Welcome to another edition of The Matter Social Second — keeping you current about what’s trending in social media. We’re sharing the most important and impactful social stories from September.
This Feature Encourages Users to Share One Post Per Day at an Exact Time.
A new instantaneous photo/video experience feature is now available — introducing TikTok Now! Similar to BeReal, this gives you another way to share authentic moments using your device’s front and back camera simultaneously. The main difference between the two apps is TikTok Now has the ability to capture either a static photo or a 10-second video of what you’re up to. The “Now” option will appear on the latest version of the TikTok app.
Since launching in 2011, Snapchat has been home to countless video features and many forms of entertainment. Now, the company has another way to keep conversations going across devices: Snapchat for Web. The web version of the social media platform has all the favorite features, including Chat Reactions, Chat Reply and Lenses — which will all roll out soon. To access Snapchat for Web, simply log onto www.web.snapchat.com and enter your credentials.
Another Way to Connect with Your Community in Real Time through Text, Audio or Video.
Check out this new messaging experience that lets you build better connections within your Facebook communities! With Community Chats, users can form a Facebook Group and facilitate chat and audio conversations within the Messenger app. This feature creates an enjoyable new channel for Group admins and members to reach people and drive discussions. Currently, Community Chats is still in testing mode and is not available to all groups or people. Check out the latest updates in Facebook’s Help Center.
Could your team use more social media best practices and support for your brand? Reach out below and our team will be in touch.
In my two-plus decades working with startup founders, I’ve heard numerous origin stories about the moment each arrived at their most magnificent breakthrough. The mobility, the automation, the intelligence were always impressive, and – in some cases – first of their kind. The market also responded positively, with impressive customer acquisition, growth rates and funding rounds. However, I was regularly struck by how often founders were challenged by articulating why a particular market or industry would benefit from what they had to offer.
Prioritizing “why” is as important today as when Simon Sinek first encouraged us to do so in his 2009 book. Building a strong brand narrative means keeping the story simple and clear: who are you, what do you do and why do you do it? While the “who” and “what” are significant, they really only outline what the product or solution is and how it works. The “why” is far more integral – it conveys an understanding of the problem and provides context within industries and for prospective customers living with pain points every day.
As a seasoned marketing and communications expert, I’ve developed some tips to help your brand uncover your “why” and use it effectively.
How to Find Your “Why”
Perhaps the most important, and rewarding, step in creating brand messaging is discovering your “why.” It brings authenticity to your messaging and a reason to believe for customers and other key stakeholders. It’s what makes your story powerful, meaningful and important.
To find your “why,” go back to the very beginning and remember why you started your venture. Some prompts include:
What problem inspired the creation of your product or solution?
Was there a moment when you or someone in your family (everyone loves a mom story) addressed this issue head on?
How does your product or solution address the issue?
The next step is to walk along the same path as the end user. A customer-first mindset will go a long way in helping to make your product or service immediately relevant and help to break through the noise of other competitive offerings. Think about:
What do you want to achieve with this solution or product?
How do you see this product or solution benefitting people in 10 or 20 years?
What potential impact will this product have in the future? In mission-driven industries, such as cleantech and greentech, it is important to consider how this product will help change the state of the world.
Additionally, it’s critical to think about how your brand fits into the overall industry landscape. Between all the buzzwords, smart devices [RN1] and everything “as a service,” industry innovation is crowded and ever-changing. By sharing your “why,” you’ll bring consistency and uniqueness to the space:
Has your industry changed since you started and, if so, is your “why” still relevant?
What is different about your brand compared to some of the more established options in the space? What about the new players?
How is your company tackling global issues that others aren’t?
Lastly, ensure your messaging is consistent across the board. When it shifts, consumers and stakeholders will likely take notice and question the changes — often risking your brand’s authenticity. Mixed messaging dilutes customer trust, which is not easily or quickly regained. Ultimately, brand consistency matters, and talking about your “why” is no different.
How to Use Your “Why” Effectively
There are three keyways brands can use their “why” effectively, regardless of size, lifespan or industry.
First, use your “why” to clearly differentiate yourself in crowded competitor spaces. Particularly in industries like cleantech, healthtech, fintech and edtech, a persuasive “why” can help your solution rise above others.
Second, use your “why” to help guide and build your brand voice. Your “why” is the most compelling part of your story, so use it to shape any additional messaging, marketing or PR efforts. In a similar vein, your “why” represents the core of your company and should align with everything else the company is doing, especially vision, mission and values.
Ultimately, your “why” can be used to gain meaningful media traction. Research has shown brands that highlight their “why” achieve greater media success, as they come across as more relevant and in touch with market demand. I often think of how Intuit’s Scott Cook set out to simplify the painstaking task of balancing his family’s checkbook. Fast forward 40 years, and the ethos of solving everyday problems remains true to the Intuit family of brands. A review of the company’s history as one of the oldest tech brands in Silicon Valley will reveal its ethos of customer obsession is never eclipsed by the latest product feature, functionality or leadership profile. The “why” sets the standard.
The Power of Why
At the end of the day, a company’s growth story, founder journey or product innovation is not enough to win hearts and minds — it’s how the product helps them solve an issue that makes the difference.
During my time at Matter, our clients – from venture startups to multinational corporations – have used these tips and tricks to find their “why” and create meaningful connections with their target audiences.
I hope to see more people following their entrepreneurial dreams while also placing a spotlight on their core messaging and the “why” behind it all.
How to future-proof your video marketing efforts and produce great content.
Time travel is a strange and awesome idea. Maybe you’ve done something regrettable and want to rewrite history. Or maybe you’re just in a rock band destined to save humanity and you need to gather historical figures so you can graduate from high school (#WyldStallyns). Either way, the idea that you could travel into the past to make a better future is always appealing. But what if you didn’t need to alter the fabric of time and space to ensure that incredible future state? That’s best-case scenario, right?
Now, we’re not time travelers and we’ve never claimed to be. Sure, we’ve lived through the past – where do you think we got these original deadstock JNCO jeans? But the future, well, none of us have been there or seen that. Not yet anyway.
Despite our woeful lack of a time machine, we do have a strong sense of video’s future. And more importantly, we know how you can future-proof your video marketing efforts with great content.
See, over the years, we’ve participated in what amounts to a video revolution, having successes and learning from our mistakes along the way. And we’ve witnessed how branded content is a constantly evolving field. But you know what? Some very important things haven’t changed, and our experience has taught us that a few of these trends will probably stay the same.
So, in this post, we’re going to peer into the future by digging into the past – no time machine necessary! And we’re going to equip you to make awesome, evergreen content with little to no risk of disturbing the great cosmic timeline.
Lesson #1: Target what your audience actually wants
Imagine – if you will – that we are a future version of you. (You’ve aged well BTW!) And we’ve come to tell you something very important about the people you’re hoping to engage with your branded content.
The bad news: People have a lot of options when it comes to how they spend their time. And if they choose to spend it watching a video, they have 800 million options on YouTube alone.
The good news: There are a lot of people out there too, with varied interests and needs. So, the more relevant your video is to your intended audience, the more likely they are to watch it.
This means you need to figure out what videos your audience likes: the genre, the aesthetics, the talent, the production value, the running time and the emotional pulls that draw them in. Find a creative way to speak directly to your audience so they have a reason to spend more time with your brand.
Lesson #2: Every video needs a clear message
Picture this: it’s 1985 and you’re a hard-rockin’, California high schooler named Marty McFly. You and your eccentric old buddy “Doc” are about to journey through a fold in the space-time continuum. Nice! But you have three equally important destinations, and they’re all at different points in time. Once you enter those dates into your flux capacitor-powered, time-bending DeLorean, do you toss all three different dates in at once? Of course not! You’re going to need to prioritize and choose only one. You absolutely can and should take three different trips, but you need to focus on one at a time. That’s just how time travel works (based on our understanding, anyway).
Human brains are a bit like that DeLorean’s date input screen. And realistically, your audience can’t physically retain more than a couple messages at a time. That’s just science, people! So, knowing that, your goal is to not overload your time machine with dates OR your audience with competing messages. Everything you put into your video should work toward a common goal.
Which brings us to…
Lesson #3: Focus on a single business goal
Chances are you’re not a former-Mr-Universe-turned-time-traveling-cyborg. (If you are, we have questions.) But even if you were, every time you’ve shown up in our lives, your mission has been fairly simple. Whether you’re supporting Skynet’s evil plans by trying to murder a dirt-biking teen or undermining that same ill-tempered AI by ensuring John Connor’s birth (so he can wheelie his way into leading a human revolution in the year 2029), you’ve got a singular focus to your journey.
But what does that mean for you as a video marketer? Well, whatever you’re trying to achieve with a specific video, choose one – and only one – goal to focus on. You shouldn’t need to overpromise on ROI just to convince stakeholders to support your idea.
So, make sure your goal is specific and measurable. Start with one KPI (e.g., engagement, brand awareness, brand affinity, education, click-thrus, etc.) and establish a system for demonstrating success. Then, let your audience help you achieve that goal with a strong, direct Call-to-Action.
Lesson #4: Did someone say, “Call to Action”?
Let’s be real here: The purpose of your video is to drive your audience toward some kind of action. And until we develop technology that allows your audience to read your mind, do you know what the most effective way to get a person to do something is?
Just tell them what you want them to do. Otherwise – you guessed it – they won’t know!
Call, log-on, e-mail, like, click, share, tweet, comment, follow, hashtag, whatever – you can be pretty straightforward when it comes to your CTA. Now, there’s obviously strategy and nuance when it comes to driving action, and if you want to dig in, check out this great guide from Wistia.
Engaging with your audience is the most powerful part of business video creation, so don’t let this be an after-thought. And we have a lot of thoughts on this topic, so if you want to learn more or talk video strategy, fill out our contact form and start the conversation. (See what we did there?)
Lesson #5: Build an emotional connection with your audience
Very rarely does someone want to watch or listen to a sales pitch. But you’re selling something and you don’t want your audience to ignore your video. So, what’s the plan here, boss?
Just like people, brands and businesses have stories to tell. And storytelling is a proven way to make your content easier to follow and more memorable. Connect the audience with your business’s humble beginnings, a customer case study, or a fictional account of what your product looks like in action. Or even try looking ahead with the story of where you’re going and how you’re changing the world. All these provide examples of what you do and what you care about – which will help your audience see that you know who they are, understand their needs and get what they’re all about.
Think about your brand as more than a wordmark or a product – you create outcomes and results. Connect your story with what matters to your audience, and they’ll know who you are and why knowing that matters.
Otherwise, they might not know – and worse, they may misunderstand you or mistake you for someone else.
Lesson #6: Length and structure matter to your audience
By now, we’ve all heard —and most of us have personally experienced — how short people’s attention spans seem to have become. Which begs the question about branded video run time: How long is too long?
The truth is there’s no perfect length, no magic number that works for every piece of content. Videos and podcasts need to be as long as they need to be to make the point they’re trying to make.
But here’s some food for thought.
The longer your video is, the more quickly your audience will potentially stop watching. Think about it. If your interest flags in the first 45 seconds of a two-minute video, are you going to finish it? Or if you’re deciding whether to commit 30 minutes of your time to a webinar, is the content worth the time? Either way, your ability to stick with a piece of content absolutely depends on what you expect to get out of it.
So, a product announcement might land at 30 seconds – while an explainer about the same product could push a couple minutes – because the content requires more or less detail depending on what the audience will walk away understanding. Oh, and don’t get us started on the power of long-form content to engage audiences and build brand affinity! Read any “State of Video” report and you’ll see that the YOY growth of audience engagement favors longer content types. And building brand affinity is one of the strongest ways to create relationships with your customers.
The lesson here, in a nutshell, is always create content with intent – don’t make decisions about length and structure arbitrarily. Got it? Good.
Lesson #7: Good production value goes a long way
If you could, would you go back and do things differently? No, we’re not talking about investing in Apple in 1980 or inventing Google (or Lougle, depending on your timeline). We mean investing in the great ideas you’ve had over the years. The gamechanging podcast that didn’t quite sound right. The inspiring brand anthem packed with stock footage. That time you animated your own product explainer with a free tool online. Yeah, those ones.
Welp, you can’t fix those now. But we don’t need to look backwards to understand what we can do better moving forward.
So, don’t sleep or skimp on lighting, color correction, high quality audio recording, sound design and everything else that contributes to audience engagement. Heck, hire a production team (wink wink, nudge nudge)! Because with or without a massive budget, your audience needs to be able to understand your vision in order to connect with it.
Now, you probably know that expensive productions don’t automatically translate to effective videos (we’re looking at you 2009’s Land of the Lost). But when you produce with intent, it shows. Plus, every single piece of content you share with the world reflects directly on your business. So, next time you have a great idea, give it the great production value it deserves.
In conclusion: Save time travel for awesome adventures
Time travel shouldn’t be wasted on un-regretting poor decisions or learning lessons about branded content. It should be used for arm wrestling a dinosaur. Or riding a motorcycle through King Arthur’s court. Or teaching a caveman to play giant Jenga. You know, awesome stuff.
Lessons like these, well, that’s what blogs by experienced content pros are for:
1. Target what your audience actually wants
2. Every video needs a clear message
3. Focus on a single business goal
4. Manifest results with a strong CTA
5. Build an emotional connection with your audience
6. Length and structure matter to your audience
7. Good production value goes a long way
8. Save time travel for awesome adventures
And now that you’re equipped for success, are you ready to start creating branded content that you won’t look back at with regret? Fill out the form below for a free strategy session with one of our video marketing specialists.
Welcome to another edition of The Matter Social Second — keeping you current about what’s trending in social media. We’re sharing the most important and impactful social stories from August.
Drive Greater External Traffic with LinkedIn’s New Link Sticker.
The wait is over! LinkedIn is launching their own twist on the Instagram/Facebook link sticker as another way to drive external traffic and grow post engagement on the platform. Users can place the sticker anywhere in the post frame and even determine the size of the sticker. While the rollout is gradual, you can expect to see your connections experimenting with this sticker soon.
Twitter Releases New Features to Combat Misinformation Ahead of the U.S. Midterms.
Politicians are gearing up for the U.S. midterm elections, and social media creators and users are doing their best to prepare. To tackle the historical uptick of negativity and misinformation that tends to get posted around the midterms, Twitter is launching new go-to election hubs in their Explore feature to clearly identify and label candidates. Additionally, Twitter will be enforcing their Civic Integrity Policy and “prebunks” to limit the spread of inaccurate or construed reports and tweets. Users should see these updates rolling out over the coming months.
Instagram Tests New Opportunity for Users to Select a Full-Screen Display, Similar to TikTok.
It’s no surprise that Instagram has been chasing the format, structure and layout of TikTok. As part of a recent test, Instagram launched a full-screen feed display that mirrored the appearance of TikTok. To Insta’s dismay, the new feature was not widely or happily accepted. The platform paused on the new format indefinitely. This time around, Instagram is allowing users to choose their own display: full screen Instagram feed or a TikTok-style experience. The feature is currently live for some users.
Could your team use more social media best practices and support for your brand? Reach out below and our team will be in touch.
