Lights, Camera, Advertise
Lauren Cook
Content Creator
Picture this: you’re an aspiring screenwriter, and you’ve just finished the script for your dream movie. You’ve spent countless hours writing and re-writing, agonizing over everything from structure to comma placement, and now, finally, it’s ready to be seen by the world. By some miracle, your masterpiece lands on the desk of a bigshot Hollywood producer. You’re confident that this is your moment, that once he experiences your crackling dialogue and stirring storytelling, he’ll leap at the opportunity to make it the next big hit.
Instead, he skims the first three pages and dumps it in the trash.
Pretty cruel, right? How could he not at least give you a decent chance? Sure, the opening might be a little slow, but once it gets going around the second act or so, it really gets going. Doesn’t he understand how much time and energy you poured into this?
It’s easy to think of the producer as the bad guy in this scenario–but in reality, you are the producer much more often than you probably think. How often do you scroll away from content that doesn’t immediately grab your attention? When it comes to advertising, particularly on social media, we’re just as brutal as the most cutthroat Hollywood executive.
So, in this age of heartless consumption, how can you ensure all the work you put into your digital content pays off?
Keep It Snappy
In Hollywood, it’s a well-known principle that new screenwriters need to keep their scripts to around 100 pages. Producers simply don’t have the time to read anything more. Your audience on social media is much the same. While there’s a time and place for a long, expressive Instagram caption, the odds of viewers tapping the “more” option to continue reading are fairly low.
Keep the essential information up front so it stays above the cut-off. Go through your content and cut the fluff. Remove unnecessary adverbs, descriptors, and really anything that doesn’t directly promote you and your brand. If you’re writing long-form content like a blog or a website page, keep your sentences short to appeal to SEO. I love a good semicolon just as much as the next writer, but consider occasionally replacing it with a period and splitting it into two sentences to make your copy more easily readable.
Setting the Scene
Any screenwriter, from an Oscar winner to a fresh film school graduate, will tell you that of all the scenes in your script, the opening one is the most crucial. In the first few minutes of the film, the viewer needs to know three things: who the story is about, what they want, and why the audience should care.
When marketing your business on social media, you have a similar task. A consumer visiting your profile needs to immediately understand what your brand is, what you offer, and why it should matter to them. If you’re using Instagram, try experimenting with stories highlights to give viewers an introduction to your company.
Instagram also allows accounts to pin posts to the top of their profile, allowing you to feature images that are the most relevant to your brand.
On Facebook, users can choose a cover photo to display at the top of their profile. This image is much larger than your profile picture, taking up the majority of the screen and providing an excellent opportunity to grab viewers’ attention and tell them about your brand. Whether it’s a photo of your employees, your customers or a design that captures the essence of your company, make sure it entices visitors to keep scrolling.
With billions of active users across Instagram and Facebook alone, making your content stand out among countless other businesses can seem as hopeless as getting a screenplay read by a Hollywood producer. But with the right strategy, marketing yourself on social media doesn’t have to be such a daunting task. For more advice on establishing your business in the digital age, get in touch with us, and let’s get your name up in lights.
