Gwen Woltz offers social media tips Thursday in the Maui Arts & Cultural Center’s Higashi Meeting Room. She is co-owner of Wahine Media, which specializes in social media for businesses, and was appearing at the two-day Hawaii Small Business Conference, which ended Thursday. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo

KAHULUI — Since humans have an attention span of only eight seconds, even less than goldfish, social media messages, especially from businesses to customers, need to have strong images and clear, simple messages, said a social media adviser on Thursday.

People go to social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram to be amused, said Gwen Woltz, co-owner of Wahine Media, which specializes in social media for businesses. So if messages or images are not appealing and do not draw a laugh or smile, people are not going to be interested.

“They want to be entertained,” Woltz told around 40 people, attending one of the workshops at the Hawaii Small Business Conference at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. The two-day workshop, which concluded Thursday, was presented by the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development, Maui County and the Maui Economic Development Board.

Woltz pointed to an example of an effective small-business post on social media site Instagram.

It was done by Keani Jewelry on Maui and featured a photo of a heart made up of about 40 individual heart-shaped white coral pieces. It was a post for Valentine’s Day that read: “You had me at ALOHA.”

Woltz noted the eye-catching coral heart along with the simple wording.

“It’s simple, but it says a lot,” said Woltz, a University of Hawaii graduate who now lives in California. She and her employees work remotely; most of her employees are based in Hawaii.

The post included hashtags #TisTheSeason, #ValentinesDay, #KeaniJewelry and #WhatAGirlWants, which are all subjects related to the post.

For those unfamiliar with hashtags, it is a way to categorize a photo and allow people to find similarly tagged items. When someone clicks a hashtag on Instagram, it will direct the user to all the photos and videos uploaded with that hashtag.

Prior to her talk, Woltz said that, overall, social media is “very important” to businesses.

People in the U.S. check their Facebook, Twitter and other social media accounts 17 times a day, she said.

And the majority of the “compulsive social media checkers are adults,” with the highest usage observed among people between 25 and 54 years old, so it’s not only for the younger generation, Woltz said.

Even Woltz’s 93-year-old grandmother has a Facebook account. Her mother is constantly on Facebook.

But what type of social media is used should be tailored to a business’s needs, Woltz said. For example, a business that services other businesses and not the general public could get a better business benefit from a LinkedIn profile, said Woltz.

LinkedIn is a social networking website designed for business professionals.

While such a business may still use other social media platforms, its purpose would be more for social outreach and brand awareness rather than marketing a company, Woltz added.

While social media is important, Woltz said it should not be used solely to advertise a business.

“You don’t want to put your eggs in one basket,” she said. While social media is a “game changer,” it’s “not saying you have to give up print or give up television or anything like that.”

“It’s all about what works for your business; where you feel you’re going to reach the audience you are trying to reach.”

For example, she was told that a theater company’s marketing plan consists of using various media.

Big production tickets are normally advertised via print media, such as a newspaper, and radio because, generally, older audiences are targeted, she said. But for children’s classes and youth programs, those are advertised via Instagram or Facebook, where mothers and even high schoolers are perusing.

She also gave tips to the small-business owners in the audience.

She advised them to make sure their social media photos are color corrected and bright and that horizons are straight in photos because “psychologically it just irks people” if the horizon is not straight unless it is for some type of effect.

Photos should be cropped appropriately and social media messages should be simple and “just have one thought.”

“Don’t get complex or wordy,” she added.

And there should be “soft sales” in social media, not posts that immediately or outright say come and buy this project.

For example, she pointed to Starbucks, which she called the leader in the soft sell.

In one post, there was a photo of a bag of oranges, and in another photo next to it, a bottle of orange juice sold at Starbucks.

The post noted that drinking the juice was easier “than sticking a straw in an orange.”

For Maui businesses, Woltz said, “I think the biggest thing they need to know and accept is they need to get help” for social media.

She said it doesn’t have to be expensive help, but she said a business owner’s time is more valuable in the bigger picture of running the business.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.