Invite Readers To Sample Your Bite-Size Snackable Content

Have you heard the claim about how a human’s attention span is less than that of a goldfish? The claim is that the average internet user has an attention span of about 8 seconds whereas a goldfish is able to keep that attention span going for 9 seconds. A little diving into Google tells you this may be a made-up stat, but the idea is valid. It’s hard to hold people’s attention on the internet.

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Why it’s hard to get someone’s attention on the internet.

It’s no wonder it’s hard to get and hold people’s attention, though. It’s estimated that by 2025, as much as 463 exabytes of data will be created each day. Putting that amount into perspective, 463 exabytes is the equivalent of 212,765,957 DVDs per day!

While that is an astounding amount of data being created, by understanding some other statistics we may have some hope to get around this challenge.

You need visual content.

The human brain is able to process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Vision is so powerful, 80-90 percent of what people see, they remember. Only 10% remember what they hear and only 20 percent what they read. With content marketing, you need to appeal to eyeballs as well as brains if you want to have any chance of standing out and being seen.

A few years ago, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, was quoted as saying, “Short-form snackable content is a big opportunity.” It seems natural that she’d make that claim, given that Facebook is a perfect place for snackable content.

Facebook is one place you’ll witness the power of visual content–images and videos are consumed at a much higher rate than plain text posts. You can observe that in your own personal behavior. Have you noticed how you’re more likely to stop check out a short video or read a quote on a beautiful image? If a post has no image or the text is longer than a few sentences, you’ll likely keep scrolling without stopping.

This illustrates the power of using visually-appealing and shorter bits of content. I’ve been calling these pieces snackable content. When you use these small bite-size nuggets of content, you’ll get more bang for your buck with the average internet user. Make these snacks visually appealing to stop people’s thumb scrolling. These snacks are the invitation to lead people back to your website to feast on the main meal.

Let’s talk about how you can create some snackable content so your ideal client has a smorgasbord of goodies to keep their attention focused on you.

What is snackable content?

Snackable content is made up of those small irresistible chunks of your content that can be consumed quickly. They are delicious as well as share-worthy. This type of content is easy to understand at first glance. It’s not messy to consume them. Does this sound like something that constitutes a good edible snack you might eat between meals? Well, it’s the same principle with snackable content.

Snackable content is concise content that creates curiosity. It’s consumed within seconds. The reader doesn’t need to ‘chew’ on it for very long at all!

This small snack whets the reader’s appetite for more–leading them to head back to the origin of the snack–your long-form content. It connects the internet scroller to you–it’s the bridge from social media back to your website.

Grow your list, too, using snackable content.

When done right, the reader who enjoys the snack is more likely to share it with others. This helps build your visibility and traffic back to your website. You can combine your long-form content with an irresistible content upgrade presented alongside the article. Now you’ve got a highly segmented new subscriber on your list who arrived by tasting your snackable content.

The recipe for snackable content.

Here is the simple recipe for creating snackable content.

• Write your blog post.
• Pull out the important teaching points, facts, bullets, tips, quotes, and take-aways.
• Create multiple social images with those snippets of content.
• If you have lots of data in your original article, create an infographic to illustrate that data.
• Make a short (60-90 seconds) social video with your teaching points. Be sure it’s no longer than 2 minutes.
• Automate sharing and keep it going.

Forms of snackable content.

Your snackable content pieces can take many different forms. Pick just a couple of these different forms that are easiest for you to create and share. You can also experiment and discover what type of snack is most desirable to your particular community.

Below is an image with 10 ideas for creating different types of snackable content.

Tips for creating your snackable content.

Create the snackable content pieces right after your blog post is complete. Make sure it’s one of the items on your checklist to complete when you create blog posts. That way, it becomes one of the standard steps you go through each time a new blog post is published. You’ll be less likely to forget or skip a step when you have a checklist to go through each time you publish a new article.

You don’t want to delay getting the most people back to your blog content, so leave a trail of snacks leading back to your post as soon as your post is published.

Outline

If you don’t already outline your blog post articles before you begin writing, start doing so now. It will make it so much easier to create snacks when you begin with an outline. The outlines will give you a roadmap for the most important key points in your article. Start with the outline when pulling out quotes, tips, or lists to create social images to share.

Plug-ins

Use a plug-in like Better Click To Tweet so it’s easier for others to share your highlighted content as a snack. When visitors use it, that creates even more snackable content to bring traffic back to your article.

Social share buttons on your blog are also mandatory. Be sure you have all your settings set up properly in the back-end of your website so it’s easy for visitors to share, pin, and tweet your content creating more snacks.

Batching

Batch-create multiple social images at one time. You’ll be sharing these on social media. Using the juiciest quotes, tips, or important take-aways pulled out from your article, create a batch of multiple different snacks at once. Only use one quote or tip per image. Mix it up–use the same quote/tip and different images will increase your snack count!

If you have the paid version of Canva, you can resize each image into the ideal size for different social platforms at the same time. This way, you can create a Facebook-post size image, then resize and adjust that same image into an Instagram-size image, and another in the correct Pinterest-size pin. Do the same with each image and you’ll save incredible amounts of time.

Automations

Lastly, set up automations to share your snacks. There are many software apps for this. A few to check out would be MeetEdgar, HootSuite, TailWind, MissingLettr, etc.

There are also native automation capabilities within some of the social platforms, like Facebook.

Your turn

What’s your favorite flavor of snackable content? 😉  I’d love to know in the comments below!