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PSA: Deleting one sentence from my intro post doubled my replies last week
I run a small local history group on Facebook. For two years I'd write these long posts with background and context and all that. Last week I just said "Here's a photo of Main Street in 1958. Anyone know the name of that diner?" and boom. 40 comments in a day. My old posts barely got 5. Maybe people just want to be asked a simple question instead of being told a whole story... has anyone else noticed this killing their engagement in niche groups?
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foster.tessa25d ago
Read a study that said people scroll past walls of text. Keeps it short and sweet?
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gavin46925d ago
People don't just scroll past long posts. They scroll past everything that doesn't grab them in the first few seconds. That study is just confirming what we all already know from standing at a bus stop or flipping through a magazine. The real pattern is that attention spans are getting shorter because everything is competing for them. So if you can say it in ten words instead of fifty, you're doing everyone a favor. Short and sweet forces you to actually think about what matters.
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Oh yeah, totally agree with what you said about "short and sweet forces you to actually think about what matters." I actually run this little gardening swap group and I used to write three paragraph posts about soil pH and companion planting. Nobody cared lol. Then I tried just posting "Got extra zucchini? Who wants some?" and suddenly I had 30 replies in an hour. Now I just ask one specific thing like "What's your trick for keeping slugs off lettuce?" and people actually chime in with their own stories. Makes the group feel more like a conversation and less like a lecture from me.
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