Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

Posted on

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.

 

Posted on

AR & VR Definitions – PART 1: Augmented Reality

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

We have noticed a break in the communication between VR and AR consumers, and VR and AR service and content providers. Here is a breakdown of terminology used in the industry to help you, as the client, get your request across and to understand what we mean when we say…

1 – Augmented Reality

Simply put, Augmented Reality is the construction of virtual objects which are then displayed as part of a real environment. A mobile device with a lens and a screen is required to make use of AR applications.

2 – Photogrammetry

Photogrammetry is a process by which measurements of a three-dimensional object are taken from a two-dimensional image. It is a process used to digitize physical objects and implement them in AR applications.

3 – Image Target

A visual marker that is scanned by an AR application. This trigger is programmed to project AR simulations on a mobile screen. Content can be in the form of 3D objects, photographs, and videos. These can be interactive as well.

4 – Surface Tracking

An AR application scans the environment for tables, walls, or floors as surfaces on which to display AR content.

5 – 3D vs Video Content

AR content can be displayed as 3D models or standard videos.

Posted on

Look at what we did!

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

Woohoo! After discussions with many people, as well as hours of planning and building, our studio is up and running!

We have just completed the first phase of our in-house studio where we will be producing different content for you!
We have many plans for further decorating, and have overloaded a notebook with all the content ideas that we will be working on in conjunction with different people and brands.
The Middle East has a flavour of its own and something different to offer one of the fastest growing industries globally; Virtual Reality, especially in the areas of gaming, training and education, and events and entertainment.
Our studio will be hosting industry experts in the region, those who are creating VR solutions and those who are making use of these solutions. Our goal is to keep you up-to-date as to what is going on in the world of VR, as well as to help open your mind to the possibilities that VR and other Mixed Reality solutions create.
We are used to seeing ideas come and go, but VR is something we are sure is here to stay. It has been proven useful in many cases, and its concept has been pondered since the late 1800’s.
We are excited about all of this, and look forward to embarking on this journey.
Posted on

The benefits of high quality visual content

BY KAYLA NOBREGA

 

Throughout the years I have been a photographer, I have found that a lot of business owners do not see the point of budgeting for a good photographer. It seems that not that many people are aware of the benefits of high quality visual content.

With almost every business in the world needing to make sure they are present on social media, high quality photography and videography has become a necessity; and here is why:

1. First Impressions
You have also been told that first impressions matter, right? We live in a time where often a client’s first impression is formed through encountering a company online. Whether it is through your website or your social media profiles, they encounter your brand and portfolio online before physically meeting you.

This means that whatever content they are presented with shapes their impression of your company. Bad quality images, terribly worded captions, and amateur videos give exactly that impression. Bad quality. Terrible. Amateur.

High quality images taken by a professional who understands lighting, composition, and colours allows your brand to share images that capture an audience’s attention and makes your company look the part. High quality. Professional. Captivating.

2. Trust
A basic level of trust is automatic when a brand presents itself well. High quality content that is aesthetically appealing and easy to engage with attracts viewers to a brand. If content is managed properly, eventually attention turns into loyalty.

You cannot gain a customer’s loyalty without first gaining their trust, and a brand with poor visuals is usually avoided. The negative connotations of poor quality advertising is that whatever the brand is offering must be of poor quality too, and so they cannot be trusted.

How many times have you turned away from a company’s site, and so their brand, because of how it strained your eyes? How many times do you think someone has felt this way when it comes to your brand?

Visual content has always been needed and used by businesses – in newspapers, on billboards, and now online. It has almost been important that businesses share creative, well-thought out, high quality content; now even more so that everyone is digital.