One of the hardest writing skills to develop is conveying a point as concisely as possible. In the age of social media, this technique is even more important. Click through the tabs for the 4 scientific reasons to keep social posts short & sweet:
You probably don’t even know it, but right now you’re reading this in blog in a F-Shaped pattern. Research into patterns of reading on the web show that most users follow either the F-Shape or Marking patterns while on social media.
F-Shape is aptly named, as users eyes make a rough “F” while reading. Marking, which most often occurs on mobile, is when the reader keeps eye in one place as they scroll through the page.
Studies show 80% of social media time is spent on mobile, so marking takes place a great deal. In most cases, readers will likely read only the first line and the first few words on the left.
Using Facebook’s own statistics, we can infer that an average adult is only reading about 8.5 words on mobile and 12.5 words on desktop per post. As statistics show that 95% of Facebook visits are on mobile devices, 8.5 words per post is the number to pay attention to.
Contrary to popular belief, attention spans are not conclusively found to be shrinking, but rather, we find that they’re evolving.
Additionally, on average, American Adults spend 11+ hours per day consuming media, from gaming and television to radio and internet.
While attention spans aren’t shrinking, users are becoming more and more selective, so it’s harder than ever to capture attention through the onslaught of content.
According to Buffer & Hootsuite, Social Media Today & Social Report, here are the optimum character counts per post for the 3 main social media platforms:
With just a quick glance, it’s clear that the shorter the post, the higher the engagement rate. Based on media consumption, reading patterns, and reading stats, these numbers make intuitive sense.
Consequently, the data shows that users are now given to be interested only in social media featuring:
With so much in the mix, they can only ignore the other content, which is why good CTAs are absolutely crucial.
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