How to create snackable social media content

The social media landscape is filled with short-form or bite-sized content. Concise, usually vertical (after the rise of TikTok and Instagram reels), content is quickly and easily digestible by audiences. With its stream of micro-videos and pithy posts, social media’s snackable style of content caters to the decreasing attention span of viewers to keep them engaged.

For those of us in higher education social media teams, our goal is to elevate the online presence of our institutions. We want to get as many views of our content as possible, from the people to whom it matters – including current or prospective students, their parents, alumni or university staff. That doesn’t mean just paying attention to vanity metrics, such as follower count or likes, but also engagement. To do this, we create and promote positive, compelling content that reaches the widest possible audience. 

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The following tips will help you connect with your audience. Here’s what to do when creating content – and things to avoid.

Dos for creating university social media content

Understand your audience 

Without truly understanding your target audience, you are flying blind. Learning what your audience wants and expects from your account will help you tailor your content and receive much better engagement. Social media is a two-way street – it’s called social media for a reason. Follow accounts in your own community to see what types of content they create. Monitor your posts to see what types of posts yield better results, what is similar about them and what seems to resonate, then try to create more content like this.

Be timely

Making sure that what you post on social media is timely and relevant will help increase content viewership. Capitalising on trends early will help you maximise social media algorithms in your favour. Posting content the day a new facility is announced or officially opened, for example, will result in better engagement than if you post after the fact. And, of course, if you can show something that your audience has never seen before, that will always help.

Find a strong hook 

When it comes to content for social media, every second of attention counts. Hook your audience in the first three seconds of your reel, and get to the point quickly. Then find ways to keep their attention. If you delay sharing the key message, your audience might not stick around long enough to see it. When you are posting a video or carousel of images, always lead with your most dynamic video clip or photo to grab attention. 

Use high-quality visuals

Audiences expect sharp, well-composed photos and edited video content. That doesn’t mean your team needs a huge budget; a mobile phone camera will work just fine. But posting grainy photos or shaky videos won’t help move the needle. Ensuring your content is well produced is also vital for maintaining brand standards. Posting videos or photos that show a different point of view or angle will also encourage audiences to stop scrolling.

Collaborate and co-create content

If you’re looking to expand your reach and audience, collaboration is a great tool. Find other accounts and users whose target audience is similar and co-create content that aligns with both accounts. For example, if you work for your university’s athletics department, and you are highlighting a communication major who does great work for you, you could collaborate with the student’s personal social media account or even their college because the story touches multiple areas.

Focus on engagement

Measuring and monitoring engagement with your social media posts will indicate how well your content is resonating with your audience. What themes and topics interest them? You can also make reasonable determinations from the types of posts that do not perform well. Spend time monitoring your following to identify trends or seek out user-generated content.

Don’ts for creating compelling social media content

Don’t stray too far from your core brand values

Testing out new things and stepping out of your social media comfort zone with content creation is to be encouraged but never move too far away from your brand image or what your brand is about. If you aren’t sure that a post is right for your brand, pause and listen to your intuition. A feeling that you are outside your comfort zone with content could indicate a reason not to post. This is how social media posts go viral for the wrong reasons.

Don’t value your own preferences over your audience’s needs

Never be so focused on posting what you personally want to create that you ignore your core audience. When managing accounts, we must always remember that the content is for our audience and followers to enjoy, not us. This might seem self-evident but when you are working on something and you think: “Oh, this is so cool!” make sure you pause to ask if your audience will also think so, or whether you are too close to the work.

Don’t create bulletin-board content

Posts with heavy marketing, branding or commercial language and imagery tend to perform poorly when it comes to engagement. The algorithms do not allow this content to reach many users because bulletin-board content does not produce high levels of engagement. At times, we are trying to create that “fear of missing out” (FOMO) feeling, and it’s much better to use photos or videos to show people why they should be a part of something rather than use bulletin-board style graphics or a generic call to action.

Let’s be real. We want our message to reach as many people as possible, but it’s hard managing social media in higher education, especially when it comes to creating content consistently. With 52 weeks in a year, if you want to post three times a week, that’s more than 150 posts annually. 

Bite-sized content requires those working in social media to work smart. A few guidelines will help you increase engagement with audiences who crave content with value – even if they only lend us their attention for a TikTok minute.

Evan Atkinson is assistant director of social media at Georgia Institute of Technology.

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