Depending on your organization,
social media may play a substantial role
in your omnichannel user experience.
And if that's the case,
it may be worth it to evaluate
how usable your content is.
In this video, I'll share three tips
from my social media research,
and these tips are aimed at helping
you and your team
create usable social media posts.
My first tip is to understand your audience
and send meaningful messages
that match user expectations.
Like websites and other digital products,
we need to understand who we're designing for.
Social media is no different.
My research found that users
had varying expectations regarding
the type of messages they wanted to see
from brands on social platforms.
These expectations were highly dependent
on the type of company
or organization posting the information.
For example, let's consider news outlets.
Users expected news outlets
like the New York Times and NPR
to post the top headlines
and stories from around the world.
On the other hand, they expected organizations
like non-profits to post information
about their initiatives, upcoming events,
and request for donations or volunteers.
When brands didn't post
the types of messages users expected,
they often became frustrated
and commented on the lack of utility
in the content provided.
In your product context,
identify what users care about
and the questions they have
surrounding your experience.
Use that information to craft
a meaningful social strategy.
My next tip is around legibility.
You must ensure users can read the text
in your graphics.
This is accomplished by applying
a relatively large font size
and high contrast color combination.
Users tend to scroll through
their social feeds pretty quickly
and they may gaze on your post
for a second or two
before they make the quick judgment
to move on to the next post.
If your content is illegible,
it's less likely that fast-scrolling users
will stop to engage with it.
And even if they do,
despite that poor legibility,
you're forcing them to put in additional effort
just to consume your content.
So let me ask you,
which of the following post is easier to use?
I'll go ahead and assume
you picked the post from dictionary.com.
This is a great example of text legibility
and a graphic on Instagram.
In comparison, that WebMD post was hard to read
and incredibly cluttered.
During a usability session,
one participant struggled
to zoom into the post multiple times
to try to read the text and the graphic,
which was far too small.
If this participant encountered that post
on their own outside of the study,
I'm doubtful she would've taken the time
to read and interact with that post.
The point is, don't make users
work hard to consume your content.
Rather than cramming too much text
into a single image, like that WebMD post,
consider chunking content
into a series of multiple graphics
in a single post or thread.
Less text in each graphic would allow for
more screen space and larger text.
Though sometimes,
better legibility means less content.
But really, that's just a question
of higher quality content versus more content.
Prioritize legibility over more content,
even if that means you need
to break up the content
over a series of images or post.
My last tip is related to captions.
For platforms with captions
like Instagram and TikTok,
supplement posts with captions containing
relevant, helpful or interesting information.
Captions are a great way to provide
a written summary of a post, tell a story,
provide more details, ask questions,
or even encourage viewers to take action.
Don't underestimate this opportunity
to provide accessible content
that is a component of basic post design.
In our research,
one participant came across
a post without a caption
and she rated the post poorly and she said,
"Without a caption,
you simply just scroll past the post
without even noticing it."
Including a caption in your post,
so long as they're relevant,
can increase the likelihood
that users will engage with your content.
Without captions, users may feel like your post
is incomplete or less informative.
And when crafting those captions,
consider the content
and what questions viewers might have about it.
Aim to answer those questions
or point users to where they can find
relevant information.
Now, depending on your role
and areas of interest,
writing for social media may not be
one of your core responsibilities.
Even so, as UX practitioners,
we're focused on the user experience.
The reality is, social media often plays a role
in our omnichannel user experience
so we should identify ways
to make it more usable.
Whether you're leading
the creation of social posts,
or are collaborating with others that do,
consider how you can create
a better experience for users
interacting with your company on social media.
If you wanna learn more
about creating usable social content,
check out my report, Social Media UX:
User-Centered Social Strategies,
available for purchase on the NN/g website.