If you ask two different contentmarketers about long-form content, you will likely get two very different responses.
The first argument could be that long-form content is too much of a risk to take, given the apparently short attention spans of audiences.
On the other hand, one may argue that writing longer pieces is a fantastic way to interact with readers, provide them with true value, and give them a satisfying experience overall.
Which one of these content marketers has the correct approach?
You got it correctly; We are talking about the advocate for long-form material.
Why?
Let's find out.
What Is Long-Form Content?
Long-form content can be described in many different ways, even though it might seem obvious.
Some people think that articles with more than 700 words are long-form, while others think that they have to have more than 1,800 words.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that "long-form content" means articles with 1,200 words or more.
Even though some content marketers might think otherwise, many readers want articles with more substance, and publishers are giving them to them.
For example, the businessnews site Quartz doesn't publish articles between 500 and 800 words because Kevin Delaney, the site's editor-in-chief, thinks that too many sites stick to this format too strictly.
Delaney even made a model (called the Quartz Curve) that is based on the length of articles and is used to decide what to write about in the magazine.
Benefits Of Long-Form Content On Social Media
Better For SEO
Most of the time, if you want your website to do well on search engineresults pages, you should focus on long-form content (SERPs).
Long-form content does better because of a few things.
For one, it's easier to target and optimize for a long list of keywords, which can help search engines understand and index web content for relevant searches.
Long-form content can also get more backlinksand shares on social media, which shows search engines that your content is useful and interesting to people online.
It can also increase the number of visitors to amount a website and the time people spend on a page, which are both good signs for search engine rank.
More Authoritative
Even though length doesn't always equal wisdom, most people think that longer content is more reliable and authoritative.
This is because making long-form pieces usually takes more time and work.
Long-form content also gives people who read it online more in-depth information to work with, which can help show how knowledgeable they are about a certain topic or in a certain field or industry.
Quality Rather Than Quantity
In general, quality is more important than quantity in long-form content.
Volume is important for short-form content because it is often more timely and needs to be made faster.
But making longer content requires more planning, more research, and more attention to layout.
Content marketers have to think about how long-form pieces will cover more than one idea or concept at the same time.
They also have to make sure that the content is easy to read and gives readers useful information.
More Presentation Options
Because long-form content takes up so much more space than short-form content, there are more ways to present it.
Long-form writing, for example, can be used in a different way or broken up into groups of related topics.
You can even combine audio and visual content in a single long-form piece by mixing text, graphics, videos, and other interactive elements to break up the information.
Best Examples Of Long-Form Content On Social Media
The Atlantic: My President Was Black
The Atlantic printed and posted on its website Ta-Nehisi Coates's powerful tribute to Barack Obama's presidency.
The piece comes to life online with an audio version read by Coates himself, as well as stunning pictures and videos spread out over six chapters.
The chapters are set up so that you can scroll through them all at once
Google Trends: The Year In Search
How does a giant like Google organize its data?
Of course, with a strong set of long-form resources.
Google's annual report on the most-searched topics in the world is made up of almost endless lists and groups, as well as a video that shows the year's most memorable events.
The search engine has a huge database where users can look for trends by topic, country, and month.
Buffer Social: The Future Of Social Media
Who said that learning can't be fun?
Long-form templates are a great way to show data and infographics in a way that is interesting.
Buffer Social's report on the state of social media in 2016 was presented using a long-form template.
Hard data and research that a company owns are often behind a paywall, but Buffer Social gives it away for free to get organic clicks.
National Geographic: Canada’s 50 Places Of A Lifetime
This National Geographic article (sponsored by Canada) about must-see places in Canada is full of pictures that will catch your eye.
The multi-feature long-form package has 50 pieces of content that are organized into easy-to-follow chapters by category: towns, cities, natural wonders, adventures, etc.
Because readers may want to use this information later when planning their own trips, National Geographic lets them download a PDF in exchange for their email address.
Where To Post Long-Form Content On Social Media?
We're all used to Instagram's 10-photo limit because we've all posted more than one photo at some point.
Make sure the content is high-quality and presented in an interesting way.
Have all the calls to action on the last slide to encourage people to take action.
It's the kind of post that makes you stop scrolling and pay attention if you're interested.
Twitter threads have been around for a long time, but more and more people and accounts are using them to tell stories instead of just sharing random thoughts that don't fit in a single tweet.
The last tweet is a plug for the blog post that has all the data and insights.
You could say that there's no need to click the link in that last tweet because there was so much interesting information before it.
They get your attention one way or another, whether you only read the tweet thread or also click for the full article.
People Also Ask
What Is Long-form Media?
Long-form content is content that has a lot of information or a lot of detail about a certain topic.
Between 700 and 2,000 words should be the minimum length.
How Do You Structure Long-form Content?
Don't write sentences that are too long or more than five sentences per paragraph.
Don't use complicated sentence structures or words that are hard to understand.
Don't forget that the user might be scared of articles with just a few very long paragraphs.
What Is Long-form Content SEO?
Content with a lot of words ranks higher.
Google's top ten results for any keyword have an average of at least 2,000 words of content on the page.
The more you scroll up the page of search results, the more content each website has.
Conclusion
Long-form content on social media platforms can be a useful part of a company's content marketingstrategy.
Long-form posts let you increase your presence on these platforms, connect with current and new customers, and raise brand awareness.
But it's important to keep in mind that anything posted on these sites could disappear at any time.
So, if you decide to use long-form content as part of your content marketing strategy, don't use it as a replacement for what you're already doing.
Instead, use it to support what you're already doing.