With great content comes great responsibility and knowing the limits of content will help you plan appropriately and not over-promise and under-deliver.
We’ll look at the top five considerations from a whole host of scenarios you may encounter. In this article, I want to talk about how you can match content type to the target audience.
#1 Silent Auto-Play
a key consideration for video content. 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Design your video content to not sound-dependent. Consider subtitles for all video content.
#2 Accessibility
Does your audience need ALT tag descriptions if they’re hard of vision? see above point on subtitles for the aurally impaired users, high contrast images and colours too.
Refer to the W3C accessibility guidelines, especially if you work within a public sector business where accessibility is often mandated by law.
#3 Vertical compliance
Speaking of law, if your business is one of regulated interests e.g. alcohol or pharmaceuticals, be aware of the regulations about your content e.g. targeting 18+
#4 Excessive data usage
rich content formats can pose a strain on some devices. A 300MB video might look great but for an audience on 3G with patchy reception, it will be a pain.
Crises: always consider pausing “business as usual” content promotion if you’re experiencing a business crisis, depending on the severity of the situation. React to the situation as appropriate.
Thanks to new content segmentation methods available on some social platforms, known as ‘dark posting’, businesses on social media can now match content to only be seen by the intended audience.
This method of selective content display is available through Facebook and Instagram.
For example, a shoe store may have a storewide sale with 50% off; however, the creatives they use in the ad may feature high heels for a female audience and sneakers for a male audience.
Neither audience will ever see the ad or post never intended for their audience, as Facebook/Instagram has the visibility of these posts switched off for unintended audiences.
Benefits:
- Avoids wastage by making sure the audience who sees your content is 100% relevant
- Avoids irrelevant messaging reaching the wrong audience, e.g. if a follower sees about an event happening in a different country to where they live
- Allows for tweaks in language, copy, imagery without interfering with your master brand.
Here is a selection of tools for creating eBooks and white papers. These range from web-based tools to native applications.
- MS Word is a native application intuitive for white papers but not so good for eBooks
- HubSpot and InDesign work well for eBooks creation
- PressBooks is a web-based application for eBook creation.
Here is a selection of free and paid-for tools for creating infographics. Some of these are web-based with others application-based. The web-based platforms contain handy templates that you can customize.
- Free Tools include: Picktochart, Infogram (with paid enhancements)
- Paid tools include: Adobe’s Illustrator programme and Visually
Here is a selection of tools for creating long-form video content:
#1 Adobe Premiere Pro
a timeline-based video editing app developed by Adobe Systems and published as part of the Adobe Creative Cloud licensing program.
- After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Systems and used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production.
- Final Cut Pro is Apple’s signature professional video editing software.
Here is a selection of tools for creating short-form video content:
#1 Photoshop
You can use Photoshop CC’s image-editing tools to translate to video and transform a selection of clips into movies.
The redesigned, clip-based timeline panel reflects video editors like Adobe Premiere, including transitions and effects that give finished videos professional polish.
#2 Viva Video
comes as a native video app which allows stopping motion, basic editing and branding.
Native video editing tools: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat:
- Instagram and Snapchat’s native cameras include features such as boomerangs (looping forward and back), slow motion, rewind and time lapse
- Facebook’s native camera includes features like lenses and filters.
- YouTube’s native editor allows for the addition of music, editing, and subtitles
Here’s a look at YouTube Editor. As you can see, there are several handy editing options, including:
- Add music/sound effects
- Add scene transitions
- Text subtitles
- Basic edits
- Scene additions
YouTube also has an Audio Library of royalty-free music for use on any videos.
While there are several content creation tools available, it is important to consider the tools and their suitability for your organisation under the following areas:
- Functionality: Can the tool suitably work to fulfil all the content formats you need to create? Or is there a tool that can create multiple formats, e.g. Photoshop can create JPEGs, GIFs, PDFs, mov,s etc?
- Ease of use: some content creation tools like Canva are very intuitive, but a lot of the Adobe Suite require specialised upskilling.
- Resource: There are a lot of great tools, but they often have limitations on their functionality. Paid-for tools have a much wider suite of outputs but also require upskilling or dedicated resources to get the most out of them.
- Frequency of use: Before considering resources, assess how frequently you need the tool.
Best Practices
There are many considerations with all of the various formats of content that you can create; however, these rules should hold regardless of the platform or the content format to help you follow best practices:
- Does it provide utility: something useful for your audience – education, entertainment, information, desire, relief?
- Is it fit for the platform you’re publishing on – resolution, size, functionality?
- Can you measure the effectiveness of the content – the ability to assess success or failure?
- Is it consistent in appearance and style with your brand – does it relate to your personas and brand story?
- Is it aligned with your business goals – is it clear what you’re trying to achieve with the content for your business?
There are many considerations with all of the various formats of content that you can create; however, these rules should hold regardless of the platform or the content format to help you follow best practices:
- Does it provide utility: something useful for your audience – education, entertainment, information, desire, relief?
- Is it fit for the platform you’re publishing on – resolution, size, functionality?
- Can you measure the effectiveness of the content – the ability to assess success or failure?
- Is it consistent in appearance and style with your brand – does it relate to your personas and brand story?
- Is it aligned with your business goals – is it clear what you’re trying to achieve with the content for your business?
Action Point
PS: I know you might agree with some of the points raised in this article or disagree with some of the issues raised.
Please share your thoughts on the topic discussed. We would appreciate it if you could drop your comment. Thanks in anticipation.
