Since its inception, social media networks like Facebook have become just about everyone’s favorite places to hang out, share experiences, and have conversations. Where people go, businesses are sure to follow along with their marketing budgets.
Facebook relies on advertising for revenue, so they tune their algorithms to ensure people spend more and more of time on their platform. Facebook presents users relevant content with a high potential of engagement to grow and retain their audience while attracting the businesses eager to reach them.
Savvy businesses understand the game. Whether it’s viral videos, tutorials, informational content, Facebook Groups or Business Pages, businesses have learned how to use Facebook to get and keep your attention too.
Fun Fact: Your content has about 2 seconds to convince someone to stop scrolling.
Competing with cute cat videos and memes for attention on social media is hard. But savvy brands can still stand out on platforms like Facebook or Instagram. The key is offering content that stops scrollers in their tracks, entices them to read or view, and ultimately gets them to engage.
Here are 4 ways you can skin that cat and improve your brand’s results on social media:
1. Lifestyle Images
One of the main challenges of selling products in the digital age is that people are not seeing or touching your products before purchasing. You can get the “views”, but you can’t get the “feels”. We’re not just talking tactile. Just as important as touching the physical product is how it looks on the consumer and how it makes them feel.
That’s why the product with a white or transparent background might look great in your online store –the design looks cleaner – but it becomes more difficult for your potential customer to envision it in their own reality. That’s when lifestyle images come into play.
In the example below we compare a product image with a white background and one with a lifestyle background.
Colors, branding, look & feel… it all comes together in lifestyle images designed to awaken positive emotions in a customer. This approach makes it easier for customers to “see”the product in their homes, and “see”themselves enjoying the experience.
2. Customer Images & Videos
Another approach is user-generated content in the form of customer images or videos. You may wonder whether this is a good idea, since most user-generated content may fall short of the quality of the content you produce for your website and social media.
But consider this: Do you remember the most recent viral video you may have enjoyed and shared?
There’s something most viral videos have in common: Their quality is typically very low.
This is not to say you should start lowering the quality of the content you share on social media, but for some reason user generated content creates more engagement and brand recognition.
Why not give your customers the opportunity to shine in your social networks? Doing so can provide benefits such as:
- Attract more fans/followers organically
- Generate more engagement
- Build trust among potential customers considering a purchase
- Increase customer engagement and loyalty
3. Video Tutorials
Here’s another question for you: How many times have you searched for tutorials on YouTube?
Video tutorials demonstrating how to use your product or service can go a long way in boosting engagement, enabling potential customers to envision themselves using your product, and generating more sales.
Tutorials can be professional videos or user-generated content, as long as it shows your product “in action”. Bonus Tip: Unless your product is really complicated, the shorter the tutorial, the better.
4. Live Streams
Video is here for the long run in the digital age. But as we mentioned earlier, it can still be difficult for your customers to “see” and “feel” your products before making a purchase. Buying is, and always will be, an emotional experience.
Live streaming product demonstrations can help fill the void. Live streams are a great way to show customers what your product looks like, how it works, when or where it can be used and more – all in a live“reality” setting that is more authentic than any pre-recorded commercial or art directed photo shoot.
Better still, live streams on Facebook and other social media platforms incorporate live audience comments so your customers and ask questions and interact with the presenters. You can even offer special limited-time discount codes to participants. Doing so is a great way to track the effectiveness of your live stream.
These are just four ways you can make your brand stand out on social media. Contact our social media team to learn more about how you can grow your audience and reach more customers through paid and organic social media.
