Writing (and occasionally designing) for social media can be quite daunting at times. Apparently we have the attention span that is shorter than that of a goldfish. That means we as advertisers have less than 8 seconds to capture a consumer’s attention. Which is exactly why I inserted ‘8′ instead of ‘eight’ Because typed out numbers take that half a second away from my message. (TL;DR, Am I rite?).
Before I make this any longer and break some of my rules, here are the Ten Commandments of Social Media that your brand should follow:
1. Thou shalt not have long-winded sentences: Short and sweet wins the race.
2. Thou shalt not have too much copy: Eyeballs are for seeing, not reading.
3. Thou must include multimedia: Video, GIFs and 360 degree are sure to grab your goldfish’s consumer’s attention. Side note: autoplay is your friend.
4. Thou shalt not shove product in thy [consumer’s] face: Be subtle, bro.
5. If thou dost protest to the above: Prove me wrong and design something award-worthy.
6. Know thy target market: Would you sell dog food to a goldfish? (I’m clearly pushing goldfish here)
7. Thou must proof read: If you have already, do it again. Bring a friend. Make it a party.
8. Thou must not try too hard: I once read “YOLO” on Facebook. Really? You’ve just aged your brand 20 years+.
9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s ideas: Unless you can do it better. Then covet away.
10. Thou shalt not kill [creativity]: Push that envelope. Push it real good.
I was so excited when I stumbled across this stand in South Africa. I promptly bought this mascara and drove home quickly to use it (maybe not quickly... or immediately... but I used it when I got home). It did not disappoint!
