The holy grail: Boosting engagement levels
Last month, we determined what the best sizes for photos are on each social media website. While photos are an integral part of what makes social media so fascinating, an even bigger portion in the grand scheme of things is what we post to our profiles.
The ideas we generate, jokes we tell, and stories we share are the reason people follow or friend us to begin with. Some of us work tirelessly to post consist and fresh content in an effort to keep our followers interested, as well as gain new followers in the process.
Those who post frequently on social media that some posts receive better reception than others. And while this may be simply due to the content itself, another factor that plays a role is how condensed the idea is. Simply put – people want their information to be given to them in a quick and easy manner.
Post length is actually pretty important
Kevan Lee and Andy Crestodina observed that post length important in relation to follower satisfaction, and they developed an infographic laying out the appropriate post length for each medium.
The below graphic, appropriately titled “Ideal Length For All Online Content”, shares the correct lengths for tweets, domain names, Facebook posts, e-mail subject lines, headlines, blog posts, Google+ headlines, title tags, YouTube videos, podcasts, and seminars.
By following these post length suggestions, you are more likely to have engaged followers who respond to and share your content.
Twitter, Facebook, email subjects, and even your domain:
For Twitter, the ideal tweet should be composed of 100 characters. This is enough space to formulate a well-thought out idea without being too wordy.
A domain name should be a simple eight characters. Domain names of this length make it easier for people to remember.
Strangely, a Facebook post should be under 40 characters. This does not give you much wiggle room but allows you to share “What’s on your mind” without being unnecessarily descriptive.
The suggested length for an e-mail subject line should run between 28-39 characters, which would equal out to about two sentences. However some people, myself included, would argue that one simple sentence would suffice.
Headlines should consist of six words. This is enough to be descriptive and inviting for a reader, without giving too much away.
A blog post should be at seven minutes or 1,600 words. Blogs are usually for condensed information, so anything lengthier than this could cause a reader to lose interest.
A Google+ headline should be no more than 60 characters. Again, condensed but not too worried.
Title tags should have 55 characters. This allows for better search results.
An informational YouTube video should run for no longer than three minutes. Three minutes is plenty of time to be informative while staying concise.
An ideal podcast should run for 22 minutes, making them equivalent to an episode of a sitcom.
Finally, a seminar should have a length of 18 minutes to keep viewers engaged.
These lengths for online content allow for the sharing and reception of information to be as time preserving as possible.
