Trap The Viewer Through Your Posts!!
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Humans…
Most humans have an attention span of a kid in a game shop! You know what I’m talking about right?
When I was a kid and went to the game shop I was overwhelmed with the number of games I had for choice... I skipped from one game to the next, PS2, PS3, Xbox, PC, Wii, Sega Saturn, game stores had it all!
Choosing a game was always difficult!! And game companies knew this! They knew that they had to capture my young mind’s attention with just the cover of the game, it was the first impression of the game that mattered. A strong name with strong images on the cover, that is what captured my attention. After that it was the back, the description of the game and the images had to keep my attention!
The first few words of the description were important, they could either make the description bland and boring or they could make it amazing with some motivational speech… here I’ll provide an example:
Bland: “This is an RPG game where you play a human soldier and fight the space invaders, you can ride tanks, helicopters and shoot guns…”
Amazing motivational speech: “Guns! Helicopters! Tanks! Hop into the role of a human soldier, FIGHT AGAINST the evil space invaders! Save the WORLD! You are the only hope for humankind! Will you perish trying! Or will you fight back the Horde!”
Now, let’s be real, I’m not the best at doing video game description, but I think I got my points across… the first few words of the descriptions are very important!
The images they used on the back had to be attention capturing too… maybe some blood, maybe some comedy, maybe some image where they showed you the cool new system they implemented in the game… I still remember the day I first saw Assassin’s Creed on Bgamer (a game’s magazine), what captured my attention was Altair (the main character) climbing walls, it was the first time a game had such climb mechanics! And Fallout 1! What captured my attention was the two-headed cow they had in the game!
The graphics and recommended setting were also important! They had to make the game for all types of gamers. Not everyone has a 2000bucks PC that can run the game, they had to optimize the game so it could run on low-end PCs!
Right about now you must be thinking "But Teut you are just going on and on about games but your title says you were going to talk about posts… I don’t care about games"... well, all the above info can apply to posts!
I’ll provide the information in a list to make it easier to read, these are all the things I use to "trap" the viewer's attention:
Title – You need an engaging title! It shouldn’t provide too much information… people need to click the post right, they won’t do that if the title says it all or if the title doesn’t provide any information! Make the title fun to read, make the title aggressive! In my game example, this is the title in the cover of the game! It’s the first thing people will see! Maybe try to use catching words like: “Attack, Defend, Revolt, Power”
The first image – The first image is the cover of the game! In your posts it’s the first image people will see, it doesn’t need to provide any information, but it needs to be eye-catching too.
In my honest opinion, I think you should create a brand with the first image… you can go at this in two different ways:
If you want to show your face to steemit then use your face on the first image, this should make the people that are watching the feed know it’s you, it creates loyal followers! @valorforfreedom, @booster916, @humanearl, @exyle, @papa-pepper do this… I could keep saying names of big steemians that do this, but I would be here all day long.
If you don’t want to show your face to steemit or maybe you don’t like to show it every time you post then always use the same image for the same types of posts… if you go back in my feed I did 3 SteemStem posts when I first started my steemit journey, they all had the same image! Mainly because I was trying to create a brand without showing my face! @nonameslefttouse, @playfulfoodie, @velimir do this, some of them have already shown their faces but that doesn’t matter, they always use the same image so their followers know it’s them!
You can also add a cool border on the first image, I stopped doing this because I’m dumb, but I’m going to restart again, choose a color for the border and stick with it, every post you do should have the first image with a border always with the same color! The colors you use matter! I used green because it not only stands out but it’s also a color that most people like!
First few words – These are the words that not only the reader is able to read on the feed page, but it’s also the most important part of the whole post! You have to capture the reader’s attention right here, this is where you bring out the big guns! Most readers will click away if they don’t enjoy what they are reading after just a couple of seconds… I know this happens to me!
But what should the big guns be… well, this is hard to say, they can be comedic, they can be aggressive, it’s really a matter of what type of audience you are trying to capture with that post… just remember that the first few words are the most important thing! Try different things and see what works and what doesn’t!The text- Ok, you got readers attention through the first image, title and first few words, now you need to keep it, YOU NEED TO TRAP THEM IN YOUR OWN WORLD! Your text should be engaging! Try to speak to your followers, don’t make the text bland and boring, make it engaging! And remember: This is not a funeral we are having here, comedy is important!
If you are good at keeping the reader’s attention than the post can be as long as you want, but from my experience, most people don’t have this skill… I think I don’t have this skill, and I just stopped and took a look at my post and I think it’s already too big!
You can also use some cool comedic images on your posts, they provide a good relief from reading the text!
- The visual look- Having some headers, footers, separators is important to make the post more eye appealing! I would advise anyone that wants to create his own headers, footer, and separators to go and check Steemschool website… it’ a website created by @valorforfreedom that explains how to create your own footer, headers, and separators, and while you are at it vote for him as a witness!
Images are free source - 1, 2,3,4,5, 6,7, 8,9
Question of the day: What sort of cool things do you guys use on your posts to make them better?
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Attention is the ultimate currency ;)
It really is, and trapping it is a must if we want to be successful on steemit!
Thanks for reading!
Your post reminded me of an old Buddhist proverb; "He who eats and reads does neither." ;) You're quite welcome!
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I try to make cool presentation images....and when I do video or audio comedy, I try to make short stuff and, until people know me, I try to use simple concepts, like jokes and not very complex humor....I am doing something that is German comedy school and I don't know if it's very ok while people don't know you: I am recording everything at the first shot and publish as it is without listening back....Failures give genuinity to the humor I think because humor is different than any other form of art ....that resulted in having a Dtube video with a big sound failure in the middle of the video, background noise on audio comedy, etc....I think in the long term it created a more genuine relation with your fans, because the relation of comedians with their fans is different than the relation of a singer with his fans(i.e)....but in the short term I think it caused damage because the first impression is negative....it draws negative attention towards you....one of the biggest Portuguese comedians, Herman José, used to do that like started laughing while recording and let it be like that(he is from German school) and in the beginning people used to say he was unprofessional....they wanted to fire him in the beginning(if was not Nicolau Breyner protecting him, they would have done that)...so sometimes negative attention can also screw you....they say in the long term all the attention is good but I have to rethink that.
I did not know that about Herman Jose, i never saw much of him, i was still a kid back then... i'm 23 atm, when he was live on air i was either sleeping or playing videogames on the PC xD
Well, if this was youtube all the attention would be good because you would be paid by view and not by upvote, but on steemit you are getting paid by upvote
Nice one,
Trapping... Focus is necessary. Doing two things at once is difficult.
Thanks for reading! Doing two things at once! The art of multitasking!
@teutonium Enjoyed reading the post. You have summed up the important elements of presenting content very well. As to your question, I always try to keep the paragraphs short, and avoid spelling mistakes. I take care of grammar, and punctuation. The idea is to make the writing flow, because then it becomes almost effortless for the reader to consume the content. Cheers!
Grammar is very important! I'm probably going to speak about that in another post...
Trap the reader and never let them miss any of your writings ever again!
I think, as you obviously do as well, interaction is also important and you do this with a question at the end of your posts and answering your comments, both things to that 'trap' the followers.
Answering to comments is the best part !! It provides feedback, good or bad, and makes your social skills better! I've seen the stuff that I learned on steemit make me a better person in real life!