You’re at work and have a few minutes to check your Facebook. You pull up the app on your phone and navigate to your newsfeed and start to scroll. You are apt to keep scrolling until something catches your attention and causes you to put on the thumb scrolling brakes and stop to investigate. These kinds of posts are called thumb stoppers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’re at work and have a few minutes to check your Facebook. You pull up the app on your phone and navigate to your newsfeed and start to scroll. You are apt to keep scrolling until something catches your attention and causes you to put on the thumb scrolling brakes and stop to investigate. These kinds of posts are called thumb stoppers.  This summer, Facebook announced an adjustment to their newsfeed algorithms where they will now take into account how long a user stays on a particular portion of the site so that in the future you see more of this type of content on your newsfeed. This is great news for businesses that share quality content. After one of Facebook’s 2014 algorithm updates and the (near) death of organic posts , brand and business pages have found it difficult to get their content noticed. This new algorithm update that takes into account the time spent on a particular post however gives content marketers a glimmer of hope. Although we are unsure the degree to which this variable will impact your follower’s newfeeds we are sure of this: Knowing how to create a thumbstopper post can only improve your chances of your organic posts being noticed. So what are the components of a thumbstopping post? Here they are:

1.     Your post itself is a link

2.     It includes a visually appealing image or video

3.     It is short an­d sweet

4.     It is newsworthy and or trending

5.     It includes a call-to-action


1.    Your post itself is a link

Most people will tell you that there is no better performing Facebook post than a photo post. Well most people are wrong. Stats given directly from Facebook indicate that link posts (not posts containing links) draw more engagement than any other type of post. To make your post a link all you need to do is copy and paste the link you wish to comment on in the status update box. Facebook will automatically add the link to your post with a picture and short description.

2.    It includes a visually appealing image or video

According to a study by Track Maven posts that have pictures draw 37% more engagement than those with just text. If you are constantly posting updates that are ­­lacking visuals your engagement rate is probably suffering as a result. Often times when you post an update that contains a link it automatically adds a photo from the linked webpage for you. As we stated above when your post itself is a link you are more likely to have increased engagement, and when you add a photo to the mix, well that is just icing on your thumbstopper cake!

3.    It is short and sweet

Most marketing blogs will tell you that Facebook posts with 40 characters or less get the highest engagement. Statistically this is true however these posts make up only 5% of the Facebook post population. A more realistic post length is 80 or less. Posts with 80 characters or less receive 66% higher engagement. Facebook’s no character limit might tempt you to write a post in short story form but we would advise against it.

4.    It is newsworthy or trending

Obviously not all of your posts will be newsworthy or about topics that are trending but when there is a topic in the news or a trending hashtag that is relevant to your industry, joining in the conversation using that hashtag is sure to get your post noticed by more people. When you engage in trending topics your audience becomes larger than just your immediate following. In addition to your immediate followers those who are following the trending topic or hashtag also have the potential to be reached.

5.    It includes a call-to-action


Every piece of digital marketing you post should include a call-to-action (CTA).  Facebook’s power editor gives you the ability to attach a call to action to any of your posts. Users are more likely to interact with a post when they are prompted to do so. Whenever you can add a CTA make sure to do so. It will boost your click through rates, and you won’t have to worry about placing text within the thumbnail image and staying within Facebook’s 20% rule.

The concluding point of this post is simple. Create thumbstoppers to drive engagement and boost your conversion rates.


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