Ephemeral content refers to rich media made of mostly video and images, which can be accessed only for very brief period. As part of marketing strategy, it implies temporary content which exploits the sentiment of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). It is created to garner an immediate response from the target audience.
Ephemeral content is not a new concept. The concept of temporary material and the brief disappearance and appearance of content is the stuff that maintains traffic in most platforms of social media.
Online platforms of social media are ephemeral in two ways: Either the content appears briefly and disappears as like Instagram and Facebook or our reaction to such content is brief or ephemeral. This means- we watch content and feel for it (complain, laugh or cry). Then we move on instantly, never to return.
There are two main goals of marketing via ephemeral content:
This is the most pertinent goal of eliciting an instant response from users. The target must be to produce a quick sign-up or an instant decision to purchase. Also, it could be to help make the viewer to make content viral by reacting to, sharing or liking the content. The short term nature of ephemeral content generates a sense of urgency which is driven by FOMO.
The impact of ephemeral content is not only to impress upon the user details about your service of product, but also to engage with the brand on a highly personal level. As part of a strategy for content marketing, ephemeral content also promotes User Generated Content (UGC).
This marketing strategy inspires users to act on behalf of your brand by editing or manipulating images or creating a brand related story.
Daily, users are interacting with stories from Instagram, Snap Chat and Facebook. In fact, Instagram has an audience of over 200 million users every month. This is evidence of the potential for reaching a humungous audience for your client.
By posting stories actively on Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, you will widen your reach to customers, particularly if these are stories generated by users. This pattern of ephemeral content is very popular with the millennial generation.
An ephemeral content strategy which is crafted well will help you generate a vast amount of content with low overheads and less effort. Of course this depends on your campaign and size of your company.
By using rich media and images, you can quickly present your story before your audience. For example Facebook stories help you engage with your audience using an unbroken narrative.
As the leading social media marketing company in India, we treat stories as a unique channel or platform from your feed and profile. Additionally, you can share a constant stream of visual media without impacting your newsfeed.
For maintaining popularity and visibility of your brand, it needs to construct a solid reputation. One way of hiking brand loyalty using ephemeral content is by inviting users to the inner workings of your business through video and audio.
An ephemeral marketing plan can be designed in such a manner as to permit your audience greater insight into the culture of your company through stories on social media.
These are all some aspects about marketing through ephemeral content strategy.