5 Reasons Why Microcontent is the Future

You might be asking yourself, well what the heck is microcontent? Microcontent is written copy, graphics, imagery, or video that can be consumed in 10-30 seconds.

We've been in the digital world for the last 25 years but the way we are consuming content now is at an insane speed. Take a look at the iPhone. When it first debuted back in 2007 no one thought that it would be in the hands of most Americans. Think about it, before the iPhone, we all were just surfing the net at our home offices, or if you were like me just reading books at the trailer while you were on break during your shift of being an usher at the local amusement park. We were all consuming content at a slower pace because the information wasn't in the palm of all of our hands at the time, Well, unless you had a Blackberry.

It's crazy how having a smartphone is seen as almost a necessity these days. No one can get around anywhere without one (unless you are like my friend Ashley three years ago, who used up all of her phone data that month and had to MapQuest directions) and if you are a digital marketer like me, you are practically attached to the hip with it from all the social media content out there. While there are naysayers to the current technology out there and with all the backlash social media has gotten recently, it's not all bad. While Facebook might go away tomorrow, you will still have LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and now Clubhouse.

What does this all mean exactly?

It means microcontent has made its way into mainstream social media. Let's take Instagram for example. It was extremely clear to me that people responded more to images than plain text (although I also feel that is changing as long as the text is less than 100 words). Before social media, people were making fan blogs on Twilight and Harry Potter on message boards such as LiveJournal. The content was a lot longer, but I actually remember being on the Maroon 5 message boards WAAAAYYY back in the day where the messages weren't even that long. I was captivated by enthralling threads such as "Was Songs About Jane really about a real Jane?" Microcontent was always there, it just took on a different form.

1. The Use of Stories in Social Media

We have Snapchat to thank for this innovation. Believe it or not, Snapchat was created so that the creator, Evan Spiegel said he "wished these photos he was sending to this girl would disappear." and that was when the idea of creating a platform where pictures would disappear came to fruition. Facebook and Instagram would later rip off this idea and essentially make it better with more filters and the option of Boomerang, a mini loop video you can push to stories. Recently, LinkedIn has added stories to mobile and it's beginning to take off. Stories are a great and fun way to get your message across without spending a TON of time creating them.

2. The Rise of TikTok

TikTok has been downloaded over two billion times, and in Q1 of 2020 it was downloaded 315 million times, which is the best quarter of any app ever. What makes TikTok so addicting to people? The microcontent! The platform which was previously known as Musical.ly lets people create content around music or their own audio. This has made lots of content creators go absolutely nuts. Many dancers around the world have just taken their creativity to a whole new level by making their talents known. Artists such as Lizzo have resurrected songs that were flops from just people constantly using them. In their platform, TikTok's unique stop and go format has made it so people can get even more creative with their content. In other platforms that have stories, you can't stop your video in 10 seconds, switch your outfit, and move along to the song.

3. No one is willing to read below the fold.

If you don't know what "below the fold means" it's the content that you read before the "read more" part on Facebook. I am talking about Facebook here but this also goes for Instagram and LinkedIn. As marketers, in the age of microcontent, we have to be more strategic than ever to come up with copy that reels people in within the first 100-150 words. I personally have become a lot more aware of this recently, which is why I have started to restructure my copy so it entices my followers within the first paragraph. See below:

Doesn't that want to make you read more? Yeah, I am sure the emojis help too. ?? Creating copy like the one above didn't come super easy to me, it definitely took practice. Even though I always had the natural ability to write, it was the copy that took a while.

4. The Age of Instant Gratification

Like it or not, we are in the age of instant gratification. We want, no, we NEED stuff at our door within a day or two. Amazon Prime makes this possible. We need someone to be with within the next few hours, Tinder makes this possible. We need to let everyone know of the accomplishment we made in our lives within the next few seconds, social media makes this possible. GrubHub makes getting food in the next hour possible. Microcontent is a part of this spontaneity and instant gratification. We demanded that we see and consume things at a faster rate, so stories came up, and dating apps with swiping features came up. When we consume content at a faster rate, the demand for microcontent grows exponentially no matter what business you are in.

5. All the Cool Kids are Doing it!

Let's face it, if you don't have a microcontent strategy for your spiritual business, then you are missing out on something incredibly huge. It's really simple to create content that anybody can absorb within 10-30 seconds.

Let's say that you are an intuitive money mindset coach and you are trying to get new clients from Instagram. One way to incorporate microcontent is to be involved in stories; Ask your audience questions, let people know about your events, IG lives, give out daily mantras, affirmations, tips and let people in behind the scenes of what you are doing. You can also create a fun affirmation IG reel.

Maybe you are a beauty brand that has been in the industry for a while and you need young consumers to talk about your products again. Go on TikTok! Create a song specifically for your brand and get the top TikTok influencers or micro-influencers to dance along to your makeup. Short stories about how to apply your products to your consumer's skin, and using vibrant colors of your brand to highlight your lipstick, nail polish, or foundation.

If you are a music artist, just play snippets of your favorite songs, collaborate with other influencers, and do giveaways on your microcontent platforms.

There are lots of ideas for microcontent no matter what business you are in! You just need to sit with your thoughts collect them and write them all down.

Need help?

The Spirit Digital specializes in social media marketing, but we also do microcontent! We help create that special buzz you need for your brand by using the microcontent techniques above and some others that are not mentioned here. Interested? Let's talk about it!