Why Marketers Should Stop Treating All Social Platforms the Same

Animoto recently spent US$30,000 across YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to find out what type of videos perform best on each platform. What did they learn? People are using each platform quite differently and, as a result, they are engaging with different types of content on each platform.

We see a lot of brands and businesses posting the same videos across all the platforms - Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter. But our tests confirmed the hypothesis that plastering the same video everywhere doesn’t take advantage of each platform’s strengths.

In order to be more effective with your video marketing, the key is to take a tailored approach. Think about what your customers are doing, the mindset they are in, and what they are looking for when they visit different social platforms. Then, create your content with that in mind.

To make your life easier, here is a little cheat sheet I put together about how audiences are watching videos across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube and what types of video content work best.

Check it out and read on to learn more.

How is your audience watching video across different platforms?

Facebook Videos

Let’s start by getting to know your audience on Facebook. On Facebook, your potential viewers are:

• On the go. 88% of Facebook users access the social network on a mobile device.

• Watching without audio. 85% of Facebook videos are viewed without sound.

• Short on time and scrolling to discover. Facebook audiences are heading to the app when they have a few spare moments and scrolling through the feed to discover what’s new.

What does this mean for your video content? I recommend sharing updates about what’s new with your company. Share your latest products, your fall fashion line, new services, new locations, new deals. The key word is new.

Get started with our New Collection template. It is built to showcase a new collection of products and you can easily drag and drop your own product shots in and customize the look and feel for your brand. I also recommend using our Aspect Ratio feature to make this template square, as square videos stand out because they take up 78% more space in the News Feed.

PRO TIP: When you sit down to make a video for Facebook, it is important to keep in mind that your potential viewers are scrolling through their feeds rapidly. Start with your most compelling imagery up front to capture attention right away.

Instagram Videos

On Instagram, viewers are behaving in a similar way to those on Facebook. They are on the go, scrolling on mobile when they have got a spare moment. In the feed, they too are often listening with the sound off, though they are more likely to listen with the sound on when checking out Instagram Stories.

The main difference, though, is the type of content that is resonating with Instagram viewers. We have found that inspirational content is what really does the trick on Instagram. Instagram began as a platform for sharing stunning photographs and, although it is now a home for all kinds of content, it is still the inspiring, visually stunning content that stands out.

When you approach video creation for Instagram, keep inspiration in mind. Start with compelling imagery, tell a story that inspires, share a quote, or show something interesting.

PRO TIP: On Instagram, you can post a link in your bio but not in an individual post in the feed. For this reason, it’s important to tell a story in your videos that’s self-contained. Viewers should be able to consume your content, like it, and then scroll on. But the inspiration should stay with them.

To learn more, check out our complete guide to Instagram video.

Twitter Video

There are lots of benefits to using video on Twitter. Tweets with video get retweeted 6X more than photos and 3X more than GIFs. But if you’re looking to get the most out of your Twitter video efforts, you will need to cater your content for your audience’s behaviour.

On Twitter, similar to Facebook and Instagram, your audience is on the go, on mobile, and scrolling to discover. But what they are looking to discover is what is happening right now. They are interested in current news, current trends, and to be a part of the conversation around what is happening in the moment.

For this reason, more ephemeral updates about what is happening right now are the most effective. For instance, when I speak at a conference, I will share the place and time I will be speaking shortly before my talk begins.

You could share a flash sale, jump on a trending topic, or promote an event that is about to occur, as in this example.

PRO TIP: When sharing videos on Twitter, do not forget to include relevant hashtags. This will help you get your videos in front of more people.

YouTube Video

YouTube audiences are quite different from audiences on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. This is primarily because, for the most part, they are not just scrolling for random videos. They have come to YouTube specifically to search for content that they are interested in.

For this reason, your audience on YouTube is more engaged, watching with the audio on, and prepared to watch longer form content than on other social platforms.

When creating content for YouTube, you will still want to make sure you capture the interest of your viewers quickly. But drawing attention with an eye-catching first image does not hold as much weight as it does for feed-based scrolling. Instead, you will want to hold your audience by sharing valuable information at the jump, and all the way through your video.

PRO TIP: On YouTube, your video’s title and description is just as important as the video itself. It will help you show up when potential viewers search and will also help them understand what your video is about before they opt in to watch. Make sure your title and description clearly match up with the value your video provides.

And there you have it! If you are looking for a little extra inspiration or video ideas, we are here for you!

This article was originally posted on Animoto.

Looking to develop your Social Media but not sure where to turn? Need help planning or executing your next Social Media Campaign? Struggle with Digital Ads and Content Creation? Let V5 Digital guide you. Any organization can move forward with small incremental changes, but building for the future in today’s rapidly evolving environment means taking bold chances and making insightful decisions. If you would like more information, book a free consultation today.

How V5 Digital made Namibia fall in Love with Digital in 2020

Love Digital winners (from left to right): Mr Joe von Schumann with a lamb braai pack from BraaiTime, Namibia’s most loved Meat App, Mesdames Cherien Simataa with a voucher for a Social Media Marketing Masterclass from D.O. Digital Academy and Heidi Christ with the Amazon Echo Smart Speaker as well as Mr Armin Wieland, founder of V5 Digital.

When V5 Digital celebrates, we celebrate BIG! In February 2020 we launched our Love Digital competition to celebrate Valentine’s month, while fostering a love for digital and creating awareness for the V5 Africa - our Love for Data & Digital Conference. How did we achieve this?

But first 🥁 🥁 🥁 … who are the competition winners? Watch the video below to find out!

We asked Amazon Alexa to announce our three winners in the “Love Digital" competition.

Our omni-channel approach meant that the campaign drove awareness across social media and email, bolstered by the strategic use of influencers and the social media account of a popular local radio station. Excited Namibians clicked through to the competition micro-site, where they could quickly fill in their details on the online-form to stand a chance to win one of three enticing prizes: an Amazon Echo Speaker, a Social Media Marketing Masterclass, and a BraaiTime braai pack. While on the mobile-friendly micro-site, consumers also learnt about V5 Digital’s Love for Data & Digital Conference and could reserve their seat for the dynamic event.

V5 Digital loves digital and strives to remain on the cutting edge, which is why we used best practice Marketing Automation software from industry leader SharpSpring to help the Love Digital campaign come to life.

This means that when consumers filled in the form on the micro-site, they received an automated email confirming their entry - thanks to SharpSpring. That’s not all: SharpSpring has made sure that every recipient’s email was personalized according to the preferences they entered in the form. If you selected the option that you would love to win the Amazon Echo speaker and you would be most interested in V5 Digital’s email marketing services, you should have received an email tailored exactly to those preferences.

We used email triggers to identify consumers who did not open their original email, so that we could send them a gentle reminder of the competition opportunity. The next trigger guaranteed that all recipients who opened the original email received a follow-up the next day – packed with V5 Digital’s top online trends for 2020. Consumers could read just the overview of trends or click on a trend that caught their eye to read up more on our website. On top of helping recipients fall in love with the ever-evolving world of digital, this email contained fully trackable links, so that V5 Digital could understand which content consumers found most appealing.

A SharpSpring Visual Workflow assigning consumers to a dynamic list

The great thing about Marketing Automation is, that it means fewer grey hairs with less to worry about. Case in point: we used SharpSpring to ensure that a week after we sent out the first email, all recipients automatically received an email containing all the information their hearts could desire about the V5 Digital service, which they had indicated they would be most interested in.

The service preference they had indicated there was also automatically added to their Buyer Persona, helping V5 Digital develop a 360-degree view of every lead. From a reporting standpoint, SharpSpring’s campaign attribution tool revealed which sources contributed to campaign entries.

V5 Digital is a SharpSpring Silver Level Certified Partner

If you would like to know more about how SharpSpring's Marketing Automation can help your business prosper, or if you’d like more information about any of V5 Digital’s services, book a free consultation to find out how you can fall deeper in love with digital.

And if you didn’t win this time, don’t fret – there are plenty more competitions coming up from V5 Digital, so keep your eyes peeled.

Why Digital Transformation (DX) is crucial for your Bottom Line

There’s a lot of buzz around the concept of “Digital Transformation” (DX), but what does it actually mean for you and your business?

Digital transformation is the process of shifting your organisation from a legacy approach to new ways of working and thinking

What pops into your mind when you hear the words, Digital Transformation? Most people think of information technology, automation, and selling products and services online. This is true but few people know about the factors needed to support and ultimately guarantee the success of this technology.

In order for your business to be in perfect balance, you need the Yin of technology and the Yang of a new way of thinking.

An MIT and Capgemini study titled “The Digital Advantage: How Digital leaders outperform their peers in every industry” found that there are two major spheres that businesses must tackle in order to reap the financial rewards of Digital Transformation:

The First is: Digital sophistication of technology

There is no getting around it. You need good tech! For a business to keep up in the current climate it needs greater automation, customer engagement, and efficiencies. This means investing in things like location-based marketing, connected products, mobile sales, social media communities, and optimised pricing.

Luxury fashion brand Burberry, for example, increased profits by improving its in-store customer experience and operational efficiencies using a range of retail-appropriate digital technologies.

The second is: A paradigm shift

This part of the Digital Transformation equation is often ignored to the detriment of the business. Leadership needs to adopt a new way of thinking. They need to be on board and inspire all other departments to embrace cross-silo coordination, an evolved company culture, IT-business relationships, and skills development.

Leading car brand Volvo is noted for the vision and governance competencies it produced prior to rolling out new digital services in its vehicles. These features set them apart from competitors and drove sales.

The above-mentioned study of over 400 organisations from a wide range of industries found that when a company addresses both of these spheres (companies the study calls the “Digirati”), they beat their competitors in terms of profit by up to 50%.

Interestingly, businesses that focused just on digital sophistication (dubbed “Fashionistas”) did not reach the profitability of those who invested mostly in developing management competencies (dubbed “Conservatives”). Companies who had invested little into either arena, “Digital Beginners”, were the least profitable.

For Digital Transformation to occur, someone needs to take the reins and lead the enterprise forward. While it's debatable as to where in the organisation this push should come from, studies have shown that effective change only happens when IT leaders expand the scope of their role to become business technology managers.

Digital Transformation experts Xuviate argue that this concept of Business Technology Management (BTM) is so vital that it should replace the more static concept of IT.

The worth of investing in BTM can be championed to business leaders by mapping the value propositions that digital transformation brings to the organisation.

Primarily, BTM aids in finding and implementing the most appropriate, cost-effective platforms to advance businesses' objectives.

Secondly, using technology as value-driver ensures that business processes are optimised, which leads to cost-saving efficiencies.

Thirdly, when used intelligently, IT can help differentiate a business from its competitors in the market.

Finally, the fundamental transformation of the business toward the smart adoption of the right technologies aids the survival of companies as the marketplace moves increasingly toward digital.

Effective change can transpire when IT leaders expand the scope of their role to become business technology managers.

It can be difficult to determine the first step or even the next step for your business's journey toward digital maturity. It all starts with a digital transformation strategy that establishes the scope and objectives for your digital transformation.

It's important not to focus too heavily on the operational side of your business at first, and rather consider more strongly the ways in which your business can benefit from growing into relevant digital spheres. Then you can identify the skill gaps that need to be filled for your vision to be realised.

Once the vision is established and the strategy to achieve it is in place, you need all the members of your organization to buy into the idea.

An MIT Sloan study showed that employees across all age groups want to work for a business that is committed to digital advancement. Once a digital culture is fostered, leaders can guide the business to invest in the right digital opportunities.

As you progress, keep in mind the two-pronged approach of the Digirati. This profit-driving approach ensures that your company is creating value for customers along with digital transformation, rather than just keeping up with trends.

The Xuviate DX Maturity Model for the Mid-Market. The 5 distinct maturity stages on the DX journey. Brian Solis from the Altimeter Group has done some great work developing and validating a Digital Transformation Maturity Model that delivers on each of these expectations. Unfortunately, however, all efforts to date on developing DX maturity models have been focused on large organisations and there remains a need for much more specific guidance tailor-made for mid-sized business.

It's important to remember that different organisations take different paths to digital maturity. Every business will have a unique digital journey that is aligned with the needs of the business and its customers.

V5 Digital, a leading digital marketing agency based in Windhoek, Namibia begins the process of digital transformation by helping you develop your unique digital business model.

Whether that involves using digital to sell your products or services online, or connecting with your customers on social media, V5 Digital specialises in crafting fine-tuned, clear, agile, digital transformation strategies to help your business succeed.

Don’t hesitate to contact V5 Digital for a free assessment or to help you decide whether investing in digital transformation is the right next step for your business.

Are you interested in the State of Digital Transformation?

Download the comprehensive research report from our collaboration partner Altimeter, a Prophet Company.

V5 Africa: Why Digital Transformation (DX) is more than just a Fad

To learn more about this topic listen to V5 Africa: Why Digital Transformation (DX) is more than just a Fad

Download it here: https://www.v5.digital/africa