If you’ve already got a social media marketing strategy in place for your business, you’re on the right track! You might, however, be overlooking ephemeral content and the value that it brings.
Maybe you’re favouring long-form and feed social media content over ephemeral content to achieve your social media marketing goals. Or perhaps you’re already using ephemeral content as a part of your social media marketing strategy and you don’t even know it.
Whatever the case may be, ephemeral content is fantastic for beating those pesky social media algorithms and keeping your brand top of mind.
To that end, let’s take a look at what ephemeral content for social media is, why it’s great for brands, and how you can use it to drive results for your very own brand.
What is ephemeral content?
Ephemeral content is any kind of content that is visible for a short amount of time, usually around 24 hours.
It’s also known as disappearing content and can be found on social media channels like Instagram, Facebook (Meta), and TikTok. It’s essentially the opposite of evergreen content, which is content that is created to stay online and offer value for many years to come.
In a nutshell, ephemeral content is content that your audience won’t typically be able to view for very long, unless you save it to your profile, like on Instagram Stories Highlights, for example.
This content allows your brand to engage with your audience on a more human level through less produced and more authentic content.
Flash sales, daily updates, or new products or service announcements are usually the type of content that gets shared when it comes to ephemeral content. This content tends to evoke a more immediate response when used in the proper context.
Types of ephemeral content on social media
We’ve all seen ephemeral content in one form or another, so let’s briefly take a look at the different types that can be found on social media.
Instagram Stories
Starting off with a classic, Instagram Stories are photos or videos that can be shared with audiences for a maximum of 24 hours. They allow for many interactive elements, including polls, question boxes, stickers and links.
If you want to preserve your brand’s Stories for more than 24 hours, you have the option to save them to something known as Stories Highlights which can easily be found on your Instagram profile at the top of the page.
Instagram Stories are a great way to increase awareness of your brand and engage customers. So much so, that according to Forbes, a whopping 96% of U.S. marketers who use Stories in their social media content plan say they will continue to use it in the next six months.
Facebook Stories
Facebook Stories are very similar to Instagram Stories in that they remain on your feed for 24 hours. You can find them at the top of your news feed in a carousel format. When you create Facebook Stories for users to view, you can choose different target audiences, for example, friends, followers or a custom-created list.
Snapchat Stories
Snapchat Stories is a feature that displays a collection of images called ‘snaps’ captured within the past 24 hours. With Snapchat Stories, you have the option to extend your Stories’ lifespan by saving them to something known as Memories, which contains your personal collection of saved ‘snaps’.
‘Snaps’ provide a fun and fresh way to document your activities as a brand and share them with your audience.
TikTok Moments
TikTok Moments are videos that also remain on your feed for 24 hours. With TikTok Moments you have the ability to add links and hashtags, include location tags, and tag other accounts in your videos. The difference, however, with this disappearing content is that it can only be created and captured ‘in the moment’. Making it somewhat unique to other social media ephemeral content.
Why ephemeral content is great for brands
1. Short-form videos/images boost engagement
Ephemeral content is ideal for the majority of audiences who prefer shorter forms of content. As a result, short-form content generally works well for brands and is the most engaging type of content according to Direct Selling News.
For example, short-form content in the form of stories can effectively be used to encourage audiences to make a spontaneous purchasing decision or to signup. They can also be used to quickly connect with followers for the purpose of sharing updates.
Consistently publishing stories can go a long way in increasing brand awareness by creating multiple and frequent touchpoints with your audience and keeping your brand top of mind as a result.
2. It uses FOMO to its advantage
Fear of missing out (FOMO) is where ephemeral content especially shines and is one of the major reasons why it works so well for brands. Your followers know that they only have a limited time to view your content and that naturally brings about a sense of urgency.
Leveraging time-sensitive content to fuel interest and engagement is how most brands announce their latest product launches, promotional discounts, and other news. This limited release of content is what drives urgency and further engagement.
3. It builds authentic relationships
Social media followers prefer to see more authentic content from brands on social media in order to connect. In fact, in a study done by Sprout Social, as much as 64% of consumers said that they want brands to connect more with them.
Ephemeral content allows you to do just that and reveal the human side of your brand using ‘in the moment’ content. It makes your brand seem more relatable because it’s informal and not so put together.
This type of content helps to foster a deep connection with your followers.
4. It’s more interactive
While social media posts are better for gaining reach, ephemeral content is better for engaging followers.
Most social media platforms have a variety of interactive features that can be paired with ephemeral content to encourage that much-needed engagement. These include asking questions, running polls, and adding very specific calls to action.
Conclusion
Ephemeral content is an easy way to engage and connect with your audience on a more frequent basis. It also takes a minimal amount of effort when it comes to content production. But most of all, it provides an excellent way to improve brand awareness and build trust with your audience, while adding some fun to the mix!
So don’t be afraid to sprinkle some ephemeral content into your social media marketing strategy mix every now and then. It’s a great tool that can achieve unique results!
