In today’s fast-paced digital world, the average attention span of people is shrinking, and capturing your audience’s attention is getting more and more challenging.
As a marketer, you must grab your audience’s attention and keep it—or risk them looking right past your ad.
This is where micro-content comes into play. Micro-content refers to bite-sized pieces of content that are short, engaging, and easily consumable.
From social media captions to short tweets, from YouTube shorts to Instagram reels, micro-content is gaining immense popularity and is becoming a great strategy for content creators and multi-million dollar brands.
In this blog post, we’ll see how micro-content is shaping the future of content marketing and how some brilliant brands in the world have benefited from it.
Table of Contents
The rise of micro-content
In this era of information overload where there are millions of blog posts that talk the same old stuff, and millions of YouTube videos fighting to please the algorithm to rank for the same content; micro-content has gained prominence due to its ability to provide value in a short span of time.
The gaining popularity of mobile devices has a huge role in diminishing the attention span of people.
You won’t watch an Instagram reel on your laptop while you are in the metro or you won’t tweet about your day on your laptop when you are just about to call it a day.
And the popularity of mobile devices, in turn, has led to an explosion of social media platforms (that make micro-content possible).
Almost all platforms have introduced micro-content – YouTube has shorts, Instagram has posts and reels, tweets are micro-content, TikTok has reels, and more.
According to a report by Buffer, fifty-eight percent of marketers say social media is “Very important”, with 30 percent saying it’s “Somewhat important”.
Credit: Buffer State of Social Report
You know, the most used content type on social media is micro-content.
Micro-content is easy to create
The best thing about micro-content is that it’s easy to create!
- Writing a tweet takes no time
- Recording a short video is no big deal
- Posting a picture or a story on Instagram takes just a few minutes
Neil Patel creates seven short-form videos that are roughly thirty seconds to a minute long, each week.
What’s more, often times you don’t even need to create content. You can repurpose your larger content into bite-sized pieces.
A 30-minute YouTube video can be converted into several YouTube shorts or Instagram reels to generate buzz.
A 2500-word blog post can be repurposed into a lot of small tweets or newsletter content giving away the highlights of your post.
I actually do that on my Twitter. From time to time, I post a particularly useful tidbit of information (perhaps a paragraph) from one of my prior week’s blog posts.
Adam Enfroy of AdamEnfroy.com creates several YouTube shorts from his long YouTube videos (you can tell by his clothes)
Micro-content has great potential to get viral
Micro-content has greater potential for getting viral as compared to long-form content.
Here’s why:
- Shareability: Social media platforms make it really easy to share content. Heck, sometimes I even share a meme with my friends even before I have watched it completely. You know, Instagram lets you share reels whilst watching them in the background
- Emotional Appeal: Micro-content has the power to evoke emotions effectively. Emotional content tends to have a higher chance of going viral as it resonates with people and prompts them to share their feelings with others
- Influencer Power: When micro-content vibes with the interests and values of influencers in a particular niche, it’s more likely to get a share from them. Influencers rock their social media with their massive and enthusiastic following, giving your micro-content a major boost
- Visual impact: It’s no secret that people are more drawn toward visuals than text. The most persuading micro-content is mainly visual. And visual content tends to get shared more often
Dollar Shave Club goes viral
Shaving and grooming might not be the most exciting conversation topic for everyone. It’s a necessary chore, but not something we’re dying to chat about.
However, Dollar Shave Club (DSC) decided to change that.
They made a launch video in which they gave a tour of their warehouse and poked fun at little annoyances every man faces while shaving.
This short video of one and a half minutes is a great example of micro-content.
The video has 28 million views today, DSC’s valuation rose to a whopping $615 million in 2015, and was recently acquired by Unilever for a $1 Billion all-cash deal!
That’s the power of micro-content.
The same study by Buffer revealed that more than one-third (36 percent) of the businesses interviewed publish video content monthly, with around one-quarter (24 percent) publishing video content weekly.
Credit: Buffer State of Social Report
Micro-content is super engaging
How many comments do you get on your blog posts as compared to your YouTube videos in a given time period?
The ratio probably is 4:10 in YouTube’s favor for a given period of time and audience.
Take the case of the “Daily Twist” campaign by Oreo as a compelling example.
In celebration of its 100th anniversary, Oreo created 100 different pieces of micro-content, each featuring the iconic cookie in various creative and timely scenarios for 100 days.
Credit: Oreo’s Pinterest account
The posts were funny, inspirational, touching, awe-inspiring, and above all, insanely creative!
This approach allowed Oreo to resonate with different audience segments, sparking engagement, conversation, and a sense of nostalgia among consumers.
People actually logged on to their Facebook to check what the Oreo looked like that day.
Not only that, according to OREO, their campaign made their social media content super “talkable.”
Yep, you heard that right.
Every single post sparked conversations and engagement. People couldn’t help but chime in and share their thoughts.
Micro-content leaves a mark on the audience’s mind
Due to the fact that micro-content doesn’t take much effort or time for creating, it can be supplied in abundance.
When people see a lot of one thing, they get accustomed to it and the content or product leaves an impression on their minds.
A long YouTube video or a blog post is published once, twice, or thrice a week at max (anything beyond that has no quality). But micro-content can be published and pushed out in abundance keeping your audience in constant touch with your brand.
Once you grasp your audience’s attention, you start a conversation that will hopefully develop into a fruitful business relationship.
The more they see your brand, the more likely are they going to convert one day.
Take the example of Airbnb. They expertly utilize micro-content on their social media channels.
By sharing breathtaking photos of unique accommodations and exciting travel experiences, accompanied by short and intriguing captions, Airbnb captures attention, and then what?
Whenever you plan your next trip, you will make sure to download the Airbnb app and look for awesome homestays for your vacation.
You can also use it to promote your other work
Here’s a cool trick!
You can use micro-content on social media to give a boost to your bigger and juicier assets.
Let’s say you’ve crafted a customer case study including eye-catching photos.
Now, take one of those captivating pictures and share it on Instagram. Then, drop a link to the full downloadable asset.
The same strategy works like a charm on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn too.
For example, once I posted a tweet asking my followers how much they spent on their blogs in terms of basic requirements. I attached a link to one of my blog posts that is about the cost of starting and running a blog.
Because of its questioning nature, the post got a lot of engagement in terms of likes and replies, and several clicks to my blog post that had the potential for earning me affiliate revenue.
So micro-content can perhaps just be bait for your other useful and valuable content that has the potential to earn you business.
Final Thoughts
As seen in the article, micro-content is everywhere. In fact, most of the content that we see on our social media daily is micro-content.
To succeed in the fast and busy world we live in, content marketers and brands need to use micro-content to connect with their potential customers.
By using micro-content, brands can build genuine relationships with their audience.
So, explore the world of micro-content, try new things, and make the most of this small but powerful marketing approach to help your brand succeed.
Ali is a passionate blogger at Infoverses with a mission to teach others how to start their own blog, monetize it, and become successful in the process. With a knack for simplifying complex concepts, he writes practical tips, step-by-step tutorials, and some seriously inspiring content for aspiring bloggers.
