Why You Need to Stop Focusing on Short-Form Content

And What You Should Do Instead

First things first.

What is short-form content?

Short-form content aims to summarize, solve a problem quickly, or surprise. It is concise and brief, with text that is only a couple hundred words long so it's easy to digest. Short-form content is most often seen on social media platforms, and it is usually posted frequently.

Second things second.

Before I continue my brief rant on short-form content, I want to say something important.

I’m not here to tell you to stop doing short-form content if you don’t want to. There are a million reasons to keep doing it. It’s effective. I know there are a lot of people out there who enjoy doing it. I know, at this point in time, it’s the primary way businesses connect with their audience.

If you want to keep chugging along with social media, feel free to do so. I still am. But it’s not my primary focus.

There are a lot of reasons why (it’s draining, it feels inauthentic, it’s not working the way I want). Many of those reasons are why you might have been enticed to read this article.

But there’s an even bigger reason to stop focusing on social media content that you may not have considered.

Who are you attracting with short-form content, snippets, and quick-take social media posts?

Social media platforms rely on the attention economy. They are designed to maximize the time and attention you spend scrolling, clicking, and responding. Content is rapidly changing, and we get used to quick sound bites, short videos, and snippets of text that can be read in less than 10 seconds. It encourages instant gratification. And whether we like it or not, it starts to infiltrate our everyday lives.

It becomes difficult for us to focus on any one thing for more than a few seconds at a time. We expect immediate gratification. In a world where people go viral overnight and 24-hour inboxes exist, so many of us expect to get what we want exactly when we want it.

Are those the kind of people you want to target? Are those the kind of people you want to work with?

Or would you rather target deep thinkers? People who understand that good things take time. People who are willing to anticipate your content, even if you don’t post very often. People who have always felt like they didn’t belong on social media because they’re too busy getting stuff done out in the real world.

If it’s the latter, I want you to focus on long-form content.

What is long-form content?

Long-form content is defined as any chunk of text that is at least 1,000 words, but even longer content is also encouraged. It includes, but isn’t limited to:

● Blog articles

● Guides

● Case studies

● Sales pages

● Email newsletters

● eBooks

I would also add that long-form content is the kind of content that invites readers to slow down and think deeply about what you’re saying. It’s the kind of content that sticks with you for a while. You think about concepts from the content in the shower or in bed as you close your eyes for the night. If short-form content is supposed to hit you like a ton of bricks to get your attention, long-form content invites you to meander through the woods and make discoveries softly and slowly.

Why bother with long-form content?

Something magical happens with long-form content that you can’t measure the same way you measure social media engagement, which is why it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.

Long-form content results in 56% more social shares compared to shorter content, but those are the shares that can be measured. What about the content that’s shared between two people through a DM or an email? Those are shares that AREN’T counted. There’s currently no way to keep track of them, but they are perhaps the most important shares of all because they come with a personal recommendation. Someone you know and care about thinks this piece of content will be valuable to you. I know I would read it, and I bet you would too.

That’s the audience you can capture with long-form content.

How your audience engages with your content is a good reason to write long-form content, but it might also be what’s best for YOU.

How do you feel pushing out social media content? Regardless of whether it’s effective or not, it can be draining. It can feel disingenuous. It can feel isolating and frustrating.

Not all of us are built to create in short bursts. Some of us are drawn to longer, more thought-out content that attempts to go deeper. You’re not wrong for being that way. You’re just WEIRD, and around here, that’s a good thing! You deserve to market your business in a way that’s energizing. That’s enriching. That’s FUN. And that might mean choosing to stop focusing on social media content and focusing on long-form content instead.

How to write long-form content

You ready to start writing long-form content? Here are some quick and simple tips to help you get started:

● Pick a topic and sit on it

● Take notes

● Develop your voice

● Use formatting to make your content skimmable

● Don’t write, edit, and publish the same day

Pick a topic and sit on it

Most long-form content starts with a topic idea, but I encourage you NOT to start writing as soon as you have an idea for a topic. Sure. Jot your topic down but give it some time to percolate. Go for a walk and think about it. Think about it as you’re drifting off for a nap or while you soak in the tub.

Pay attention to how you feel when you’re thinking about this particular topic. Is it one you ACTUALLY want to talk about? Or is it one you think someone in your industry is SUPPOSED to talk about?

I want you to pick a topic that makes you feel EXCITED to write about it. Not only does that make creating content more fun for you, but it will also make your content more fun to read.

Take notes

As you think about the topic you’ve chosen, take some notes. I don’t care if those notes make sense or if the ideas are “dumb.” You should write it all down anyway. Even if you don’t end up using anything you wrote, the act of writing still helps you think through what you want to say.

I prefer writing my thoughts out by hand, but I also type things into the notes app on my phone when I don’t have access to a pencil and paper. Some people like voice-to-text, while others like to keep a running list of thoughts on the computer. Do whatever works for you. Just don’t police what you’re writing. Let it all out.

Develop your voice

One of my favorite ways to develop your voice is to go through my Content Key process where I help you uncover the spirit of your business. It’s a great way to get intentional about your content, but it is by no means the ONLY way to develop your voice.

Honestly, one of the best ways to develop your voice is to JUST START WRITING. Don’t stop at just one piece. Keep going. Build a collection of content.

You can post it, but you don’t have to. You can also keep your content to yourself. It’s whatever you’re comfortable with. What’s important is that you go back through your content and see what sticks out. What are the commonalities between the pieces you have written? How can you harness what you’ve discovered?

As an example, in beginning to create content for myself, I discovered that I like to include incomplete sentences. Instead of beating myself up over it because “it’s not what I’m supposed to do,” I have leaned into it. Now it’s something that sets my content apart, but I didn’t realize it was “me” until I started writing.

Use formatting to make your content skimmable

One of the downsides of long-form content is that, visually, it can be intimidating. Staring at a long paragraph is enough to make some people give up before they even begin reading.

No matter what kind of long-form content you want to write, it’s helpful to find ways to make your content skimmable.

A few ways to do that include:

● Use headings to divide your content into distinct chunks

● Using bulleted lists

● Italicize, bold, or underline phrases so they stick out

● Use all caps to make a point

● Insert page breaks to introduce new ideas

● Create short paragraphs that are only one to five lines long-ish

Don’t write, edit, and publish the same day

You aren’t alone if you have the urge to sit down, crank out a piece of long-form content, edit it, and post it all within the same day. You might be excited, which I hope is the reason. But if you’re anything like me, you want to do it because social media and content marketing have convinced us that we gotta keep that content coming!

No. You don’t.

I know the internet makes us feel like we need to hurry up, but if your aim is to create intentional, craveable content, you’ve got to slow down, at least a little bit. Slowing down helps you catch mistakes when you don’t have a team of editors. It helps you clarify your thinking when you don’t have a content manager or mentor. It helps you get a feel for whether you’re proud of what you’ve written or if your gut tells you it’s not ready.

That’s why I always recommend writing, editing, and publishing on different days. It gives your creativity space to breathe so that when you do hit publish, it feels like a true accomplishment.

Do long-form content your way

At the end of the day, I want you to remember that even though everyone SAYS there are rules when it comes to creating content, there really aren’t any. Because, quite honestly, the more rules you break, the more human your writing will seem. And the more human you seem, the more others will connect with your content. AND when more people connect with your content in a meaningful way, the more they will want to work with you.

Need some help developing long form content for your business? Head over to my contact page, fill out that form, and let me know how I can help.