How to Save Hours of Time With Short Form Content

If there's anything we've picked up on in the last year, it's been the general population's insatiable appetite for short form content. 

Content creators have quickly noticed that their audience's 8 second attention span and the overwhelming amount of market competition has tightening the parameters for content creation.

The concept of patience has been trampled by the demand for instant results as people continue to fall in love with snackable content.

The brands that are getting noticed as the ones who are acknowledging this shift in consumer behavior, and adopting more condensed content without losing sight of the details.

In an attempt to keep this article about short form content..well..short-ish, I'm just going to jump right in. If your business is looking to explore short form content a bit further, here's some insight on how to get started.

4 Avenues For Short Form Content

Twitter

140 characters or less, no exceptions.

Twitter not only encourages short form content, it holds you to it. Designed to emulate real-time conversations, Twitter is like the Godfather of short form social networks. 

Rather that muddying up your experience with long-winded ramblings, Twitter interactions only put forth enough to catch the interest of users. It's like taking an entire movie and stripping it down to the parts you want to include in the preview; the juicy stuff. 

Vine

What is your business capable of saying in just 6 seconds?

If you haven't already, start thinking about it because brand Vines are shared 4x more than other online videos, and 5 Vines are shared every second on Twitter. (Source: Unruly Media)

Just because the videos are limited to a maximum of 6 seconds, doesn't mean that they fall short in terms of quality. 

What the 6-second constraint does is actually push people to get creative. Whether its a quick demo, sneak preview, behind the scenes glimpse, or just something silly, brands are flocking to the mini-movie app to get their audience watching, listening, and engaging. 

Snapchat

"If you're not using Snapchat for your marketing, you're not getting it" warns social media aficionado, Gary Vaynerchuk. (Source: LinkedIn)

What's unique about Snapchat is that snap recipients are only allotted up to 10 seconds of viewing time before the image/video disappears for good. This unique edge is what makes the social app so valuable in terms of short-term content creation.

Not only is the 10 second restriction attention span friendly, but it actually forces the person consuming the content to pay attention to because a) it's moments away from disappearing forever and b) the app requires you to hold your finger down the entire time you are viewing it. 

Brands like Taco Bell and Rebecca Minkoff were among a few of the first to explore Snapchat for marketing purposes by using the platform to premiere their latest products. 

Infographics

Serving as a visual representation of data and information, infographics are a highly effective way to slim down bulky content.

Studies have found that 90% of the information that we remember is based on visual impact, which is why infographics are becoming increasingly useful for businesses looking to present valuable information in a way that makes their audience actually want to consume it.

Infographics combine colors, shapes, text, and images to guide the eye and ease readability. Due to their aesthetically pleasing format, infographics often go viral, which can ultimately positively impact your business if they are well-branded, so don't forget to incorporate your business' logo.

Don't Toss Your Long Form Content

While short form content is proven to capture and hold the attention of increasingly impatient audiences, we're not asking you to write off long form content for good.

Long-form content should still play an important role in your content marketing strategy, as it certainly contributes to your business' SEO. Lengthier content should be reserved for advanced topics that require much more substantial explanations. 

Additionally, Long-form content is often bookmarked and revisited time and time again, which makes it a valuable contribution to your content library. 

Photo Credit