3 ways short blog and social media posts bring in customers

Information overload can be a dealbreaker for many

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, storage online is not a problem; we can write as many words as we want without fear of eating up too much space. However, while it may seem handy at first, research has shown two things:

Consumers will actively shy away from content that’s too long.

Consumers want information as quickly as possible.

It isn’t a good idea to overwhelm your customers with too much information.

We at Axia Public Relations are experts in helping companies get their messages to prospective customers effectively. Adjusting your writing, whether it’s on a blog or on social media, to consumers’ preferences is a key part of attracting more customers.

Here, we have listed several key reasons why shorter is better when blogging or posting on social media:

Customers have a limited amount of time

Prospective customers don’t have all day to sit down and read your company’s 2,000-word blog post looking for information that appeals to them. If they see a gigantic post filled with text, they’ll look elsewhere for a way to absorb the information in a much shorter period of time. Your blog and social media posts should be short enough that readers can quickly get the information they need and move on.

Customers want information now

When prospective customers are looking for information on blogs and in social media posts, they want what they’re looking for right away, not after having to scroll down or read several sentences into a paragraph – or, worse, several paragraphs into the piece. Give them the most vital information first and add a small amount of detail after making the main point. When you do this, customers can find what they’re looking for right off the bat and will know if that information helps them in whatever part of the buyer’s journey they’re in.

Your content must be easy to read on mobile devices

More and more people are using mobile devices to browse the internet. Because of this, you now have less room to write than you once did because mobile screens are much smaller than laptop or desktop computer screens. By keeping your content brief, you can get the message across sooner so your reader doesn’t have to scroll nearly as much.

Remember: Time is essential when grabbing a customer’s attention. If she’s spending her time scrolling instead of reading to get the information she wants, it’s likely she’ll lose patience and look somewhere else.

With short blog and social media posts, you’ll find you have more customers willing to give your information a glance and they will progress further along the buyer’s journey because of it.

Review your current blog posts to see if they’re too long. Hint: If they are 800 words or longer, they are probably too long.

For social media posts, 250 characters is an ideal length. If yours are too long, formulate a plan to make your future posts shorter. If you need to, enlist the help of an expert PR firm. You’ll reap the benefits sooner rather than later.

For more information about blogs and social media best practices, download Axia’s e-book The Essential Social Media Management Guide.

Jacob McKimm is currently studying marketing at Florida State College at Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida, and graduates in 2015.