How to hold them (your audience) so they won’t let go

Hey folks👋🏽

Doesn’t it feel like the pace of social media has increased in the past few months weeks days?? I almost can’t keep up with all the new platforms, updates, and trends 😳. Maybe I’m just chronically online…

Anyway, one of my favorite expressions of this speed is this trend on Twitter where people quote a tweet that’s going viral with a response to another viral tweet. It might be hard to understand because it’s definitely hard to explain. If you missed one or two days on Twitter, you’ll have no clue what’s going on. But I think it’s really funny.

💌 In today’s email:

• 🤝 How do you capture your audience’s attention? How do you keep it? Dive into four tips that might help you answer these questions
• 📱 Mitra recommends a quick and fun TikTok sound to try for yourself
• 📣 What’s happening in social: Beer Guy goes viral, TikTok vs Montana, Meta in Barcelona (or something), and some more great reads
• +All our latest content from the blog

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Tami & the Buffer team

P.S. Check out this TikTok for an update on the TikTok algorithm in 2023

🚀 Share click-worthy content and skyrocket your engagement with Buffer

Stand out from the sea of sameness online with visuals that catch the eye and are published at the perfect time. With Buffer by your side, organize content in one place, easily import your existing work, learn what works with analytics, and get more eyes on your content. 

🏊 Deep dive: Four tips to capture and hold your audience’s attention

It’s easy to see why people are worried, but if a video about the theme song of a network that creates content for kids and tweens has four million views, we might not be approaching the topic of short attention spans correctly.

Anyone who participates on social media knows that there is so much competing for our attention that of course we can only afford a few seconds to decide what will hold it. This opens up some concerns for creators. How do you create content that captures and holds (the right) people’s attention?

Here’s some advice to help you practically approach creating content that engages your audience.

• Choose the right format(s): The “right” format looks different for everyone, and deciding yours will always be an ongoing process. However, this is a crucial step because it’s about you. If you don’t look forward to creating and sharing content even on rough days, you won’t be able to build an audience, let alone engage them. You have many options, from hour-long YouTube videos to witty tweets. But the thing about holding attention is, if you pick a format you enjoy creating, you will find your audience.
• Aim for deep, not wide, relationships with your audience: If your follower count is massive, but you can’t get a significant portion of them to take a key action, then is that audience truly valuable? Sure, your audience loves your content, but none can say what you create or the value they receive from you in one sentence. Focus on creating connections and communicating value upfront to your existing audience instead of trying to reach as many people as you can. Your content should resonate with a few people first before you start looking at reaching a larger audience. And it’s okay if you can never figure out to expand – resonating deeply with a small audience is better than being ignored by a large one.
• Take control of what happens when you have your audience’s attention: What’s your plan for after you go viral or have a celebrity retweet you or get a mention in a big publication? Do you continue creating the same type of content, hoping to capitalize on the attention? Because you can definitely do better than hope. Work on something in addition to creating content on social media that will help you capitalize on a viral moment. Our top recommendation is to set up an email list so you have direct access to your audience. Also, consider starting a newsletter or a podcast that puts you directly in front of your audience and isn’t controlled by an algorithm. Many options are available to you when it comes to directing your audience to take a specific action post-5 minutes of fame.
• Have a presence on every platform: The last thing you want is to lose the trust you've built with your engaged audience. So, contradictory as it might sound, you need to be present on every relevant platform to protect your image and identity. You can deter impostors and protect your audience from scammers if you have at least an account on each platform that you can direct them to. Even if you lock your account and don’t do anything with it, you have somewhere to point people looking for you on any platform, even when you’re inactive there. Plus, you’ll have your desired username if you want to become active on a new platform.

There’s an audience out there for every type of creator and every type of content. It’s up to you to determine how you will approach that audience to become successful.

✍🏾 Be our (writing) guest

Do you have a story you want to tell? Tips or advice you’d like to share? We’re now taking guest posts on the Buffer blog! Check out our guidelines for next steps.

👇🏽 The latest from the blog

• From Passion Project to Multi-6-Figure Business: How I Grew and Monetized My Podcast: Doone Roisin shares some of the strategies that helped turn her podcast for female founders into a thriving business in just a few years.
• How to Fuel Social Media Content with Your Existing Work (According to a Founder): In this article, Josh Ho shares his advice for founders and entrepreneurs wanting to grow an online audience.
• 30+ Free Instagram Tools to Help You Grow Your Account: Check out this article for a list of tools to help you research, create, and schedule high-quality content that inspires and engages your audience.

📱 Social Tip of The Week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

Am I missing out? 🚗🔊🎶😒

This is a fun, quick, and easy trend to participate in on TikTok! All you have to do is show you doing your own thing, then noticing someone “driving by”. You can make a joke about how you’re missing out on something, or how other people could be missing out on your product because they’re focusing on something else. There really are lots of possibilities of how you can do this trend!

Check out our TikTok for an example of using this sound - we used the four day workweek as a theme! We also recommend scrolling through other TikToks using this sound so you can get some inspiration.

🤳 What's Happening in Social

• 🍻 A guy holding a beer at a golf tournament went viral for…checks notes…living in the moment. Huh. Check out Jack Appleby’s analysis of the beer brand's excellent campaign to capitalize on the meme.
• 🧑🏾‍⚖️ The TikTok vs. Montana saga heats up as the app launched a legal challenge against Montana’s ban in the state. (If you weren’t aware, Montana is the first U.S. state to ban TikTok). Here’s what you can do if you’re worried about a ban in your location.
• 📝 Take notes from Meta’s masterclass in “taking inspiration from” its competitors — the company’s Twitter rival app, tentatively called Barcelona is speculated to be ready for launch as early as June. 
• 📖 Bonus Reads: How Duolingo grew to 6.6 million TikTok followers; the first social media babies are growing up (and they’re not happy); there’s now a TikTok Star —> Social Media Director pipeline.

Thanks for reading! 💟

What would you like to see more (or less) of in the newsletter? How do you feel about our deep dives or newsletter-exclusive series? Give us all your feedback in this form or let us know on all our social channels @buffer!

Unsubscribe | Update my mail settings 

Sent by the team at Buffer
2443 Fillmore St #380-7163 San Francisco, CA 94115 USA