Looking Into Ephemeral Content Strategies.

A what?!

We just got a little technical, but if you haven’t run into the term “Ephemeral Content” yet, don’t let this fancy buzzword word confuse you. It is derived from the Greek word ephemeris, which translates to “lasting only one day” or “short-lived.” It is digital media content that disappears after a certain amount of time, giving audiences a small window to view and engage with it. Short, Engaging & Addictive!! The number one social media trend today is Stories. Bought into the mainstream media first by Snapchat, Ephemeral Content is now one of the key attractions of almost all media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and even WhatsApp. The rise of this short-lived content strategy targets the fact that people’s attention spans are very short-lived nowadays. This FOMO marketing tactic creates a sense of urgency and missing out, which is a powerful motivator of human behavior. I mean, haven’t you at some point spent hours scrolling through one story after another? Addictive.  

From features like stickers to boomerangs, stories have helped increase the amount of time people spend on social media. An article published by Instagram in 2017 celebrated one year since their story feature was published. On average, those over the age of 25 and older spent more than 24 minutes a day on Instagram, and over 50% of the businesses had uploaded Instagram stories. Moving forward in time, Statista in a 2019 report showed that Instagram story features have 500 million daily active users, with WhatsApp close behind with 450 million daily active users. The way the audience likes to consume content is changing. So are businesses adapting to this, where Hootsuite reports 64% of marketers either have incorporated stories into their strategies or plan?

Enough with the statistics, let’s look into how stories can be so valuable for your brand:

Showcase The Real You:

The modern consumer craves authenticity; they want to see your brand’s raw and unedited version – The Behind The Scenes. And stories are the best platform to showcase this side. Temporary content displayed online does not necessarily need to be picture perfect or meticulously curated. This makes it easy for capturing moments like:

• BTS stories of your products are being made in your units, which adds to the elements of trust and transparency towards your services.
• Showcasing a day at the office to shed light on your company culture
• Interaction with your team employees, which gives the audiences a relatable face to connect to and humanizes your brand. 

Interact And Learn: 

Stories are the most efficient feature which can be used to engage with your audience, and the response is almost instant a day max! Brands can host live Q&A sessions with the social media community in real-time and conduct online polls, which can be a great market research tool in helping the brand learn and recognize their consumer needs, opinions, and suggestions on your products and services, demonstrate demos and tutorials. One can come up with creative ways to interact and learn about their audience and brand, both!

Level Up: 

Ephemeral content as a marketing strategy boosts engagement, drives traffic, and also encourages user-generated content. Getting them engaged with your stories allows your brand to keep their attention, build a connection, and grow your following along the way. Engagement rates show you how many people are seeing and interacting with your content, and the more people engage with your content, the higher chance you have at collecting new leads. 

Using stories for new product announcements, contests, giveaways, and discount sales is a golden tool for eliciting an immediate response, encouraging user-generated content and instilling the FOMO factor. Showcasing your products and services on stories and linking them to your website is a quick route- a swipe up! (to drive traffic towards sales (in-app purchases) and lead generation.)

As of October 2020, LinkedIn India has launched a Stories feature on its platform, allowing photos and videos to be published and visible 24 hours. And also, Twitter has started online testing its version of stories feature called Fleets.

Remember, social media platforms are all about raising brand awareness, generating lasting relationships with your audience, and of course, driving conversions as a consequence. As an upcoming business or a new start-up, developing an ephemeral content strategy is too valuable to pass on if you haven’t taken stories as a legitimate part of your marketing strategy. Its Time: Its Story Time!