What Makes you Click?
Have you ever thought to yourself, "man that just works"? Whether it's rustic or modern look of your friends house, your new haircut, or that gorgeous couple who look as though they were hand crafted by God himself? Some things just catch our eyes more than others! What about the things that aren't so appetizing? For instance, a terrible paint job on a nice car, your old haircut, or of course, that one couple you know. I'm only kidding of course. However, the same concept applies in many areas of our lives, including our social media. If posts or tweets are initially pleasing to view, they will gain our attention. If they aren't, we don't often give them the time of day. In essence, tweets that are initially and aesthetically pleasing, will receive more attention and ultimately more clicks than those that aren't.
I have often found myself scrolling through my Twitter feed so quickly that I am hardly paying attention to detail. This is no surprise considering that a social media platform like Twitter updates its feed every second, and the time I spend on Twitter is in the "in betweens" of the day. That is, going from class to class, or the all too familiar bathroom break social media splurge. Most of this time being five to fifteen minutes at the most, which means if I am going to give time to a tweet it has to make a quick impact! A site like Twitter is meant to be quick and relatively easy to use. I would be reading articles all day if I paused to look at every tweet, what it had to say, and the article or video connected to it.
Many avid tweeters are recognizing these trends and utilizing effective strategies to create more attractive tweets. There are, however, still users who aren't catching on to eye-popping tweet trends. Most of their tweets we tend to scroll right past. What then, makes a tweet pop? What makes one tweet stand out from another? What makes us click?
Here are a few tweets that caught my eye and kept my attention.
The first, tweeted by HubSpot, caught my attention immediately. Now, I'd like to say what first gained my attention was the subject of psychology. However, the truth is, it was the exuberant colors that caught my eye. The bright red, blue, green, purple, and yellow were gravitational! I am almost certain I paused purely to admire the wispy color spectrum portrayed. I did then, proceed to move my eyes upward at the caption displayed. The caption was short, sweet, and to the point. This was helpful because it can be read and understood in under two seconds; very helpful when skimming through your Twitter feed. Not only did this catch my eye, but with the subject being the psychology of how I spend my money, you bet it kept my attention!
A tweet by NYT Opinion grabbed me in a different way. It didn't pull me in with vibrant colors or a "wow factor". It pulled me in merely through curiosity. The picture is near grim in demeanor and provoked a feeling of being trapped and sad. The last element that hooked me was the quote above the picture. "...I have wrestled with that decision ever since." It cause me to ponder things I have wrestled with in my own life, and to a certain degree feel a connection with this person no matter how outlandish and unrealistic that may be.
This simple tweet by The New York Times did not bounce off the page as the other two did. Rather, I took a second glance at it. This tweet was so short and to the point, and that is exactly what made it powerful. It can be read at just a glance, yet it is a simple question about an emotion that nearly everyone feels. We all feel shame from time to time. It can be a strong emotion. The possibility of taking something that feels terrible and putting it to some use is attractive.
The odd thing about noticing tweets that are not good at attaining your attention is exactly that. They are not very efficient at saying "look at me!". It is much more difficult to notice them! Looking for tweets that naturally slip by is a surprising task in itself.
Here are a few tweets that lacked in the attraction department.
Sprout Social has a very elegant profile picture. The animated green leaf on the white background it very eye catching. That is a plus for this post, and anything they post. The issue I had with this tweet as follows; I have no clue what it is about. The first "word" in the tweet, I assume is a five letter acronym. A five letter acronym that I have no idea as to what it means. It would be helpful if the caption explained what the acronym means so there is no confusion. It might also help to bold the first word in the tweet. This allows at least one element to bounce off the page at the reader. This might aid in the likelihood of the tweet being favorited or re-tweeted.
The tweet as seen above by Mr. Preston seems to be in order! However, there is one thing that didn't quite click with me. The picture associated with the text is very difficult to understand. I can't get the gist of what he is trying to say through the picture, and it is not interesting enough in itself to evoke me to read further. I see numbers, and text that is not initially clear. If the picture were much more simple and had much less text it might be more attractive to potential readers or re-tweeters.
The Oscar tweet I found myself almost trying to pass over. It is simplistic and does not have too much text. However, the bright orange to white contrast was uncomfortable for my eyes. I scrolled down to it, glanced and found that I kept scrolling because it was not pleasant to continue to view. A color change on the image would be helpful for ease of viewing.
It's interesting how a few minor tweaks to a tweet can either grab our attention immediately, or keep us from even noticing it. It makes me wonder how many "new haircuts", or "gorgeous couples" we've missed because they weren't presented the way they should have been? Granted, these are just a few things that caught my eye. What makes you click?
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