Why You Need to Care About the Mobile UX of Your Facebook Content
Posted: May 23, 2013 Filed under: Content, Content Marketing, Engagement, Facebook, Mobile, Technology | Tags: content optimization, engagement, engagement rates, facebook, facebook content, mobile, mobile content, mobile facebook, photos, text, video, video content 2 Comments »
I’m going to start with a couple of incredible statistics, though you’ve probably seen them before.
Facebook has roughly 1.06 billion monthly active users (Source: CNET)
Facebook has roughly 680 million mobile monthly active users (Source: CNET)
I’ll do the quick math for you; that’s well over half of Facebook’s monthly active users that are accessing the world’s most popular social media network on their mobile devices.
Why should you care about this?
Well, the fact that over half of all people are going to be consuming your content on mobile devices, should impact the format of content you choose to produce, and be considered when measuring and analyzing the performance of your business’ Facebook updates.
Plain and simple, the user experience (UX) of consuming different formats of content varies on mobile devices versus on a PC. The experience of consuming photos and text, for instance, does not suffer on a mobile device. Video, however, requires a time commitment, strong connection speed, and device processing power that is inconsistent at best on different mobile platforms and networks.
Here are a few things you can do to maximize the UX of consuming your content and considerations that should be made when analyzing performance:
Adjust your content mix to ensure it is mobile-friendly
A bit of a no-brainer, but important none-the-less. We are all well aware that photos tend to garner the highest engagement rates of all content types on Facebook. This is fantastic, as the UX of consuming photo content on mobile devices does not degrade versus consumption on a PC.
Even when planning your photo or image-based content, remember to account for a wide array of mobile devices and screen sizes. Impactful and vibrant photographs that are a standard size will look amazing on most mobile devices, whereas lengthy infographics that requires scrolling for days to view in entirety will be a complete pain to view on most devices.
Don’t overlook the power of text updates
Text-based updates on Facebook aren’t typically thought of as being particularly exciting or effective.
Did you know that text-based updates receive the second highest engagement rates on average of any type of content?
Again, the experience of consuming a text update on a mobile version of Facebook does not degrade versus consuming it on a PC. Consider investing more time and energy in your text-based updates. You’ll be rewarded for your efforts by seeing higher engagement rates from mobile users.
Modify performance expectations for content that isn’t mobile-friendly
A result of so many Facebook users consuming content on mobile devices is that some types of content may appear to underperform – video, being a prime example.
When assessing the performance of your content that isn’t mobile-friendly, it will be worthwhile to modify expectations to account for lower engagement from mobile users.
You can get a sense for the proportion of your audience that may be consuming your content on mobile devices by viewing your Facebook Insights and checking out your ‘Like Sources’ to see how many are from mobile. This certainly isn’t perfect, but it may give you an idea of how many community members are predisposed to checking their Facebook news feeds on non-PC devices.
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As the technological landscape continues to shift, and users consume increasing amounts of content on non-PC devices, it’s will be increasingly important to the success of your social media marketing efforts to cater to these users by optimizing your content to provide a great mobile user experience.
How do you cater to mobile users of Facebook with your content?
Have you noticed higher engagement rates with certain types of content?
Conversely, have you noticed particularly low engagement rates with certain types of content?
It would be awesome to chat with you about this more in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial
The Truth About How Branded Videos Go Viral
Posted: May 20, 2013 Filed under: Advertising, Content Marketing, Video, YouTube | Tags: content marketing, content seeding, earned media, facebook, seeding, twitter, video content, viral, viral video, youtube 2 Comments »
When creating video content, it’s natural to want it to go viral to maximize your earned media.
It’s easy to get so focused on achieving viral success that the core objective for your video content is for it to go viral.
This is what dreams are made of after all.
The problem is that achieving the kind of viral success that we’ve all seen other videos accomplish, is that it isn’t as simple as creating killer video content, posting it on YouTube, and then watching your view count skyrocket.
There are many factors that affect a video’s likelihood of ‘going viral’, and many of which are either beyond your control, or take huge amounts of time or financial resources to achieve.
Many branded viral videos achieve that status by being supported by a sizable seeding campaign. When a video is produced, companies will invest huge dollars in paid media to drive views of their YouTube content, pay to have high-profile sites and blogs host the content, and will put PR initiatives in place to raise the profile of their content to garner more views.
This type of seeding program can cost huge dollars. Consider this, I recently ran a YouTube TrueView campaign and achieved a cost per view (CPV) of roughly 5 cents.
Pretty good right?
We’ll, it is. But if you wanted to achieve 1 million views, you’d need to invest $50,000 in paid media to hit this milestone.
What about seeding video content amongst your own community, you might be thinking?
Good thought, but again, there’s more to this than meets the eye. Let’s consider the success that some large brands have had in recent history. Evian and their latest ‘viral hit’ Baby&Me is bearing down on hitting 50,000,000 views on YouTube. 50 MILLION!
Now, take a look on their Facebook Timeline at the number of actions their cross-promotional updates have achieved. Just a ballpark guess, maybe 4,000-5,000 actions. Maybe. Pretty awesome, but this surely can’t account for the 50 million views the video has achieved.
So, you’ve got to think that there are some serious dollars being invested to seed this content or drive views via paid media.
How about Red Bull and their viral success?
Well, Red Bull has a massive social media community; right around 38,000,000 fans on Facebook, and a bit over 1,000,000 followers on Twitter.
With a community of this size, and with the incredible volume of content Red Bull produces, they do have a greater chance of organically seeding content and having it go viral.
But, how did they acquire all of these fans and followers? I can tell you that many organizations pay big dollars on Facebook ad buys to acquire fans. Typically, a cost of $1-2 per fan acquisition is thought to be average when doing so through advertising. So, even at $1 per fan, many large communities have probably invested big dollars to acquire these staggering numbers of fans.
We’ve also got to factor in the cost of sustaining a publication calendar as robust as Red Bull’s. They have an in-house media production division, pay large sums of money to sponsor the world’s top extreme athletes, sponsor many high-profile competitions and events, and more. They’ve invested so heavily in these areas, that they’ve achieved near-ubiquity in extreme sports. All of these things that contribute to Red Bull’s ability to regularly achieve viral success cost huge sums of money.
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The purpose of this article isn’t to discourage you from dreaming big and creating amazing video content, but rather to help you focus your attention and effort on what is truly important.
When producing video content, make sure you’re adding huge value to your existing audience. They’ll love you for it and it will help you to convert consumers to loyalists, and loyalists to ambassadors.
If your aim is to grow your audience and acquire new consumers, then consider a seeding program for your content. You don’t need to spend tens of thousands of dollars, or millions of dollars to achieve great results. Be smart with the advertising dollars you have, invest time and energy to understand who your target audience should be, and you’ll see new people joining your communities in no time.
What measures do you use to gauge the success of your video content?
Have any of your videos gone ‘viral’? If so, how did you accomplish that?
It would be great to chat with you more in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial
Vine May Have Sprouted, But How Can It Grow Your Business?
Posted: January 31, 2013 Filed under: Vine | Tags: content creation, platform opportunities, social media marketing, video content Leave a comment »
With a solid 7 days of experience using Vine, I’m going to go ahead and declare myself a world-leading-ninja-Jedi-guru thinker on the social network (please know that of course I’m kidding).
If you’re not familiar with Vine, it is a social media network built around the creation and sharing of 6-second looping videos. Think Twitter, but for videos. As a matter of fact, the platform is actually owned by Twitter. Check out the official Vine blog for a more detailed description of the platform, direct from the creators.
Why you should care about Vine
While 6-seconds might initially sound limiting, one of the most exciting aspects of this restriction is that it forces content creators to get to the point and add value without unnecessary filler. Also, because videos must be captured using the smartphone app, it puts all content creators on a level playing field. No fancy cameras. No fancy editing software. Just 6-seconds of start and stop, point and shoot recording.
If you’ve ever felt intimidated at the prospect of shooting video, the limitations that Vine applies should actually give you comfort to give it a shot.
10 Steps For Small Businesses To Produce Killer Video Content
So, Vine levels the video creation playing field and is very accessible, but how can you use this platform and its 6-second videos to add value to your consumers?
Following are video ideas that can be executed in 6-seconds that businesses and brands can use to create value for their consumers:
How-To
A simple ‘how-to’ video can be incredibly helpful to your consumers. Show them how to prepare a sauce, install a faucet, use a feature of your software, pair clothing items, and on. The start-stop functionality is perfect for multiple step ‘how-to’ videos; quickly record one step and then stop your recording so that you can set up the next step, and repeat. ‘How-to’ content is inherently valuable, and if it is related to your business, can serve to demonstrate expert knowledge and leadership within your industry.
Event Updates
The bite-size nature of Vine videos is perfect for providing regular and frequent updates from your event, be it a grand opening, corporate event, seminar, training session, conference, holiday party, or coverage from your mega-promotion. Amplifying the experience of live events to a broader audience is a fantastic way to build brand affinity, get more value from your investment, and prove your brand’s promise.
Feature Products or Services
Showcasing your products or services can help to promote your offerings, effectively raising awareness and generating excitement amongst your consumers. Multiple videos could be made for each product or service, each with a focus on highlighting key features or attributes. With an increasing number of consumers researching purchase decisions online, the provision of critical information through digital channels can be the difference between making a sale, or not.
Promote Sales/Specials/Deals
Holding a 50% off sale for the holidays? Promote it with a video. Offering a free coffee to anyone who checks-in on Foursquare? Promote it with a video. Giving away a free whitening for new dental patients? Promote it with a video. You get the idea, and the value here is pretty easy to identify.
Entertain
Don’t discount the value of entertainment. Vine is perfectly suited for producing interesting and entertaining stop-motion videos. Also, it’s great for short jokes, quips, or moments of greatness. Find ways to entertain your audience that are relevant to your brand, and they’ll reward you with increased interaction, engagement and loyalty.
If you’ve had a chance to use Vine, what do you think?
Do you see Vine as an opportunity for your business or brand?
If so, how do you plan to use Vine?
It would be amazing to discuss this with you further in the comments, or on Twitter @RGBSocial
