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What your Social Media and Content Marketing should look like

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

“Marketing is telling the world you are a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world you are one.” – Robert Rose

With that in mind, here are three things to consider when putting your social media content together according to your digital marketing plan.

  • Quality

The content that you put out there has a direct link to the way your audience perceives your brand and all it has to offer. The quality of your content tells your audience of the quality of your product and services. High quality images, videos, GIF’s, and written content help your audience perceive your brand as high quality, whereas low quality and unprofessional content gives the same impression of your brand.

  • Interactive

Something to keep in mind about people is that we love to be included and involved. There are a few ways you can include and involve your audience through the content that you share. Captions that call your audience to an action, images that capture the viewer’s attention and invite them to take part in some sort of activity, or a video that allows the viewer to contemplate something that makes them relate to the brand. Always leave room for your audience to respond in some way to your content.

  • Consistency

The best way to grow a loyal and engaging following is being consistent. Create an expectation for your audience and make sure you deliver on it in your content. If you are a brand that focuses on humour and wants their audience to laugh with them, they will be disappointed in any break of humourous content. If you are a brand that promotes health and reaches out to viewers that prioritize health and freshness, they will be disappointed if an element of unhealthiness or lack of freshness is shared. Make sure that all your content is creative, but that it aligns with why your viewers are attracted to your brand.

 

Social media is a great way for brands to showcase who they are and invite viewers to be a part of that.

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Three Things to consider when Brainstorming for a Video

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

Video content creation for social media is important because of the increase in engagement and ability to showcase a brand in more detail. Below are three things to keep in mind when coming up with ideas for video content.

 

  • Time limit

Instagram can host a maximum of 1 minute per video as a post. Insta-stories are not as limited in duration. Neither are Facebook, LinkedIn, and obviously YouTube. However, a person’s attention span only lasts so long when it comes to videos on social media, and is largely based on the topic. It is found that videos ranging between 20 to 45 seconds are the best use of video time. The most effective videos are those that can convey a message in a creative way in the least amount of time.

  • Introduction

The way your video starts is the most important part of it. It is your first chance to capture your audience’s attention so that they watch your video until the end. Using elements such as bright colours, big text, unusual subject matter, and captivating music is a good way to attract your viewers’ focus. If your introduction is not captivating enough, viewers may scroll past your video without giving it any thought. Instagram viewers spend on average 2 seconds looking at a post, so you have that amount of time to make them want to continue watching. On YouTube, advertisements are given 5 seconds before they can be skipped so creators have a relatively short time to make a good impression.

  • Conclusion

The conclusion of the video is the aspect that ties everything together. If a viewer reaches the end of your video and does not see the point of it, it is difficult to keep them coming back to your content. You do not want a strong introduction promising the video is worth watching and then letting your viewers down by not delivering on that. What helps with the flow of your video is knowing exactly what information you would like your video to share with your audience.

 

Videos are an opportunity for a brand to showcase their creativity and invite their audience to get to know their brand more.

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Why GIF’s are important for Social Media and Digital Marketing

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

The benefits of digital marketing is that companies are able to reach a large audience, in many locations, very quickly.

The downside to this way of sharing a message is that audience attention is fleeting. Grabbing someone’s attention and keeping it long enough for a brand to get their point across is difficult due to how much information is available online.

The goal of good marketing is to grab your audience’s attention, and maintain it until they receive your message. Using text on its own is the least effective way to do this. Audiences skim over the text at best, especially if the title and the introduction do not appeal to them. It also takes a lot of time and effort to produce text heavy content.

Using images is more effective; they are relatively easy to produce, but do require a lot of time. Instagram has shared that audiences spend on average only 2 seconds on an image before scrolling on, so just because they double-tapped the image does not mean your message was received.

Videos shared on social media keep audiences engaged for 33% more time than images. This makes them a more effective way to capture an audience’s attention and share your message with them. The most effective videos are between 20 to 45 seconds. As with static images, videos are relatively easy to create but require time.

And finally, GIF’s; looped clips that are simple to create, and not a lot of time is required to make them. Cinemagraphs fall into the same category as GIF’s. This is because both offer an entertaining way to convey a message. They are fun and interactive, which helps keep an audience’s attention for longer. Tweets published with GIF’s gain 167% more engagement than text-only posts.

GIF’s are important for social media and other digital marketing strategies because they attract audience attention for a longer period of time which gives a brand more time to speak to the audience.

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Interesting Facts about GIF’s and why You need them on Social Media

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

GIF stands for “Graphics Interchange Format” and is a file format that can support multiple frames as an animation, or just a single static image. Here are a few interesting facts about them!

 

1 – The GIF file format was created by a team of computer scientists in 1987, lead by Steve Wilhite.

2 –  Steve Wilhite, referred to above, says that the pronunciation of the term “GIF” was intended to be “jiff” and not “giff.”

3 –  According to TechCrunch, Giphy – the largest GIF search engine – was worth $300 million in 2016 due to funding and no actual revenue generation.

4 –  GIF’s are referred to as, “the language of the web” as they carry a message, are quick to understand, and carry a fun and entertaining element.

5 – On Twitter, tweets published with GIF’s receive 167% more engagement.

 

Below is a GIF we created for a chef for Instagram:

 

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What is a “Call to Action” and why do brands need to use them?

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

A “call to action” is a prompt to your audience to respond to your social media post, recently public blog post, event invitation, or survey. It is supposed to entice your audience to engage with your brand and your brand’s message.

It can be argued that people do not like being told what to do, and so brand’s need to be innovative and considerate in how they call people to respond to the content that they publish.

One of the most compelling calls to action that can be found on the internet is the “play” button. It entices the viewer to interact with the content without demanding that they do so.

This type of call to action doesn’t take up much of the viewer’s time which makes it easy and convenient.

This is another reason why video content is so important to include in your digital marketing strategies.

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How 3D, AR, VR, Photography, and Videography work together

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

The fields of photography and videography, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, and 3D design all pull pieces of information from both art and science, and so contribute to each field as well.

Each of these fields borrow from and lend to each other as well. The purpose of this blog post is to show how they all interact and how innovation is born from these interactions.

Photography and videography go hand-in-hand in that they are the same thing, but one is still and the other is in motion. The nature of both come with different benefits for different purposes. There is an example v below.

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality also offer the same thing in different ways. They both offer an extension and enhancement of reality, but Augmented Reality offers it through a mobile device, while Virtual Reality offers it through a head-mounted device.

Photography and videography are used in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality to create the alternate realities. 3D design is also used to create environments, characters, and special effects and animations.

The best example of how all of these fields can be integrated is found in the innovation of digital portals.

A digital portal can be opened in Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality, depending on the preferred device. Using 360 photography, a person can walk into the portal with their device and have a look at a certain location.

Using 360 videography, a person can walk into the portal and, not only look at the environment, but also see how people interact with the environment. 360 videography is commonly used in Virtual Reality experiences and films.

An example of a location that you can view in one of our portals can be found here.

 

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What is Digital Transformation and why do Businesses need it?

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

Digital Transformation is what companies are doing to move from the traditional analogue way of performing different business functions to digital methods. It is the integration of technology in all aspects of business; sales, operations, marketing, and training to name a few.

Examples of how digital transformation can be useful:

Sales

Using a Customer-Relationship Management (CRM) System helps a sales team keep track of the deals that are underway. The system can help time management and scheduling, as well as provide reminders for upcoming appointments and follow ups.

Doing this process digitally takes away the need for paper, improves customer service through reminders and task tracking, and allows companies to have analytics of their customer interactions.

Operations

Using a logistics warehouse as an example, digitizing storage operations speeds up different processes. Instead of logging into a server to find information of different packages, Augmented Reality technology can be used to scan barcodes and display information a lot faster.

Digitizing this process makes it easier to know where packages need to be stored, where they can be found, and what the status is in terms of damage, delivery, or return.

Marketing

Digital marketing is proving to be the most effective way to reach a mass of people, especially when compared to billboards and other print advertising that can only target people in a fixed area. Online marketing helps brands reach a global audience.

Services such as photography and videography, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, as well as 3D design and animation contribute to the digitizing of the marketing department of a business. There are also online systems available to manage digital content and make marketing schedules more convenient and time-saving.

Training

Training is no longer restricted to taking notes while someone conveys the material relevant to a job. Incorporate e-learning – online courses which can be completed at the user’s own pace and monitored by administrators – helps a business make their training more efficient.

With the use of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, training can become immersive and interactive through simulations that can be repeated. This technology provides a risk free way to train in construction, food and beverage, hospitality, and medicine.

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What happened in 2018

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

Well, it is that time of the year. Soon we will all be establishing New Year’s resolutions, and 2019 will kick off.

In this post, we would like to take some time to look over 2018 for the incredible year it has been for Virtuality.

We started by creating virtual tours of property listings for real estate companies in Dubai. As we explored the possibilities of AR and VR we were able to launch in February of this year as AR and VR specialists.

Since then we have had the pleasure of working with some incredible clients on different AR and VR projects. We created virtual tours for TRA at Gitex 2018, Palazzo Versace Hotel, and American School of Dubai.

We implemented VR solutions at events and exhibitions, as well as for restaurants and a food truck supplier!

360 photography and videography are becoming popular options for events and marketing. Businesses are using 360 tours to showcase their office spaces; we created one for Scissors Tailoring Studio at Kempinski Hotel and Residences on Palm Jumeirah.

We also used our virtual tour of Marina Gate to incorporate 3D design.

The most exciting part of the year for me has been the launch of Virtuality Studios! We have a YouTube channel dedicated to tutorials, discussions with industry professionals and experts, as well as behind-the-scenes of what we got up to “this week at Virtuality.”

2018 was a great first year for us! We are excited for what the new year has for us, and we look forward to sharing it all with you!

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Why are 360 Photos and Videos becoming popular for Marketing

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

It seems that consumers of content are used to the standard photographs and videos that are posted to their feeds on a minutely basis.

The “Wow” factor that entices people to a brand is limited to the skill of videographers and photographers, but audiences have become much too accustomed to the perspectives offered to them.

This is why 360 videos, also known as immersive videos, will become a popular means of communication from a brand to their audience.

An omnidirectional camera is used to capture every angle, providing a holistic perspective on an environment to the viewer.

This footage, once exported and uploaded, can be maneuvered by the audience to look wherever they want to in the scene. This makes it an interactive option that invites viewers to spend more time engaging with the content.

The world of marketing, within every industry, is going to change drastically as immersive means of advertising is made more accessible.

Here are examples of how 360 photo and video is being used in hospitality, restaurants, and real estate.