Capturing Your Audience’s Attention on Social Media

You have approximately 3 seconds to capture the attention of your audience on social media… How are you going to do it? This is the question that is often pondered by marketers. It is easy to talk about the importance of catching your audience’s eye. It is much harder to actually create meaningful content that is unique and entertaining enough to grab your audience’s attention from the start. This article will discuss some helpful strategies to help your content stand out to consumers from the get-go on social media.

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Entertain First, Advertise Later

To answer the question regarding how to capture your audience’s attention, a simple philosophy provides a great overall starting point, “Entertain first, Advertise Later.” This is especially true for videos. When creating a video to use as a social media advertisement or post, spend the necessary time brainstorming how you plan to “hook” your audience right off the bat. It doesn’t matter how great your advertising messaging is throughout the remainder of the video if most people don’t even watch it. This means that the first 3 seconds need to grab the audience’s attention to the point that they are willing to continue watching the remainder of the video.

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How Do I Create an Attention-Grabbing Opener?

4 great ways to create an attention-grabbing introduction are:

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1. Start the video with something out of the ordinary or funny that piques curiosity. For example: A dentist putting on a giant gold chain when getting ready for work (This is an example our team actually used for an intro!) – Click here to view.
2. Create a highly relatable introduction that almost everyone can relate to. For example: If you are a mattress company advertising your new mattress technology, you could start with a relatable dialogue where a waiter says to a customer “enjoy your meal” and the customer responds, “you too,” thus creating that awkward moment that so many of us can relate to.  You can then transition from this scenario into the mattress you are promoting by saying something like “Nobody likes an uncomfortable moment… and nobody likes an uncomfortable mattress!”
3. Make the intro personally relevant to your target audience. For example: If your target audience is moms with young kids, starting the video by relating the need to keep your kids safe would likely pique this audience’s interest (this strategy requires the video being promoted to a very specific audience, however).
4. Make a surprising or eye-catching statement that is clarified and explained throughout the rest of the video. There are many ways to incorporate “shock advertising” into an introduction. This strategy should be used carefully as to not cross into inappropriate territory. We recommend exploring the other strategies above before this strategy is considered.

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Then What?

Once you have successfully created an attention-grabbing introduction that motivates your audience to continue watching your video, you now can focus on driving results. This can be accomplished by using the remainder of your video to promote your products and services in a fun and creative way. The video should remain entertaining throughout and should include some sort of call to action for consumers. Deciding what specific “action” you want your target audience to take is a key component of turning a video advertisement into tangible results for your business. Some examples of effective call to actions may include website visits, app downloads, phone calls, among others. You can promote your call to action as a part of a digital marketing campaign on social media.