Snackable content – bite-sized web content

Snackable content is a collective term for web content that can be consumed quickly, without much effort. This includes videos, pictures, memes, short posts, tweets, and audio files, among other forms. Most of this kind of content is found on social networks such as Instagram and Facebook.

Snackable content is the solution to internet users’ dwindling attention spans regarding online content. It belongs to the essential concepts of today’s content marketing and is perfectly suited for the development of an advertising campaign by means of storytelling. The following article will look at what snackable content is, why it is so successful, and finally a few examples of snackable content.

Snackable content focuses on the direct communication of certain ideas and content, e.g. on an emotional or entertaining level. It is becoming increasingly difficult to attract a web user’s attention for a longer time. Snackable content is all the more effective because it can be understood immediately, and doesn’t take up any time. Furthermore, well-done snackable content is less intrusive than traditional advertising. This means web users are more likely to trust a brand, increasing the chance that the content will go viral. Snackable content is particularly suited to mobile browsing. There are many apps and mobile-friendly websites where content can be viewed quickly on the go. Snackable content must be able to be scrolled through and immediately understood. Since snackable content is so easily integrated into social media, the scope of its possible audience is also much wider. Ideally, interesting videos and funny pictures would be directly shared via messaging services such as WhatsApp and Snapchat. The often small file size of snackable content makes this particularly easy. You can also share the snackable content your customers create – such as positive product reviews on social media, for example. This familiarises potential customers with your product, and improves your company’s image as a trustworthy business. After all, advertising by a satisfied customer usually looks more authentic than your own.

Snackable content comes in various forms. What they all have in common is their accessibility, their direct way of communication, and small size. However, each form also has certain advantages and disadvantages. The snackable content form often depends on the respective platform. Some websites specialise in funny images, others in informative images, while others focus on concise texts – here are a few examples of snackable content.

Snackable content creators often combine the forms, as shown here, with text and image being combined:

Posts and tweets have established themselves as the dominant form of 'snackable' text. These are usually very short texts, and can be read in seconds. Users often interact with texts just as quickly by liking, sharing and commenting on them. The popular short messages have a great influence today, partly because most celebrities use the medium as a communication channel. It is not without reason that a tweet by Donald Trump significantly heightened the tensions of the diplomatic crisis between the U.S. and North Korea in 2018.

In another way, influencers can stand out on social networks by sharing popular content – in most cases this means snackable content. Posts and tweets are so elementary in the digital age, precisely because they are quick to consume and easy to understand. Algorithms and popularity are factors which filter which 'snacks' users see.

Videos are great as snackable content because they are so easily accessible. Usually a 'preview image' appears on the platform – you can start the video by pressing the 'play' button. The content is mostly short films (up to 1 minute), and often also contains subtitles so that they can also be understood without sound. In snackable content form, videos can be easily integrated into posts and tweets, and can be played while you scroll through feeds without having to leave the respective app or website. These videos are mostly shared via Instagram, Snapchat, and other messaging services, and appear regularly in social media feeds. The possibility of integrating YouTube videos increases ease of creation for content creators. Because of these advantages video marketing has become an important component for good advertising campaigns. One of the best-known forms of snackable video forms are 'Vines.' These video clips, fixed at 6 seconds and usually recorded on phones, were hugely popular until the Vine portal was closed in January 2017. On YouTube, however, Vine culture continues, with many of these short clips or compilations still being viewed millions of times over.

Advertising videos on YouTube are sometimes minutes long, but many users skip them after a few seconds. An easy solution for advertisers is that videos should not be longer than a few seconds. Snackable content in video form has also established itself in online marketing and aims to quickly capture the attention of web users.

One of the best-known forms for snackable content images in internet culture is the meme. The original idea behind memes was that they could be replicated endlessly and constantly put into a new context. For example, a picture of a sad-looking bear cub went viral as a 'confession bear.' Here, meme creators give each picture a caption text that matches the facial expression of the animal which usually contains a kind of confession. Memes are shared on many social networks such as Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, but don’t last long, seeing as new ones are constantly being created.

• Livestreams: The success of Twitch could be explained by its easy accessibility. Many social networks allow livestreams to be integrated and make them snackable. However, their transmission time is usually quite long, and takes up a fair amount of data, meaning that they are less suitable for mobile streaming, and so not the optimal form of snackable content.
• Article: Many articles on the internet are deliberately short so that they can be read as quickly as possible. Portals such as Buzzfeed have specialised in this type of text. Simply structured article types such as 'top 10' lists are especially popular as snackable content.
• Podcasts: These audio files function like radio-on-demand and are usually specialised in one topic. They are easy to absorb (especially on the go), which makes them quite 'snackable,' but podcast episodes are often more than ten minutes long and sometimes take up considerably more time to listen to.