While brands rush to social media platforms to connect with their consumers, it’s imperative that brands understand how each platform is used in order to effectively deliver engaging content.
Social platforms are personal environments where brands can find themselves sitting snuggly alongside your best friend’s wedding photos. The formats in these spaces tend to be native to the environment, so rather than shoehorning in existing creative, mimicking the natural usage is most effective. These platforms offer the chance to tailor messaging; for both the audience and the given context. Like all good opportunities, brands would be foolish to not make the most of it.
So how can you easily create ’thumb stopping content?’
Understand what brings a user to a platform, and how they use it
It’s these intricate differences that will impact what content works for each environment.
For example, we know that around 80% of Facebook videos are watched with no sound, whereas on Snapchat 70% of videos are watched with the sound on. So why would you serve the same video in both spaces?
On Pinterest people are looking for inspiration – if you use beautiful creative, it will cut through to those you’re targeting, and you’ll also benefit from downstream engagements off the back of user re-pins. Or if you look at Instagram Stories you don’t need glossy brand imagery, you need vertical video that connects the viewer to the brand.
Understand your brand and your strengths
Is it a famous face, engaging mascot, reams of content or a unique sound? Reviewing your assets through the lens of each social platform will allow you to think about small amends that need to be made to ensure engagement. Can Facebook’s GIF format be used to add frequency to a 30” video with its short, but fun content?
Understand the data
Social platforms benefit from huge amounts of data to build different audiences. All audiences are not created equally, and it is likely that different aspects of your brand will resonate with different audiences.
As social channels continue to emerge and develop, advertisers should stay updated with emerging channels and what new opportunities they offer. But more importantly, advertisers must explore why and how people are using these platforms. Only when we understand the motivations behind each media moment can we stop the scroll.
