Social media sites are mainly accessed via mobile devices and we, as users, tend to mindlessly scroll through our social feeds until something grabs our attention at which point we stop the scroll and take time to read more about the post.

When adding your business marketing messages to social media sites you are fighting against all the other posts for the user’s attention. With so much other content, how do you as a small business “stop the scroll?”

It is all about the graphic/image/video!

The image content-box is the largest content area immediately on show on all social sites, this is what is going to enable you to grab the user’s attention and stop the scroll. Here are some tips and advice for your images and videos to help you grab the attention your marketing efforts deserve.

Images

Make sure the image or graphic you use is eye-catching, that it is relevant to the topic and if possible, make sure there is the human element, i.e. a person in the image. We are a social species (hence the popularity of social media sites) so don’t be shy! A great tip is to use an image that appears to make “eye contact” with the viewer.

On average posts with human faces earn 38% more likes and are 32% more likely to receive a comment (stats taken from a study conducted by Georgia Institute of Technology).

Video

Make the first 3 seconds of the video impactful. When scrolling on social sites that auto-play videos, you have 3 seconds to get the user engaged. To stop the scroll, make sure the first 3 seconds of the video are dynamic, high energy and manages the viewer’s expectations of what will be coming in the rest of the video. A great way to do this is to clip the “best bit” or the point of the video and run a mini preview in those first 3 seconds.

Use Something Familiar But Out Of Place

A great example of this is to screenshot a positive comment on Twitter and post the thread to Facebook. The comments will look familiar to the reader, but it will stand out as it looks so different from the rest of the content in their feed.

Less Is More

In a feed full of bright engaging content, a graphic with a plain background and a single line of text can be incredibly impactful.

Remember Where You Are

Whilst you might be creating the image content for your social feeds on a desktop, do not forget that most users will be on a mobile device. So that graphic that you used in the local press which has lots of small descriptive writing, it is not going stop the scroll. If you need to add text to a graphic use large, funky fonts to grab attention and keep the amount of wording to a minimum.

Switch It Up

I see some content with beautiful graphics created by businesses; they have elements of their branding in each graphic and the colours used are consistent – wonderful! But what you end up with is a feed of remarkably similar-looking posts. The only trouble with this is that all the posts look so similar, they are unlikely to stop the scroll, as the user will presume that they have seen this post before. Whilst your brand is important, it should not outshine your message. So, switch up your graphic content, make sure you don’t have a feed of similar-looking posts.

That’s Not All…

Of course, once you have stopped the scroll you need to make sure your content is worthy of the user’s attention; ensure you have a clear message and a clear idea of what you want the user to do next and convey it. There is little point in stopping the scroll, showing the user a gorgeous product for example, but not including a link or button to purchase it.

We hope you have found these tips useful – now go stop the scroll!