Stop the scroll. This three-word social media strategy is simple, easy to remember and is vital to your social media success on every platform, whether you are trying to drive brand awareness or new business, or launching a new service/product.

Today, people are scrolling their social media news feeds at lightning speed.

Social media success is all about getting people to stop scrolling and get them to engage with your content.

So, how do you get people on social media to stop scrolling and pay attention to what you’re trying to share with them?

Here are some ideas for how you can create engaging social media content to stop the scroll for yourself or your organization.

1. Use the 3-2-1 content model. Every week, aim to publish three pieces of industry-related content, two pieces of “proud” content (content that make your employees and community feel good) and just one piece of product or service-related content
2. Headlines matter. You have only seconds to grab your audience’s attention and create an opportunity for meaningful engagement. This makes headlines and the first two lines of your LinkedIn posts (which essentially function as headlines due to their enhanced visibility) an important factor when creating content.
3. Use visuals in every post. Creating visuals for your LinkedIn posts can turn your static text into engaging content that helps you gain awareness.
4. Leverage carousels. The carousel feature allows you to share multiple visuals or documents in a single post, so you can share more without posting more. I find these posts get great engagement. You can share PowerPoints and PDFs, which are visually rich documents to help your followers dive deep on your organization’s offerings. Note that once the post is uploaded you can’t change or edit the document.
5. Hashtags are critical to your content strategy. They help your audience find posts about relevant topics. Even if someone doesn’t “follow” you or your company, utilizing relevant hashtags can help them discover your content if they are following that particular topic. It’s a free and easy way to increase your visibility and drive user engagement – if you use the right hashtags (remember not too many or too few followers). As a general rule of thumb, to always do research to ensure the hashtags you’re using are relevant and appropriate for your brand.
6. Use owned media and softer side news. Hashtag holidays and events can provide consistent content throughout the year and enables you to showcase your people and your organization’s more “human side.” Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Women’s History Month or National Donut Day (one of my personal favorites) there’s something to post about on almost every day of the calendar year.
7. Incorporate video in your content strategy. Video is 5x more likely to drive engagement than other media types. It enables you to bring complex subject matter and other topics to life in a way that the written word just can’t. Keep them short and authentic, and consider including clips from long webinars as promotional teasers.
8. Reuse and repurpose – with visuals (extra points for video). Consider promoting your latest blog post with a teaser video or turn your post into a video listicle. It’s a smart way to increase engagement.
9. Research your competitors’ content. This will help you identify tactics that are working for them (and not working) and whitespace that your organization can fill.
10. Include custom images with every social post. I am a firm believer that every social media post should be accompanied by an image, which helps people stop the scroll. Images that include people tend to do better than images without – especially if you are the subject of the post, or posting on behalf of your own personal brand. Images with big numbers and quotes are also effective ways to capture your readers’ attention. I recommend staying away from stock photography of people who aren’t associated with your organization or overused images that other organizations may also use (for example, the covid virus structure).

Stopping the scroll on social media can be a challenge with a consistent stream of content being published by the second.

I hope this article has given you some helpful ideas for how you can capture your audience’s attention and have a stronger impact with your social media efforts. Reach out to me to find out how to implement this at your organization.

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Stefanie Marrone advises law firms of all sizes, professional service firms, B2B companies, recruiters and individuals on the full range of marketing and business development consulting services designed to enhance revenue, retain current clients and achieve greater brand recognition. She also serves as outsourced chief marketing officer/marketing department for small and mid-size law firms. Over her nearly 20-year legal marketing career, she has worked at and with a broad range of big law, mid-size and small firms, which has given her a valuable perspective of the legal industry. Connect with her on LinkedIn, YouTube, sign up for her email list and follow her latest writing on JD Supra.