SAE’s first-year Content Creation students at our Liverpool campus spent an afternoon at award-winning marketing agency Blaze Media.
Students had the opportunity to meet staff and learn some of the key processes of a fast-paced full service agency.
Peter Lynch, Content Creation lecturer, said:
“We are thrilled to be partnering with our friends at Blaze Media this term. Students had a chance to learn from experts on a range of subjects from graphic design to SEO. Members of staff from Blaze will be coming into class weekly to talk about topics such as copywriting and project management.”
As part of the partnership, Blaze Media’s Social Media and Content Manager Louise Riding delivered a presentation to our Content Creation students on the most effective ways to optimise content for social media.
Here are some of the key insights in our blog below. If you’d like to find out more about our Content Creation degree, then get in touch now.
Optimisation gives your content the best chance of finding a wider audience
Content optimisation involves tailoring your content to ensure it can perform well as possible online. This depends on the platform it is shared on and based on the platform’s audience and algorithms.
More authentic content is trending – rather than sales or ads
Even though some businesses have a corporate persona, many social media users no longer want to see ads or heavy branding in their feeds. Instead, many are more likely to connect with personal content where other people feature.
Consider the different parts of the marketing funnel
Be aware of the different parts of the marketing funnel and create content that works for each part.
The funnel includes:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Conversion
- Loyalty
- Advocacy
Look at what social media success means for a campaign
The performance of your social media content can be measured by KPIs – Key Performance Indicators. These include engagement, impressions, and engagement rate. These are:
Engagement | how many people like, share, see and comment
Impressions | how many times people see something
Engagement rate | add up all interactions your content has received, then divide this by follower numbers. Then multiply by 100.
This information can be analysed in different ways – for example, low impressions but high engagement means content is reaching less people but they are responding to it more.
More impressions but less engagement is good for an awareness content piece when a brand or company wants to get their name out there.
Always review your metrics
You can create an entire strategy for each stage of the funnel but remember to review the metrics to stay on track. If no one sees or engages with your content, then there’s no point in creating it and you need to change your strategy. Always keep your data in mind when optimising content.
Photos in portrait
Choosing to take photos in portrait takes up more screen size so is more likely to grab people’s attention.
The same rule of thumb applies for full size Instagram stories and reels.
Share PDFs and carousel posts once a week on LinkedIn
Aim to create a PDF or carousel post at least once a week. Users are more likely to click on a post if they cannot immediately see all the images included in it. This also indicates to LinkedIn’s algorithm that users are engaging with your content. If someone clicks on your post more, this will work in your favour and boost it.
Video is massive on TikTok and Instagram
Video and reels should be an essential part of any engagement strategy for social media. For example, video stands out on Instagram’s explore feature and reels hub on Instagram and usually get more engagement than static social media posts.
Embrace new features
If either Instagram or TikTok bring out a new feature, then start using it straight away. If the platforms notice your account using it, this will favour your profile/visibility.
Use in-app editing software and features
Both Instagram and TikTok want users to utilise their in-app editing software and features. TikTok can tell if you’ve edited your content elsewhere, so it will be less likely to push it.
Avoid saving your video from TikTok and uploading to Instagram with a TikTok watermark – and vice versa. Instead use Snaptik or Snapinsta to download video without any watermarks.
Film on your phone rather than a camera
Filming on a professional camera is great but if you need to work quickly, then it can be a time consuming process to do this. For example, this can involve filming, then saving, and uploading to a phone to edit there – instead, simply film on your phone.
increase your chances of going viral on TikTok
- Use trending sounds and templates
- Put your own spin on trending videos
- Use TikTok SEO – so hashtags, subtitles (this will tell the algorithm what your content is about), and captions
- Ensure users watch videos all the way through
- You need a good hook to keep people engaged. As a general rule of thumb, the shorter the video, the more effective is is online
What not to do with your social media content
- Don’t spend hours editing a super high-quality piece of video content
- Don’t use external editing software
- Don’t try to directly sell something
Authenticity is key to social media success
There is a move away from corporate content on social media. Instead, users want more personal and authentic content rather than super flashy and slick business-style.
See social media as an experiment
You can do everything in line with the rules of optimisation but your TikTok may only get ten views. Certain things work for certain clients and not for others so remember to experiment – this is a learning process as the algorithm constantly changes.
Don’t try to optimise for every platform
No one has time to optimise everything for every platform. If it a piece of content will be shared across three separate platforms, then prioritise how you optimise for one. Then work around that when sharing on the other two. The gap between the main three – Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn – is getting smaller now with the way audiences engage with them blurring.
Avoid hard sales
Social media is more of an awareness platform than a sales platform – you want to use these platforms to get on people’s radars rather than force products or offers on them.
Visit blazemedia.co.uk to find out more.
Study Content Creation at SAE
Whether you want to work in photography or video content, SAE’s Content Creation and Online Marketing Degree could be perfect for you.
Our degree will provide you with the skills, experience and knowledge to create images, video and other forms of engaging online content.
