Micro Content: Why It’s Not a Small Thing | Intergetik Marketing Solutions

People with short attention spans, and let’s face it, that’s all of us these days, (thanks, internet) have come to appreciate content in the convenient, small, bite-sized chunks. As our attention spans shrink to squirrel-on-its-fifth-cup-of-coffee levels, it gets harder and harder for businesses to get potential customers to take a glimpse at their content, let alone stick around and read a long-form white paper. This is where micro content comes in.

What Is It?

People are busy. And they’re mobile, so your content needs to fit into their time and their media consumption habits. Micro content is just what it sounds like―content for your site that is quick and easy to absorb, preferably in under 30 seconds (but even shorter is better). Long-form content is usually around 2,000 words and short-form is around 1,000 and a good mix of content lengths is good for SEO. Your content should be varied using short-form, long-form, and micro content.

Types of micro content include:

Infographics
Short videos
Images (photos or illustrations)
Listicles
Tips
Graphs and tables
Memes
White paper abstracts
Google snippets
Headlines
GIFs

Whatever type of micro content you use, it must be attention-grabbing, eye-catching, and easily digested.

Why Micro Content

Because micro content doesn’t leave a lot of room to make a sale or give detailed information about your company, it has one main purpose: good ol’ fashioned brand recognition. Ultimately, your micro content should be memorable and pique your target audience’s interest so they pursue your company and your product or service further.

Micro content is more user-friendly for mobile sites which have been steadily on the rise because more people use their phones more than they do a desktop computer. In 2019, desktop users averaged 128 minutes per day of media usage while mobile device users accessed media 203 minutes per day, 37% higher. Micro content is ideal for quick bites of media consumption and smartphone apps.

Social Media

Social media is micro content. In fact, Twitter puts the micro in micro content by only allowing users to make posts of 280 characters per tweet. If you’re not using social media in conjunction with your company’s website, you’re missing out on free brand recognition and another way to bring in new customers. Through social media like Facebook and Twitter, you could share snippets from longer blog posts or from FAQs which means you get extra mileage from your blog posts and draw more people into reading them. Sharing something useful such as fun facts, statistics, and GIFs can draw potential clients to your website for more information and if they don’t, in their head, your brand is equated with useful information. Say you’re a landscaping company. If you post “Landscape Tip Tuesday” on your Facebook page every Tuesday, a (very) quick tip on creating a beautiful landscape, every Tuesday, your followers see a post (brand recognition) that gives a tip (useful) on your FB page that has your contact information (call to action-lite). Even funny one-liners or memes can get your brand out there and if it’s shareable, your followers will pass it along, doing some of the marketing for you.

Final Thoughts

Micro content can be standalone or it can entice people to read your long-form content. Because it’s small, it needs to pack a punch. As with anything that you put out in the world that represents your brand, any micro content you share needs to stay true to your brand and its message.

It’s important to remember that long-form and short-form content is still crucial to your search engine rankings and to provide clients with thorough information about your business. Micro content adds another dimension to your overall marketing strategy as well as your brand’s image.