reading time: 3 minutes Micro-content is exactly what you think it might be… a small bit of web content. It is often derived from longer (macro) content, but is much shorter and more eye-catching. Micro-content is meant to grab an audience’s attention to entice them to click and/or share. A few examples of micro-content include: Visual content (Very short) videos Charts Graphics Headlines Memes (Very short) audio clips Cartoons Animated GIFs Micro-content can be applied to any medium as long as the context of the message is kept very short. Why is micro-content important? Small bits of content are so important in a content marketing strategy for two main reasons. The first is that our attention spans are decreasing. In fact, they’ve decreased from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8.25 seconds in 2015. Today, most busy people simply don’t have the time to read through a large block of text. They also don’t have a lot of real estate available on their mobile devices to consume long-form content. This brings me to the second reason why micro-content is strategically important: Mobile Internet usage is rapidly increasing. According to a Nielsen report, adults in the US spend an average of 34 hours per month using the mobile Internet on their smartphones. By comparison, they spend only 27 hours online on their desktop. We are an on-the-go nation and we want information delivered when we want it, wherever we are. How do I implement micro-content in my marketing strategy? It’s time to get in the race to capture people’s waning attention. Here’s how to get started: Research Check out your competitors’ social media activity. What are they doing with micro-content? Which pieces have had the most likes, shares, comments, etc.? Use this research as a starting point to come up with your own ideas. Plan Now that you have some understanding of what works (and what doesn’t) for your industry, devise a basic plan. Determine what types of micro-content you want to share and what (if anything) each piece will link back to on your website. (Note: it doesn’t always have to link back to your site. Sometimes, you may want to simply create awareness for your company and its brand.) What social media formats do you want to use? What are the ideal times to post your micro-content? Keep in mind that content must be of high quality and well equipped to travel across multiple devices, platforms, formats, and media. Budget Will your marketing team (designers, writers, etc.) handle the content creation or will you outsource it to an expert team? Determine what makes the most sense, not only from a financial standpoint but a time perspective as well. After all, time IS money! Benchmark Record the resulting data to determine which pieces of micro-content got the most engagement and traction. This not only means paying attention to items such as likes, shares, repins and comments, but going a bit deeper… Pay attention to the statistics around the hashtags that prompted more retweets on Twitter or what Instagram filter garnered more likes for an image. Dig into the data. Adjust Just like with A/B testing, be flexible and constantly adjust your micro-content strategy to concentrate on what has worked best. Don’t be afraid to try new things. If you need help getting started with a micro-content strategy at your company, give us a ring! We’d be happy to come up with some clever, pithy and witty pieces for you that are sure to boost your audience’s engagement. 🙂 Share this:TwitterFacebook