3 ways to build a brand narrative with short-form content

By Ritika Puri
Best practices

Attention spans are the new currency of the internet and every marketer is struggling to reach their target audiences. As a marketer for a company, you might feel like you’re fighting an uphill battle. The last thing you want to do is consistently push a strong sales message. That’s the opposite of what “works” with marketing today. Instead, you need to build a two-way dialogue and rapport with your target audience.

What can you do to cut through the noise? Follow our three tips for grabbing audiences' attention by saying more with less.

Speak without sound

Our research shows that videos with captions are 11% more likely to be viewed and generate 28% longer view rates.* Your storytelling technique can be as simple as making a captioned slideshow or adding text overlay on your video footage. Create many of these, and over time, your audiences will start to notice a pattern.

Makeup brand @glossier incorporates subtitles in their video product tutorials. Audiences never need to leave the Twitter platform to gain the valuable insight that they need.

Tell a short story

Short videos help audiences empathize with an experience using very little brainpower. By short, we mean extremely short. Remember that videos under 7.5 seconds now automatically loop on Twitter.

Here’s how the @japantimes showcases an innovative product: a robot. 

Focus on offering value

No matter what, if you want to stand out, the information you share should offer value to your readers. Share tips, inspiration, and updates that are relevant to your followers' interests. 

@Investopedia Tweets dictionary definitions about complex financial terminology. 

The bottom line

Focus on offering value to your followers. By pairing engaging visuals with relevant content you will tell your story in a creative way. Telling your story through the series of your interactions over time will maximize impact while minimizing the space you need to tell your story.

Have questions about getting more engagement with your Tweets? Follow @TwitterBusiness for more marketing and messaging tips.


*Twitter Video: Alternative Viewing with OMG, Neuro-Insight, UK, 2016

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