How do you get people to care? Great question, we’ll let you know when we’ve figured out the meaning of life and the reason we’re all here. But in the meantime, we do have some pretty good guesses as to how to get people to care about the content you’re posting. We’ll show you what type of content “wins” people over, and by that, we mean what catches their attention for longer than a millisecond.

What wins on social?

In a fast-paced, everchanging medium like social media, the content you create should match its pace. That means it’s important to focus on content that aligns both with the short attention span of a social media audience and the small number of scrolls through your news feed it takes for things to refresh again. This means infographics, short videos, intriguing photos and interactive material are great  content to make that easily distracted user stop in their tracks scrolls. Don’t forget that this also means you need to steer clear of any type of post that requires extensive reading, link-clicking or any other type of significant effort. These people don’t want to lift a finger (well, figuratively, of course). 

What wins in emails?

The top priority of email content isn’t even the body itself – it’s the subject line. Your main goal is to get your reader to open and read your email instead of deleting it, marking it as read or opening it just so they can find the “unsubscribe” button. The subject line needs to be cute and catchy or intriguing and mysterious. It should offer something outright or promise a deliverable inside. Whatever it is, it better be good. As far as actual email content goes (if you get that far), it’s important to seem the least spam-like as possible. Your audience doesn’t want another brand sending 5% coupon emails and stale attempts at being relatable. They want to hear from an actual person. Whether that means choosing a tone and writing style that read like an email from a friend or personalizing your email in a way that makes its reader feel as if it was written specifically for them, it will be a breath of fresh air. 

What wins with the media?

This is less about the type of content and more about how you present the content. Relevance seems like the obvious answer here, but take it a step further. Think content that isn’t only relevant to the world this hour, but content that relates to the specific reporter you’re targeting. Whether it’s a connection to an old story of theirs or a topic that’s in line with the type of pieces they usually write, make it seem like it was crafted just for them, not a generic email you just sent to five other outlets. It should also be noted that by connecting your content with things like blogs and social media, you can generate enough buzz to serve as “proof” of its newsworthiness to a journalist. Just link them to the post in your email or put it on a platform you know they regularly frequent in the hopes they might “organically” discover it. 

The bottom line is that there is no bottom line. There are trends and guesses but no proven fact as to what people like and don’t like in terms of digital content, nor is there an answer to why reporters decide to pick up what they do each day. Regardless, following tips like these can at least get you started on the path toward high levels of audience engagement and media attention.