How To Grab Attention with Your Social Media Updates

More often than not, I see a lot of social media marketing tips from people that don’t know their eyeball from their elbow. These people are usually known for spouting off pieces of information like, “How not to lose your following” and “Ways to increase your social followers.” They fail to address the important issue of social media updates.

There are thousands of countless articles on these topics, but when it comes down to it, if you have a social media account and you’re probably posting to that account faithfully, you’re able to soak up much information about how to “DO” certain things so as to better yourself in your social marketing adventures.

But convergence is at play. Convergence is the very point in time where your content meets the consumer.

Watch this.

Convergence in Social Marketing

Still confused? Ok.  Convergence is identified by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as this:

The act of converging and especially moving toward union or uniformity; especially: coordinated movement of the two eyes so that the image of a single point is formed on corresponding retinal areas.

It’s that point in time when your update and the reader meet.  Depending on their attention span, and search for knowledge, you don’t have much time to convince someone to go and check out your post or website.

Most people that are browsing social media platforms are in “Focused Attention” gear.  This is a short-term response to a stimulus that attracts attention. The attention span for this level is very brief, with a maximum span that may be as short as 8 seconds. This level of attention is attracted by a ringing telephone, or any other unexpected occurrence. After a few seconds, it is likely that the person will look away, return to a previous task, or think about something else.

You’ve got 8 seconds or less to attract someone from what they’re doing on social media to come to your site, become a reader, make a sale, etc.

Pretty powerful, right? And really annoying when you think about it! You’ve spent all this time researching material and writing your post, only to have someone look at it for 8 seconds?

This is happening. That’s why it’s so important to have your updates psychologically prepped to drive traffic!

Getting peoples’ attention in social media involves literally understanding how the brain works. There are many different aspects of reaching this pinnacle as to attract the right attention that you need in social media.

Attraction Words for Your Social Media Updates

The Law of Attraction states that “like attracts like,” so start by creating something people want or like. This, in turn, creates an emotional response in behavior that will grab attention.

Some of the most popular words that can be used to gain attraction in social media and in blog titles are the 5 “W’s”:

1. Who
2. What
3. When
4. Where
5. Why

When you start to understand the content marketing overload that social media users are facing, you realize more effort needs to be put into your social updates in order to drive traffic.

Here’s why I’ve chosen these words

Who, what, when, where, and why all direct the user to ask themselves a question. Blog titles and social media descriptions alike, these words dictate whether or not a reader will take that next step and advance to your site.

For example, if I introduce a concept like this:

Why your social marketing is wrong and what you need to do to fix it!

First of all, this makes the reader address a problem they know they have. We can all use improvement in social media, so relaying a question like this one will prompt the reader to wonder, “Why IS my social marketing wrong?”  You are providing hints that you know something they don’t, and if they would proceed to your site, they could learn the information.

People hate being left out. They don’t like being the last one to know something. There is something that marketers call “Fear of Loss” syndrome and if you tap into it, you can make it work for you in those important 8 seconds!

Play around with different titles and introductions using the 5 W’s and you will start to see an increase in your engagement on social media.

However…

Converging is not the problem

You can get your update in front of a lot more people than you could imagine, that’s the easy part. Meeting the readers’ eyes at that critical moment where they actually give you a split second of their attention…this is where the important things happen.

8 seconds.

Some may give less and maybe some give more. However, you can do your best to keep your audience focused on what you’re saying by grabbing their attention and keeping it there by certain psychological nuances.

Think about what you like to see in updates. Think about what grabs your attention. Use these methods to keep the reader happy and wanting to click through to your blog!

Social marketing is a science. It’s more than most people think it is, which is simply pasting their link on a social network. It’s complicated, and you have to understand your reader to learn what they like, what interests them, and what grabs their attention.

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

Social Media Updates FAQs