the modern age of digital marketing, attention spans are short, and patience with underperforming brands is shorter. You need to hit those consumers that are already following what you put out with strong content that tells them exactly why you’re the brand for them. It’s not rocket science, but as Twitter feeds get more and more crowded, the brands that understand this will be the ones that stand out. It’s no good ignoring this either, because as Ingenuity Digital put it, ‘if you aren’t talking about your brand online then it’s almost certain someone else will be.’