By Tamilore Oladipo

If you’ve ever sat through a 90-minute YouTube video essay about a random obscure topic — like this one about Disney channel’s theme — you may find the stats about humanity’s reducing attention spans jarring.

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, then 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?

In this article, we offer 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 what that looks like for you will always be an ongoing process. However, this is an important 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.

Formats abound for creators, from short to long form. You can create hour-long YouTube videos, tweets, carousel posts, or newsletters. But here’s the thing about holding attention is: if you pick a format that you enjoy creating for, you will find your audience.

One approach is to go pyramid-style by picking one or two primary channels and focusing on creating your best content for them. Once you’re ready to expand, you can add another channel that repurposes the content from your main channels. Then another and another as you grow your team, acquire resources and an audience size that justifies the expansion.

Ali Abdaal is a great example of this, starting on YouTube, sharing productivity content, and using his content there to fuel the rest of his approach to content on other platforms. He now hires a team of 20+ people, offers courses, and has millions of followers – still with one clear niche.

If you get weary of a particular format, re-evaluate your relationship with it. You might just need to switch up the content you’re creating, dabble somewhere else, or it might be time to move to a whole new platform. Evolution is a standard part of the creative process.

Aim for deep, not wide, relationships with your audience

We’re in a society and economy that’s hyper-focused on growth at all costs, and that often trickles down into how we approach individual pursuits. Of course, the large numbers are great and satisfying – there’s a reason top influencers command high rates.

But are you so focused on growth in terms of audience size that you forget that the true value of your audience comes …read more

Source:: Buffer Blog

Author: Aaron