8 seconds.
According to a recent study, that’s the average attention span of consumers in 2014.
8 seconds!
That’s one second less than a goldfish!
And worse still, this figure is down by 4 seconds since 2000.
Incredible isn’t it?
In fact, if you’re still reading this and haven’t also checked your email or glanced at Facebook or Instagram, then well done!!
Thanks to technology, the way we consume information has changed radically.
This was brought home rather fittingly at the Social Media Tourism Symposium I attended recently by guest presenter Donna Moritz of Socially Sorted.
For me the key takeout from Donna’s presentation was that mobile is already here and in 2015 it will surpass desktop users.
Think of it this way.
Instead of reading a newspaper or leisurely watching a tv show, we now grab small ‘bites’ of information or entertainment, and often do it on the go via our mobile phones.
In our busy lives we can easily glimpse the latest news headlines, watch a quick video and get the gist of an email.
Again, all via mobile.
So what does this means to you as food, wine and tourism business owner or marketer?
Due to the ever increasing mobile usage, it’s even more important to create the right type of content to engage the media-saturated, attention depleted, busy consumer for more than a few moments in their day.
The solution – make it bite-sized and snackable.
The key to success in grabbing the attention of our overloaded consumers is to offer up tasty, bite-sized morsels. [Tweet This]
What is Snackable Content
Donna Moritz described it as content that is ‘digestible, highly shareable and can easily cross social platforms and drive traffic‘.
You want to get your message across quickly without repetition or redundancy before your viewer clicks away.
Don’t think this means you’re offering up meaningless content though.
While you design your content to be consumed quickly, that doesn’t mean you’ll miss out on the opportunity to engage your audience and create a more in-depth understanding.
Quality content is STILL king when it comes to engaging your consumers.
In fact, keeping it short & snappy and using visual content are proven strategies for building brand awareness because it’s so easy to share.
How can you deliver snackable content?
With just 140 characters to work with, Twitter is like a micro blog – how snackable is that!
As well as snappy text, you can offer up stats, quotes, photos and videos on Twitter.
If you haven’t checked out Vine videos, then do yourself a favour. You’re limited to only 6 seconds, so it means getting super creative.
Here’s a simple idea – a Vine postcard. This type of snackable vid could easily be incorporated to any destination marketing.
As your followers quickly scroll through their newsfeed, you want maximum stand out to grab their attention.
As we’ve said many a time, Facebook lends itself to visuals. In fact, images are the most shared type of content on Facebook.
Snackable content is made for Facebook, because as with all social media marketing, engagement is first and selling second.
Pinterest & Instagram
Social platforms such as Pinterest and Instagram demonstrate the power of images to not only grab attention, but also help grow your brand online.
The rule of thumb is definitely to let your pictures do the talking.
Particularly on Pinterest where while you have up to 500 characters to describe each post, the best pinners are word minimalists.
Blog
Don’t think that snackable content means an end to your food, wine or tourism blog.
What it does mean is you need to break up the text wall into bite size chunks.
People today look to glean the gems from blogs by skimming & scanning, so you want the ideas that adds value to their lives and business to pop.
Format your piece so more people read it:
See what we’ve done here!
Website
It’s worth keeping in mind the theory of creating snackable content with your own website.
Particularly for the newcomers.
Sure, there’s plenty of people who will need a more in-depth view of your business, but having bite-sized chunks will also help you gain the attention of first-timers and keep them from clicking away.
Infographics
Infographics are a brilliant way to condense information, convey a message quickly and present your combination of text and graphics in an easy-to-digest format.
Not to mention that people love to share them!
Get the most out of your infographics by:
- Including them in your blog
- Posting them on Pinterest, Facebook, etc
- Making them easy to share by providing an embed code
So are you feeling a little hungry for more bite sized morsels? Leave us a comment below on what is your favourite social network to get snackable info to help you learn more to assist in your social media endeavours.
