What are the best social media post lengths for your event business social media marketing? Let’s find out!
Our attention spans have decreased tremendously with the proliferation of short-form content on social media. Last year Facebook revealed that the average attention span for video content is only 2 seconds. It was also noted that this number varies depending on the device a person uses. The average attention span on a desktop computer is 2.5 seconds and only 1.7 seconds on a mobile phone. Are two seconds really enough to convince a person that your event is worth attending and your brand worth following?
It’s not as bleak as it sounds. You can actually say a lot within two seconds. A Nielsen study found that videos less than 2 seconds were responsible for 38% brand recollection, 23% brand loyalty, and 25% purchase intent. So, shorter content is not necessarily costing social media marketers engagement. What seems extremely important is the platform you choose for certain kinds of content. Each social media platform has different content specifics, so you need to post your content into the platforms best suited to you.
You should be asking questions like, “What form of content is better on Instagram as opposed to Twitter?” for example, or “How often should I post on this platform, as opposed to that platform?” It can be summarised into this: you want to share the right content at the right scale and frequency, and most importantly, on the right platform.
Below are a few suggestions on the appropriate social media post lengths of posts for better engagement.
Instagram Post Lengths
Instagram rose to prominence in 2015, and today, it is estimated to have approximately 1 billion users. While Instagram started out as a platform for sharing static photography, it has rapidly become the home of video content, with short and punchy videos performing the best:
Instagram Video
Videos that are more or less 26 seconds have been seen to get the most engagement. That’s why social media marketers now focus more on sharing carefully-edited video content than any other type of content on Instagram. The longest video can only be 60 seconds, and Instagram will trim it to keep a preview that fits the 30-second feed requirement.
IGTV Video
IGTV is arguably the best way to share long, evergreen videos. These videos can be anything from 15 seconds to 10 minutes long; however, the best IGTV videos are 2 to 5 minutes in length. With a verified account or a large following, you can even post a 60-minute long video. IGTV is great for tutorials, coaching sessions, interviews, or highlights of past events that you want to make available after the fact for your audience.
Reels
Reels also do very well on Instagram and can be as long as 60 seconds. Generally, the best performing reels are between 15 and 30 seconds.
Stories
Stories with anything between 1 and 7 slides are the optimal length and have an 80% completion rate. If you keep more than 7 story slides, the completion rate drops to below 70%, decreasing further the more slides you have.
Captions
The caption length on Instagram is best between 138 and 150 characters. While the caption field allows up to 2200 characters, it is not recommended that you use all of them. People generally read the first 3 lines of a caption and rarely click “more….” However, extended captions do work for bloggers, coaches, and educators. So if it adds value to your event, go ahead and indulge your audience with a long, descriptive caption, but make sure that you highlight the important points, for example, location, date, and RSVP details.
Hashtags
Hashtags are optimal at 9, although you are allowed 30. Instagram also shared that hashtags with 21 characters or less are propagated the furthest.
Related: The Guide To Event and Wedding Hashtags For Instagram
Instagram Video Ads
The video ad can be between 3 and 120 seconds in length. Try to give the most information in the least amount of time and keep your message clear. The surest way for your campaign to fail is if it is not simple and instructional and fails to move your followers to action.
Facebook Post Lengths
Facebook users can post longer content, which sets it apart. In fact, Facebook has been observed to be a valuable platform to entertain and educate any audience. You want your content to communicate something new and related to your events and do it in an enjoyable way to draw them to participate in your events.
Captions
Captions on Facebook can be up to 63,206 characters; however, the shocking statistic is that the ideal caption length is 50 characters or less for users to interact with it.
Videos
Videos on Facebook get high engagement if they are between 2 to 5 minutes. Facebook does, however, allow videos as long as 240 minutes. That’s up to 4 hours’ worth of content. You could post a virtual event, keynote speeches, and event highlights. It’s important to remember that the human attention span remains the same regardless of how much freedom the platform gives you.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads that are 15 seconds or less have an increased likelihood of people watching them until the end. They’re also the perfect size for Facebook in-stream placement. The limit for a headline is 125 characters, with longer copy only appearing when the reader clicks “See more….” Using anywhere between 5 and 20 words in your headline should be enough to incite intrigue and not overwhelm.
Stories
Stories on Facebook also have a 24-hour shelf-life and are limited to 20 seconds. Still, these are less popular than stories on other platforms like Instagram.
Facebook Live
Facebook Live allows you 8 hours which is much longer than most livestreaming functions on other platforms. So naturally, longer livestreams on Facebook get the highest engagement, with 0.26% engagement in one-hour livestreaming rising to 0.46% for livestreaming longer than an hour.
Twitter Post Lengths
Unlike Facebook or Instagram, Twitter demands concise and topical written text that must compete with the other 500 million tweets tweeted each day. You also have graphics such as memes and GIFs to grab more attention, but generally, you have less than 2 seconds to hold the viewer’s eye with each tweet.
Tweets
Tweets of medium length perform the best as most retweets are between 70 and 140 characters. Posts of approximately 100 characters get 17% more engagement than tweets with higher character counts. Also significant to note is that when Twitter doubled its character limit to 280, only 1% of its users hit the limit, meaning tweets did not get longer despite the increased freedom.
Graphics
Graphics may just be your saving grace on Twitter. Tweets with videos receive 10 times more engagement than ones without, and short is also the way to go. A Twitter video can only be as long as 140 seconds. Videos between 43 and 45 seconds get featured more by Twitter than longer ones.
Hashtags
Hashtags enable twice the engagement on a tweet than if it is without. There are no limits to hashtags on Twitter, but tweets with 1 or 2 hashtags get 21% more engagement than tweets without a single hashtag. Also important to note is that engagement drops as soon as more hashtags are added. At best, the hashtags must be 6 characters or less.
LinkedIn Post Lengths
LinkedIn is a more professional sphere and a perfect platform for event marketing to thrive, especially if it is corporate-related. Users come for industry insights, so social media post lengths tend to be long and dense as businesses and individuals delve into their offerings and brand messaging.
Posts
Posts on LinkedIn can have up to 3000 characters, including hashtags. On a company page, the status update can be 700 characters long. The ideal length for a LinkedIn post is between 100 and 140 characters.
Videos
Videos on LinkedIn must be between 3 seconds and 10 minutes. The optimal video length is between 30 and 90 seconds. LinkedIn suggests going even shorter than that and making it only 15 seconds.
Messages
Messages have a 200-character limit in the subject and 2000 characters in the body. LinkedIn has also reported that messages with 150 characters or less have an increased chance of getting a response, while those with more than 200 characters have significantly less chance of a response. Bear this in mind when sending out event invites; put the vital information at the top and not at the bottom of the message.
YouTube Lengths
YouTube is the biggest search engine after Google and is currently the biggest video platform online. While it may not be the obvious choice for event marketing, YouTube allows you to build a thriving channel where you can learn your audience by looking at the content they respond to best. This information then helps you craft compelling events both online and offline.
Videos
Video length is virtually unlimited on YouTube as users watch anything from tutorials to television shows and movies. However, videos below 10 minutes have grown in popularity over the last few years. At best, you want your video between 7 and 15 minutes in length.
YouTube ads
YouTube ads depend on the type of content you are promoting. The most effective pre-roll ad is between 15 and 30 seconds. Ads that can be skipped are limited to 6 minutes and can be skipped after 5 seconds, while ads that cannot be skipped are limited to just 3 minutes. Overall, YouTube recommends 30 seconds on an ad or less. Bumper ads are limited to 6 seconds, and mid-roll ads are limited to 30 seconds.
Descriptions
Descriptions can be as long as 5000 characters, and they are effective in increasing the visibility of your videos. Your titles are crucial as they influence whether your videos show up in search results; the character limit is 100, and titles with more than 70 characters get cut off in search results.
Tags
Tags on YouTube are similar to hashtags on other platforms and serve to identify content. The maximum character count for tags is 500.
TikTok Lengths
Currently, the most downloaded app, TikTok, has created a revolution in video marketing by highlighting the power of short video content.
Videos
Video length was initially 15 seconds but was quickly increased to 60 seconds. Then came the recent addition of 3-minute videos.
Character
The character count is limited to 150 characters, including hashtags, making it perfect for explosive one-liners. Make sure that everything you want to say is articulated in your video.
Keep Social Media Post Lengths Short
Successful content will invariably move your followers to action. Whether it’s going to your bio, purchasing tickets to your event, or sharing it with friends, you want your audience to do something in response to your post. This is why you cannot afford to indulge in posting content that is too long. Keep social media post lengths short to create mystery, build anticipation, and your audience consistently follow along as you drop little breadcrumbs each day, leading them to your big event!