Falkon Digital

Do you prefer long-form or short-form videos for your business?

https://falkondigital.com/youtube-long-form-vs-shorts/

Want superbowl worthy ads?

Then you need a clear strategy!

✔️ Define your audience
✔️ Understand the tone of voice
✔️ Clarify your message
✔️ Understand the best content and platforms for your audience and message
✔️ Develop, analyse and adjust your content and strategy
✔️ Understand your ROAS and target cost per acquisition
✔️ Test and adapt quickly

TikTok encouraging landscape videos!

This combined with 10 min uploads are they trying to replicate the success of ads on long-form videos on YouTube?
Our two theories for this

1. TikTok wants to capitalise on TV viewership which is growing fast on YouTube
2. They potentially want to start including in-video Ads which is easier on longer-form (10 minute) landscape videos

What do you think? Should TikTok stick to viral videos or would you watch a longer YT style video on TikTok?

Are you reaching your audience on TikTok?

This week's changes on social media!

This social media post was written by AI...

Actually, it isn't but the image is!

AI is a fantastic tool and lots of fun to play around with but it doesn't replace creativity and human connection.

More and more social media managers are experimenting with AI for fast updates, churn, and burn channels, and to save time - but it is obvious - not only to people but the algorithms.

This is actually a great opportunity for good content to stand out!

If you need help with your content marketing strategy - with or without AI - have a chat with us today!

This made us laugh!

However, real maturity comes from understanding a billion people of all ages are active on the app, actively searching for product recommendations and reviews, and connecting with content from their favorite brands.

Not every social platform is a good fit for every target audience, but TikTockers 'tick' a lot of boxes (see what we did there).

TikTok has a potential ad reach of 945.2 million (among users aged 18+) a slight skew towards women and although it's stereotypically associated with Gen Z you’ll find Gen X and Boomers on TikTok, too. 30.4% of Tiktok’s advertising audience is aged 35 and up, including 5.5% in the 55+ category.

Products do particularly well on TikTok, both organically and in ads, so why not try yourself and set up a business account and get dancing*

*If you don't want to dance we can help with a strategy too!

Local SEO hacks 😆

Keep up with the changes on social media!

Are you worried about how many followers you have?

Understanding where your ideal audience hangs out is important, but it's also important to understand what content works best on which platform.

One-off content will only get you so far but understanding what your audience wants to see, when, and where is essential for building trust.

Take a look at the below graph of % of social media users on specific platforms who want to see the following types of content posts.

TikTok is not going anywhere, the platform is a firm favourite with many demographics and if you sell a product you 100% should be on TikTok!

Last week Tik Tok launched longer content (over 60 seconds) so with this new feature for long form content as well as short form we thought we'd share a few tips on how to leverage your brand on TikTok.

Film in portrait with wider angles so nothing is cropped out on different devices.

Don't worry about polished edits - more content uploaded often works better for TikTok and you can even reuse content with different hooks.

Go easy on the branding - TikTok users don't want heavily branded content

Use native text and text to speak - this gets better reach

Use trends - hop on those trends to give your brand a bigger reach

The hook needs to be in the first second - TikTok users won't wait around for an intro you need to hook them in straight away

If you want to start using TikTok, speak to us about a Video Marketing strategy for TikTok today!

Longer-form video content is coming back in fashion!

Instagram is reportedly working on longer reel content - up to 10 minutes!

Short content became the trend with the popularity of TikTok leading to the introduction of shorts and reels on YouTube and Meta but now TikTok and Instagram are realising the value of long-form content (most likely the advertising potential) and are working on allowing content creators longer videos for better engagement.

What do you think? Short videos or Long videos?

Alessandro Paluzzi on X is working on the ability to create up to 10 minutes long 👀

Great feedback is filtering through from the YouTube training workshop we delivered on Friday. Big thanks to all our attendees!

As you can see, we not only take pride in our content, but we also make sure everyone is well fed and looked after on the day too! Doggy bags welcome 😉

DM us if you’re interested in joining us for the next one, or we can arrange an in-house training day for your team too.

Are you using video to drive sales?

Some great tips from Google on user first video campaigns.

https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-apac/marketing-strategies/video/digital-video-marketing-tips-drive-sales/

In 2005, YouTube launched as a dating site, and failed.

Now YouTube is the 2nd biggest social media platform and the 2nd biggest search engine!

Last year YouTube’s global advertising revenues were estimated to be around $28.84 billion.

But in 2005 YouTube was a huge failure as a dating site!

Online dating is huge but in 2005 we just weren't ready for it, and although YouTube founders had a great idea they needed to rethink the strategy for the current market.

As we run into a really difficult time for many businesses and consumers your old marketing and old strategies may not work.

Learn from YouTube's failure and look at what your customers want and need RIGHT NOW and how you can re align your marketing to help them.

When life gives you lemons, don't just make lemonade... make lemon pie, limoncello, lemon chicken, lemon cake... listen to how your customers like lemons and give them that!

Creating an inside joke with your audience...

A really great way to connect with your audience is with inside jokes, this is a great brand example from original source which connects to people who have used this product before, it shows they listen to their audiences and the marketers know the product.

You can do the same with consumer inside jokes, if there is a niche you want to connect with you can show them you understand them with inside jokes and create a narrative around your product or service.

Its not easy to do but it is incredibly powerful.

If you don't know how you can make this work then you need to understand your customers better and listen to them more.

You should be on TikTok

A lot of brands are coming to me saying this is the advice they are getting, and for some they are 100% right, they should be on TikTok but like any platform it isn't a one size fits all and you can't just post content to TikTok from another platforms strategy and expect it to do well.

Right now we are working on TikTok ads but for most of our brands the organic results are meaning ads are hardly needed and they are getting huge exposure, great brand sentiment and direct sales.

For all the negativity surrounding TikTok it is a huge marketing platform and was the most downloaded app* in Q1 and Q2 this year reaching more demographics than ever before. (*via Sensor Tower data)

Have you had brand success on TikTok yet?

😬

Real Talk... Are Facebook and Instagram listening to you?

In reality Facebook and Instagram are NOT listening to you talk, BUT what they are doing is much more powerful!!

Here’s how it works👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽

Facebook has 2 very powerful entities...

1. The FB pixel
2. The FB newsfeed

What are they?

The FB pixel is a piece of code that goes on your website, in fact almost every website you visit has the Facebook pixel installed.

Every time you visit a website with this pixel, the information is fed back to Facebook, this includes data on what the website is, what you spent the most time on, did you buy? The data is anonymous but over time the data builds up a very good understanding of our user behaviour.

The Facebook newsfeed has the data from the pixels but also has a lot of other information about you.
Things like your age, family, friends, what you click on and even (stalkers) what you hover over and don't click on - we know you do this - and so does Facebook.

Combining this information gives them a pretty good idea on what ads to show you, whilst this isn't personal, it is specific to you.

This is pretty awesome when it works as the right ad, with the right message, at the right time in front of the right person means everyone wins... the ad company, you as a user and of course Facebook.

⭐ Brands find a new customer.

⭐ You get the right product or service

⭐ FB makes £££££.

So lets break it down...

You’re shopping for a a holiday. You go to a Travel agents website which is tracked by the Facebook pixel. Then back to FB/IG.

You start getting ads for other holiday companies or travel insurance, holiday clothes or airport taxis.

All related to the initial intent of going on holiday.

But... what about when we don't visit these websites and it gets advertised to us after we had a conversation?

Well this is where it gets really clever...

If Luke and Steve meet for a beer, Facebook knows...

They don't need to tag themselves in at the same place or tag each other, Facebook is always collecting anonymous data.

Facebook will see that their phones are together at a popular drinking location, they know neither of them are at home or work and the time of day suggests meeting for a drink (alcoholic or otherwise).

Facebook has already recorded the last websites both of them have looked at so you can assume that one of them will have a geeky conversation about a recent website they looked at or just the reason they went to that website.

Facebook takes into account what we know about human psychology and the fact we may have these conversations.

Many times we are shown an advert based of this data and we won't even realise, however when we have a conversation and are then shown a relating advert we notice it.

This creates a bias known as the frequency illusion (Baader–Meinhof)

9 time out of 10 when we are shown an advert that is related to a physical connection and their search history (plus data appropriate to us and our online footprint) we won't notice it.

However if we had a conversation about it then we notice it and believe that Facebook is actually listening in.

We also see other instances such as staying at a relatives house and all of a sudden being advertised their favourite toothpaste...

You will only notice it if you either had a conversation about the toothpaste or used it.

In short, you only notice the ads from your conversation...

So Facebook and Instagram use tech, data and tools available to most mobile apps and very clever algorithms to create this. BUT they are not listening... sorry to take the tin foil hat away.

It can feel creepy at times, but it works incredibly well for users, advertisers and of course Mark Zuckerberg.

If you want to know more about the modelling and how to harness this tech for your business, get in touch.

Legit true!

Scroll stopping content!

We go on a lot about thumbnails in YouTube being really important for getting people to watch your video and creating scroll stopping content will make all the difference.

The below graph shows the peak in click through rate from changing the thumbnail but also how getting the content right (managing expectations of the video/content) also increased the average view duration.

The work we do on YouTube to create scroll stopping content but also manage expectations also applies to ad content.

There are many crossovers in the psychology of clicking a YouTube thumbnail above other videos and clicking an ad that is surrounded by organic or competitor content.

YouTube rates a video by how people engage with it so managing expectations is important, this is also important with ads as you don't want to waste that ad spend by click baiting someone into clicking your ad.

If you want to find out more about scroll stopping content speak to us!

Brows on point...

Here is a little story... bear with me I promise it has a marketing 'point'

For years I have been envious of other people eyebrows, mine (Sadie) are not as well groomed as I would like, and whilst I have many skills, eyebrow maintenance and makeup are not amongst them.

Over the years friends have directed me to many a beautician and eyebrow specialist but when I look at prices and services, all I see are a bunch of words that mean nothing to me and prices that seem high for something I don't understand.

Now, I don't undervalue the work of these technicians but I don't want to spend a couple of hundred on something I have no idea what it is.

This jargon as stopped me using them, this jargon has stopped me getting in touch with them as I feel stupid that I don't know what they mean and on the website they state it as though it should be obvious.

I'm sure these lovely salon owners don't mean to make me feel stupid but no one likes to feel stupid and it is a big full stop when they could have had an extra enquiry.

This applies to any service or product where you are an expert, your ideal customer may not be an expert in your industry (which is why they need you) and therefore may find industry jargon very off putting.

Not every business has access to professional copywriters but you still need to look at your content. You may think you are over simplifying things but to your customer you are giving them what they need to make a decision, and also the extra information gives Google the semantic content they need to help a user find you.

So remember, your marketing content and your brows, need to be on point.

Last week we had a great time in Dublin!

Great to meet up with marketers from around the world!

Which event should we go to next?

😭

🤦⛵️🛶🛥🛳

Do you remember the Dolly Parton social media profile pic challenge?

It was funny because it was true, we all have different reasons for using a platform and show different parts of ourselves on there.

So why do so many businesses post the same content at the same time to every profile?

We know it's quick and easy to post the same thing to each platform but try tweaking your content to suit the platform and the audience on that platform.