In the ever-changing world of digital marketing the channel that seems to be evolving the fastest is Social Media. With new apps and platforms popping up on what seems like a daily basis, it’s difficult to keep up.

This was reinforced for me when I attended the Social Media Marketing World conference in April. A great conference with an abundant amount of information which, even with two people, we were often left choosing between multiple great sessions occurring at the same time (next year we’ll have to plan to send the whole company!).

I attended the platform-oriented tracks to learn what was new/upcoming with each and the most common theme across all sessions was the explosion and importance of video. From Facebook to Snapchat, adoption and investment in video are at all-time highs indicating that we as marketers need to be ready to adapt.

With so much great information, the following are high-level tips and takeaways from a few of the sessions I attended.

Facebook Video

A huge investment for Facebook, during their Q4 earnings call earlier this year Mark Zuckerberg reported that 100 million hours of video are watched daily. Additionally, according to Mari Smith in her session, 7 Facebook Power Tips, video is the most shared content on Facebook.

With that in mind, here some tips for creating great video from two excellent sessions I attended with Mari Smith and Rick Mulready:

Creating/ Setting Up Your Video Ads

  • Always be in storytelling mode
  • Plan for viewers to have their sound off and using text overlays
  • Upload natively for best organic reach and measurement
  • Always consider the mindset of Facebook users
    • People are on Facebook to share with their friends and family and not necessarily to shop, so as advertisers we are interrupting.
  • Lead with value
    • Connect quickly and be visual (first 3 – 5 seconds)
    • Always try to teach something
    • Promote your offer at the end
  • Be fun and casual
  • There’s no right/wrong for overall video length… it’s as long as it needs to be

Targeting Your Video Ads

Targeting your ads should be dependent on the overall goal, but, in general, prioritize targeting from warmest to coldest traffic such as:

  • Retargeting website/landing page visitors
  • Your email list
  • Your Facebook fans
  • Lookalikes of website visitors
  • Lookalikes of your email list

What’s Next for Facebook Video Ads

Add Caption Tool
Facebook has found that captioned video ads increase video view time by an average of 12.4% so they’re soon releasing a new tool that makes adding captions to video ads easier than ever.

Increased Retargeting Capabilities
Facebook is rolling out the ability to retarget viewers based on their engagement with your video — how long they watched (10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc.).

Facebook Live

Yep, the capability to livestream on Facebook is now a reality… think you had a FB problem before? Live was just introduced this Spring and has the potential to become the most engaged-with content on Facebook (arrivederci faceless live chat sessions!). I attended a great session by Lou Mongello where he gave some tips on best practices and business use cases… here are some examples:

Ways to Use it

  • Q&A (e.g. real-time CEO chat)
  • Give special, behind-the-scene access
  • Take viewers on a tour of your business
  • How To’s
  • Live customer testimonials
  • Run a focus group
  • Product demos
  • DIY/project walkthrough

Best Practices

  • Turn on notifications and have audience set to all
  • Promote your live stream ahead of time
  • Be prepared with an intro, overview, etc.
  • Be sure branding is consistent so that you/your company is easily recognizable
  • Interact with the audience and actively promote discussion
  • Promote after it’s over

 

Pinterest’s Interest Feeds

Pinterest presents a great acquisition opportunity for brands due to its focus on promoting Interests vs Followers. The reason? This is a huge benefit as it makes it possible to reach a targeted, significantly-sized audience beyond your Follower list. Here are some great tips from Vincent Ng’s very informative session.

Find Relative Interests via Categories or Keyword Search

  • Categories are not Interest Feeds and can’t be followed
    • Interest feeds have Follow button

Grow Audience Strategically for Max Engagement

  • Stay relative to your industry with targeted niches for optimal reach (10k – 200k followers ideal)
  • Gauge engagement based on individual repins within Interest and benchmark vs your industry

Don’t Get Overly Creative With Board Names

  • Naming your board the same as the Interest helps with visibility and rank within the relative feed

Pin Winning Pins First

  • Pin your own pins first as they will get the most exposure
  • New and renamed boards are considered new data and will get priority from Pinterest

Snapchat for Business

Not just for teenagers anymore? Snapchat is still in its infancy, especially for business application, but its usage statistics can’t be ignored. During his session, Carlos Miller presented some very eye-opening stats:

  • 200 million active users
  • 6 billion video views per day
  • Second most active platform after Facebook
  • Fastest growth in first 4 years of any social network
  • Nearly 40% of users are between 25 – 54

Additionally, he presented some very helpful information for level-setting expectations along with tips for getting started:

Setting Expectations and Creating Engagement

  • Snapchat is not intended to drive instant ROI… it’s about building relationships and community
  • Use it to humanize and put a face to your brand… people buy from people
  • Great platform for announcing flash sales
  • Tell good stories and message over the course of multiple snaps

How to Grow Your Account

  • Leverage existing social media accounts, other channels, stores, etc
  • Leverage influencers to run contests and create content for your brand
  • Use geo-filters to drive geo-targeted ads/awareness for lower cost-of-entry

Keys to Converting

  • Build a loyal audience with great content… be helpful and interesting vs overly salesy
  • Run promos with exclusive codes for Snapchat and leverage other networks to advertise
  • Leverage influencers to run contests via a Snapchat account takeover or from their own account

Need a hand with social? Check out our Social Media Marketing capabilities.