It goes without saying that Social Media Marketing should already be an integral part of your digital marketing strategy but is your business making the most of social media by connecting with your potential customers in a way that engages them?
Whilst we have unprecedented access to a world of information, we have the same amount of mental processing power as we’ve always had. The number of minutes in the day stays exactly the same so in turn our attention, not information, has become the limiting factor in engagement.
We now live in an attention economy; our attention is one of the most valuable resources of the digital age. For most of history, access to information was limited, but today, we walk around with super computers in our pockets and we have access to a wealth of information at our fingertips (subject to the availability of a decent WIFI signal).
This unparalleled access to information impacts every part of our day to day lives.We are constantly bombarded by advertising, notifications and marketing messages from every angle which in turn is affecting how we as individuals engage online. Whether that be checking the weather or traffic, looking for an emergency plumber or researching that must have, new product or service… in the age of the internet ignorance is a choice.
Have you noticed the shift?
The human brain processes visual imagery 60,000 times faster than text, with 90 percent of all information transmitted to the brain being visual. When our attention is limited our behaviours adapt and this couldn’t be truer than with Social Media.
By the end of 2019 online video will be responsible for almost four-fifths of global Internet traffic. As such our Social Media habits are adapting, platforms are embracing new ways to allow people to tell their stories and share their narrative with the world. Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook have fully embraced this trend, and it’s changing the way we consume social media content.
As users now gravitate towards a preference of engaging with visual media, led by photography and video, it presents numerous opportunities for brands to stand out. Disrupting social news feeds with impactful and engaging video content to get their stories and messages across.
Social Media has always been about storytelling –
Brand storytelling on social media influences customers by increasing brand awareness, reach and attracting new followers. Your story is how your company will be remembered by customers.
This opens the door for brands to share more human stories of their own, designed to inspire audiences to try out their products and services. Our attention has become the biggest factor in our daily decision-making processes so standing out and getting your audience’s attention is more important than ever.
Building a unique brand story on social media involves telling it through different social platforms. Figuring out the best way to translate your brand story to social media can be a challenge, however, identifying the right tool for the right job will help ensure you make the most impact.
The continued rise of ‘Stories’ offers businesses a unique opportunity to capture the direct attention of audiences and potential customers… if applied in the right way. For example, you might not consider ‘Stories’ to be a viable option for your business, however, approached in the right way you can leverage a lot of value from telling your story visually but with a business focussed purpose.
Recruitment for example –
As of 2019, Social Stories are growing 15x faster than news feeds, with over 500 million people around the world use Instagram Stories on a daily basis alone (with that number rapidly growing by the minute).
Daily social media story users / viewers by platform –
- 450 million on WhatsApp
- 500 million on Instagram
- 135 million on Facebook
- 150 million on Snapchat (the platform that pioneered the feature)
Visual led storytelling makes for better marketing because they elicit emotion. They can influence who we trust, play on our nostalgia, and help us make sense of complex information. A really great story can not only communicate the character of a brand but get your message across in a matter of seconds. With a simple swipe of the thumb, you can begin the sales journey with your intended audience.
A picture is worth a thousand words
Every second, a million minutes (17,000 hours) of video content will cross global IP networks by 2021, according to Cisco (via Forbes). Video will only continue to grow in importance, which means it’s vital to stay on top of the latest social and content marketing advances in order to make an impact.
Video is arguably the most effective form of content and its popularity has gone hand-in-hand with the rise of social media. Despite the fact that so many of us consume online videos on a daily basis, many marketers still aren’t using video as part of their digital marketing strategy or aren’t seeing the best results.
This form of storytelling is critical to your social and content strategy because it’s digestible, memorable, and measurable. These aren’t just the components that make it perfect for your audience who may crave short, engaging pieces, but they’re also the features that make video every marketer’s dream format.
Because it’s especially visual, you can use video to teach complex concepts (what is content for if not to make things clearer for your audience?), to share stories about your customers, and to inspire marketing-specific actions (like enquiries, demos, trials, subscriptions, and more).
But beyond video’s unique ability to convert and inspire like no other, the medium has become especially valuable to data-driven marketers. You can track and measure audience engagement for video in a really meaningful way. You can tie your videos directly to the deals they’re helping to influence, and you can see which assets are actually resonating based on content engagement analytics. This is the reporting that marketing desperately needs to identify their most engaged leads faster and prove the value of your initiatives.
How can StrategiQ help?
With consumers having more choice than ever when it comes to purchasing power, and this is a good thing for them, but a challenge for marketers because there’s ever increasing competition. The good news is that there are still only a small number of companies that are really leveraging content delivery trends and social media features in such a way that they tell a story that truly connects.
Every brand has a story to tell, let us help you tell yours. Whether it’s building brand awareness or helping you strategise the best formats to tell your brand story, StrategiQ think objective first, channel and approach second.
If you are interested in exploring how you can cut through the noise with social – get in touch today.