Ephemeral Content! The Futuristic Pride of Social Media Marketing

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, If you are scratching your head right after reading this statement, you might not have heard the phrase ephemeral content yet.

They say that ephemeral content will keep gaining popularity. They are right!

Recall the moment when you first made an account on Snapchat and had an on-again/off-again relationship with the app. Remember when your best buddy posted a Snapchat story, and you jumped right into it to see the story before it disappears? Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

Anything accessible for a short span gets more interesting than what’s been there for a long time. Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

Today, we live in a world of ephemeral posts that last for only 24-hours before vanishing from the platform. Swiping through stories becomes a norm for many, and most brands, explicitly B2C companies, make the most of their brand-building potential with a perfect ephemeral timeline.

These brands post teasers for new products, candid or funny stories, user polls, customer reviews, and GIFs to reach a wider audience, increase engagement, and build a connection with their audiences. Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

All these are the types of ephemeral content.

Here I will demystify the concepts of ephemeral content and its importance in marketing to familiarize you with the term.

What Is Ephemeral Content?

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, Ephemeral content relates to the form of content that’s impermanent and self-destructs after a set amount of time, say 24 hours. It is generally found on social media platforms, such as Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, WhatsApp Stories, and LinkedIn Stories.

What’s Engaging about ephemeral content?

Pride Of Social Media Marketing ,The most exciting thing about this ephemerality is the disappearance of posts. Its biggest weakness has become its supreme strength as posts vanish for good.

Ephemeral content strikes a FOMO (fear of missing out) effect that creates an exclusivity to watching posts, and users are more inclined to tune in at a particular time regularly for fear that they miss some excellent content.

Yeah, you just can’t miss the new irresistible offer from XYZ brand. You see, that’s how brands play with consumers’ neurons. Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

The Surge of Ephemeral Content

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, The concept of disappearing content was first seen in 2011. The famous printing company Picaboo, headquartered in Hanover, United States, used the idea for the first time, along with Snapchat.

The elusive term became the biggest social media buzz in 2018 when major social media platforms adopted ephemeral content marketing to hook their audiences.

Ephemeral content is gaining popularity because it’s a smart method to compel the audience to take faster action on the content. Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, According to Statista.com, Instagram stories had 500 million daily active users in 2019, WhatsApp had 450 million, and Snapchat had about 265 million daily active users reported in the fourth quarter of 2020. This statistic clearly indicates the popularity of short stories on social media platforms. Pride Of Social Media Marketing

Marketers have observed this rising demand and are leveraging it to their advantage and will continue with it in the future. Developing marketing campaigns around ephemeral content doesn’t seem a choice anymore; it’s become an inevitable part of the campaigns. Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

Why Should Brands Invest in Ephemeral Content Marketing?

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, consumers’ attention spans are short, and their interest in consuming content has also changed. They are more interested in short form, visual content with a crisp and brief reading. That’s why stories have become popular as they are short, engaging, and addictive. Are you pondering over the reasons why brands should invest in a content marketing strategy that will disappear in a day?

Ephemeral content Bring Out a prompt response

The primary purpose of marketing on social media platforms is to get an immediate response from the audience. Posting stories with a link to products, subscription offers, and steaming deals encourage users to react to the stories intermediately. The fear of missing out on flash deals and exclusive products from favorite brands triggers consumers to take immediate action. Pride Of Social Media Marketing

It increases user engagement

The ephemeral content helps brands hook their customers by creating memes related to their product or service. Random polls, gifs, and sharing company culture are also great ways to increase engagement. Pride Of Social Media Marketing

Helps brands to capitalize on the content volume

Well-crafted, engaging visual content enables the brands to create maximum content volume with minimal effort. Using high-definition images and videos, brands can create content by going through their full range of products and post quality content more often to compel the audience.

Analyze ideas

Pride Of Social Media Marketing First, decide the platform you want to advertise on. Brainstorm ideas as per the content on the site. Try to stay native to the platform you want to showcase your ephemeral content. It should also highlight your brand’s voice through images and appropriate titles, fonts, colors, and videos.

If you are showcasing tangible products, images perform better, and if you are advertising your services, videos are more ideal. You can also try variations to know which format is more appropriate for your brand.

Lockdown the branding with storytelling

Do you have an interesting story to tell? If not, Pride Of Social Media Marketing then plan out a storytelling approach with a style, graphics, and language that resonates with your audience. Focus on structuring your story. You can use the rule of thirds to create an engaging story. It should have a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Most of your followers will be seeing your story all at once, so post one cohesive story instead of posting disconnected snaps.

Show your authenticity

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, Customers trust brands with authentic personalities, so it’s critical to stay personal, informal, and raw with your content. Treat your viewers like your friends.

Show them behind the scenes videos, your company culture, your work authenticity to build trust in an informal way. Show your customers that their favorite brand has people like them.

Ephemeral content holds huge marketing potential in raising brand awareness and building long-lasting relationships with your customers. It will later result in driving conversions.

Consistency is key

Ephemeral content disappears after a day, so it naturally requires regular and frequent posting to generate constant engagement. Don’t compromise on the quality by creating and sharing irrelevant content. Pride Of Social Media Marketing.

Takeaways

Pride Of Social Media Marketing, since today’s consumers are blasted with refined content encouraging them to make a buying decision, they require authenticity and personality in a brand.

Ephemeral content helps brands feel more humanized by being informal and spontaneous and provide consumers with a sense of excitement, trust, and loyalty for them.

It helps them create their substantial social media presence in the competitive market and maintain it for the long term.