Marketing Tips With Elaine
Flyers or Videos? What to use for social media marketing in Zimbabwe…
Flyers or videos? What should you really use when doing social media marketing ? What are the advantages of each? Let’s dive into it!
On an Instagram live broadcast, Adam Mosseri (head of Instagram) stated that, “video is driving an immense amount of growth online for all major platforms…”
When sharing content on most social media platforms it basically comes down to the following, it’s either going to be a flyer, image or a video. The question then becomes which should you use, why and where?
Let’s explore this shall we?
Attention retention
When approaching the topic of social media content, it helps to consider the angle of the host companies themselves. Social media is free to use but how does Facebook and the rest of the gang make their money?
Always understand that the platforms are designed to fit agendas that profit them in the end. Most platforms charge businesses to show ads on their platforms. So a valuable aspect to most social media platforms is the total amount of time users spend on them.
The more time we spend on social media, the higher the chances of us running into business ads which is what the social media platforms want.
So if you look at it from that angle, it’s easy to see why video content performs best with most algorithms based on the fact that it captures viewer’s attention for longer. With images/flyers, you can read or interact with it in a few seconds and move on but videos demand for you to stop what you are doing and pay attention.
So doesn’t that mean videos win by default?
No not necessarily, even though the social media platforms are looking more and more to video content, images and flyers are still effective.
Let’s start by looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each type of content.
Flyers versus videos
The first thing that is important to understand is that regardless of which one you choose to use, a key aspect for both is “ATTENTION GRABBING”.
You need to understand that people are always scrolling through social media from one post to another. So you need to catch their attention before they move on to the next post. So whether it is a video or an image, you need to catch their attention first.
Once you have their attention, how much information you can give them then depends on what you are using, a flyer or a video:
Using flyers
A well designed flyer can do wonders for your business! Our screens have a fixed size meaning flyers have limited space to communicate their message, and that space has to be shared between text, images and design.
When approaching flyers, it is important to be very clear about what the objective is and what the most important aspect of the flyer is. The important parts should get the most space and are easy to see.
Advantages of flyers
-If done well, they can be straight to the point, delivering the message to clients in a very short space of time.
-Flyers can be compressed to a small file size making them easier to share without affecting the quality much, people are usually not reluctant to download a small image and they won’t be concerned with saving their data, also, people in areas with poor network stand a better chance of downloading the flyers than a large video.
-Take up less storage space so people can keep them in their galleries and inboxes for a longer time, keeping the information with them as well.
-Can be printed and distributed as hard copies.
Disadvantages
– Design has to be decent so that people are not turned off (People do not want to associate with ugly things), so if you do not have good looking flyers, you might lose business to competitors who have better looking flyers.
-Limited space means there’s only so much information you can put on a flyer. If a person has more questions, they may not be enough room to answer that.
-Open to the interpretation of people. You can design your flyer and share it, but your concept needs to be very clear, otherwise people will get the wrong message or focus on the wrong things all together.
-Your title/design has to really catch the person’s attention otherwise they will quickly scroll through to the next post
Need help with flyer design?
Not everyone is a designer! Or maybe you simply don’t have the time to design and run your business, we can help! Check out our Webscope Content express package that delivers 8 flyers (2 per week) for $50 per month. (Click the image below fore more info)
Using Videos
The trick to video content, is to convince viewers within the first few seconds that the video is worth watching. This is why most videos start by asking you a question or by displaying the title. This is to make sure if you are interested in that topic you watch it till the end.
Advantages
-You can share information on a lot of things in 1 video, properly exhausting and sharing important information with your clients.
-(Where applicable) you can actually show your products in action, helping convince people of the authenticity of your product.
-Clear explanations can eradicate any questions that clients might have of the product.
-Social media platforms are favouring more video content, so the algorithms are likely to push your video more than flyers.
-You can also take your videos to other video platforms other than social media, e.g Television or electronic billboards.
Disadvantages
-Videos are usually larger in size than flyers, so people with poor network can struggle to download or see your video properly. Large video files can also discourage people from downloading as they might want to save their bundles.
-You need catch viewer’s attention within the first few seconds otherwise they will just scroll over to the next thing if you take too long to introduce your topic.
-If your video is not engaging enough, people might quit watching it before they actually here the message you want to share
-Your audio and visuals need to work together in harmony, that means both the audio and video need to be giving the same message. If you fail to do so, it may put off the viewer.
-Quality is important, the audio and video have to be on the same quality level. Avoid situations where audio is poor but video is good, or good audio and poor video, this can force viewers to move on to the next post out of frustration.
-Video editing is a skill, audio mixing is a skill, good voice over work is a skill, and you may not have people skilled in these departments in your company.
Need help with video production?
Our creative arsenal has many video solutions for you to chose from. Below are examples of some of the work we’ve done for our clients check out the different types of videos we offer:
Corporate Profile videos
3D animation videos
2D animation videos
The platform counts as well!
Another factor to consider when choosing when to use flyers or videos is which platform is your business most dominant on? The platforms themselves handle pictures and videos differently. Generally photos and flyers still do very well on most social media platforms, but there is a shift towards video content,
Let’s take a look at the dynamics between videos and the social media platforms:
Tik tok
Tiktok is a video app that allows users to post all kinds of videos from dance videos to product sales, to DIY videos or short music videos all restricted to a time limit of 30 seconds max. This time limit has been increased to 3minutes which tiktok bloggers, storytellers, dancers and other influencial people advertised and were so excited about. This app has done well for you world wide web community. Because of the typical nature of videos in themselves these videos generate more interactions and shares which means they get to stick around on the online environment for much longer.
Because of the massive success of tik tok’s formula, other platforms started copying the method and implementing it in their own systems. Instagram then launched Instagram reels, Youtube introduced Youtube shorts.
The formula is simple, viewers watch a video, and as soon as its done another video is played. Shorter videos allowing for people to view a lot of content within a short space of time.
Images and flyers do very well on instagram,To date Instagram is still promoting reels which are being used by many as a “growth hack” to bring more followers. The “infinity scroll” feature that Reels uses allows users to discover new content and content creators.
Even other social media networks such as Pinterest which is mostly know for it’s pictorial content has a video feature which might be new to most, “video pins”.
They are displayed in a scrollable banner at the top of the Pinterest Mobile App, right there! It’s the first thing you might see when you log in on your screen , calling out your name…
Facebook also incorporated Facebook lives and normal feed videos that can be categorised with links and the type of content such as any other social media platforms.
In conclusion
Right now the shift on most social media platform is to focus on video content, however making a video will not be enough. The video needs to have good quality, your caption and title will still count as well. There are a lot of factors that count when we talk about social media marketing. If you want more of these helpful tools join us every wednesday for a free marketing tip.
If you need help with content creation for social media then visit our business page and see the different services we offer:
Appendix:
Link to article that states Adam Mossero’s claim about video growth:
( click here to read the article)
Mao
September 21, 2021 at 8:14 pm
Such an informative article Elaine. Thank you