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The Power Of Video and Social Media

By V-Blog

A few days ago Facebook published a blog about updates towards videos on Facebook. Facebook has come up with a new algorithm, which will give longer videos more credit. The new algorithm will take in account the percentage of completion of videos, since it’s harder for a longer video to get a complete viewing than shorter. This means that longer videos will be pushed a bit more and shorter videos might get sidelined for a while.

This does not mean however, that you can post a 10 minute video of you staring at the camera and it will be on everyone’s news feed. The videos still needs to be compelling to generate as much percentage completion as possible.

Social media videos have become highly popular, so much so that they generate 8 billion views a day on Facebook. Videos engage the audience because they provide information in an easily accessible and entertaining way. People are more likely to stop scrolling their news feed for a video than pretty much anything else, unless it’s a picture of someone they’re currently stalking.

There are various reasons why some videos are more popular than others. Cute animals doing funny things, prank videos by worst boyfriend ever, videos that tag on our heartstrings, what they all have in common is that they evoke some type of emotion from the viewer.
For an advert this can be more difficult since you need to promote your company and a video of a puppy falling asleep, although adorable, won’t really get the message across.

Case Study

V Squared tells… is-serkin

Taking one of our own projects as an example, our first instalment in our V Squared tells series, ‘is-serkin’, reached over 260K people and 110K views and it was all achieved organically. There are various reasons why this video was such a success but the two main factors were timing and the emotions it evoked.

The shop ‘is-Serkin’ has been around a long time and gained popularity for almost never closing during the weekend. People leaving parties at four or five in the morning, would find is-Serkin open and providing some much needed comfort food.

Having our video posted a few days after the Serkin’s owner announced his retirement meant that people were already in the process of reminiscing the good times they had. This made the video become a hot topic and reached 1.6K shares.

The importance of video as part of a marketing campaign seems to be only growing. According to a report by Cisco, this will only increase in the future, predicting that by 2019, video will be generating 80% of the global online traffic.

Are you interested in producing an online video? Send us a message or email us on [email protected] and we’ll have a chat over coffee.

Fresh content is King!

By V-Blog

Having fresh content on your website and social media pages has always been important. However, while in the past this might have been seen as a luxury, nowadays fresh content is a necessity.

Most people will carry out an internet search before even thinking of visiting a store or contacting a company. Not only does fresh content show prospective clients that you keep up with the trends but it also boosts your page to the top of search engines.

In the past, producing one very high quality and high budget video, would last for a few years. However nowadays splitting that budget over a few less budget-consuming videos and producing a video every few months allows the company brand to stay fresh and current.

This doesn’t mean that the video needs to be a low quality video. While having fresh content is important, having interesting and engaging content is always a priority. By having engaging content produced on a regular basis, you create a brand presence and a brand identity. People are more likely to know about your brand. Creating hype and interest, allows you to make a mark in the world, and more importantly in people’s memories.

Would you like to have fresh online content for your website and Facebook page? Send us a message or email us on [email protected] and we’ll have a chat over coffee.

Choosing the right brand story

By V-Blog

Do you remember the good old days at school, when the teacher used to call all the children in the class to form a circle so that s/he tells a story? How did that feel? What was the experience like? All of us get excited to listen to a new story, to learn about a character and engage with that story. A good story gives a brand a voice. This is how you may construct your brand story.

Let’s start with the basics: What is a brand story? A brand story is a complete picture of every element in the Brand’s environment. Every element says something about your brand, be it your logo, the colours, the building or place where your brand is situated, the products or services, the packaging, the staff hired to deliver your product or service, and most importantly your customers. These elements all make up your story. This will allow consumers to perceive your brand according to the way you are presenting it.

WHAT IS YOUR BRAND STORY?

There are four key categories where you can focus your story on. It can be:

1. The Brand’s Founding Story
How did your business come together? And why?

2. Your Customer’s Story
How are customers overcoming a struggle?
What is the solution provided by your product or service?

3. The Employee’s Story
How are your employees growing?
What is their success story?

4. The Sponsorship Story
Who does your brand support? Who does it sponsor?
What Community is your brand part of?

USING THE RIGHT CONTENT IN TELLING YOUR STORY

When writing your brand story it is essential that such story is:

1. Valuable to the customer
Help your customers understand who you are, what you are offering, what are the benefits, how they can make use of these benefits;

2. Relevant to the customer
The story must always target your customer, and must be of interest to them;

3. Constant
Life is never static. Stories must continue to develop and therefore, one story is not enough.

4. Engaging
In the end, you want customers to take action. Make them like, or share your brand; and buy your products or services.

There are various mediums through which you may tell your story. One of the most effective mediums today is video. Video has the capacity to capture your brand story in a way that taps into the right emotion and engages the audience in a way that will make them care about you emotionally and intellectually. It is a very dynamic medium that when it is in the right hands, you will not be disappointed. The below is one example from V Squared’s Portfolio that tells a story the right way.

HOW IT IS DONE…

BARE Sports Promotional Video

Choose the Best Time to Post on Facebook

By V-Blog

Posting on Facebook and engaging users can sometimes feel like a gamble. Fortunately, getting the desired performance from posts on Facebook is not just a matter of luck, but rather, a matter of posting the right content, targeted to the right people, during the right time frame. Here are some tips on what day and time is best to post your content on Facebook and hit the jackpot.

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What We Know

After digging around the Internet and analysing our own data, we have concluded that as a rule of thumb the best time to post on Facebook is:

  • Thursday and Friday at 1–4 p.m
  • Wednesday at 3 p.m.
  • Saturday and Sunday at 12–1 p.m.

The peak time on Facebook is on Wednesdays at 3pm. Mondays and Tuesdays should be avoided as companies see the least amount of engagement and click-throughs on these days. Additionally, the worst time to post on Facebook can be said to be weekends before 8am and after 8pm.

Know your Target Audience

This is the most critical factor for your posts to be successful. Knowing your target audience will help you post at the time when they are browsing on Facebook. Nevertheless, as a starting point it can be said that for B2C organisations, posts published on weekends do better, while for a B2B company, best results are achieved during weekdays working hours.

Test and Track

Keep track of results through Facebook’s Analytics tool and get insights of when posts are doing best. For example, to see when your fans are online go to Insights and click on Posts.

Interested in creating an online marketing campaign but don’t know where to start? Drop us a message or email us on [email protected] and we can have a chat over coffee.
In the meantime, Happy Posting!