Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Keeping your audience entertained in the golden age of multi-platform media has become critical to online success. To accomplish this, you must learn to switch up your branded content and experiment on new and different platforms.
Why should you change up your branded content? Having a diverse content strategy is critical in today’s oversaturated, competitive and ever-changing marketing environment. If your marketing strategy heavily relies on branded content, you must ensure that it is diverse in terms of how, when and where it is shared. You risk losing audience interest and engagement if you use the same content and formats across all platforms.
Only by stepping outside of your comfort zone and learning to take calculated risks will your brand’s content thrive. Otherwise, by not embracing content diversification and investing in new platforms, you are passing up opportunities to engage your audience on their terms.
Related: How to Know If You’re Producing Quality Content
How to change up your branded content?
While adhering to your core values, your content strategy must evolve to meet the specific needs of each platform and its users. When doing so, always be open to new information and consider how it may affect your target audience. Being adaptable will allow you to fine-tune your strategy and grow as a content creator, marketer and business.
Flexibility in your brand’s content creation does not have to be difficult. However, proper research is required for success. This is why there is one key action all brands must take before creating new branded content: Study new platforms.
Why study new platforms?
Simply put, users’ interests and behaviors differ across social media platforms due to each platform’s “zeitgeist.” For instance:
Understanding the inner workings of various platforms is essential if you want to create tailored content. This new information will significantly impact how you approach content development and expansion.
Brands should learn why users engage with specific platforms. This will allow them to tailor their new content to those audiences and interact with them in ways they respond to and feel comfortable with. If you don’t spend time researching who your post might reach, you risk appearing uninformed. That is why you should always stay up to date on new developments in content marketing.
Related: The Business of Harnessing the Power of Social Media
Going beyond text and image platforms
In our modern era, there are more than text and image platforms to consider, namely: the metaverse. Although the metaverse is not a single platform, it has many touchpoints with various audience types.
For example, Polar, TheSoul Publishing’s first “digital popstar,” was created as part of our efforts to further grow our audience. In July, she performed a live concert in the metaverse via Avakin Life. Over 2.2 million users spent over 100,000 hours watching Polar perform as one of the festival’s headlining acts at the Solar Sounds Festival.
Avakin Life and other metaverse worlds focus on live performance, so fans “show up” and participate in the communal experience. This means that the content brands create for the metaverse must be tailored to the typical users of these platforms.
TheSoul recognized this and ensured Polar was reaching different audiences in the right way:
Because the audience on YouTube is most interested in music, we created music videos to engage them directly. It worked, as her debut single, “Close To You,” has been viewed over eight million times.
On TikTok, Polar fills a similar niche, though it also emphasizes dance videos that can be easily shared and recreated. She has seen massive success on the platform, with more than 1.6 million followers.
On Instagram, Polar’s newest platform, her posts are more personal and geared toward lifestyle content. She has yet to build a huge following on the platform, so her creative team continues to tinker and experiment to find her audience there.
Related: 7 Ways Your Brand Can Thrive in the Metaverse
The common thread
Audiences across platforms now expect brands to be a natural extension of their online experiences rather than something they must actively seek out. Instead of having a bland profile that only posts about internal news, brands must learn to become “users” of each platform.
The principles of adaptability, innovation and consistent messaging form the foundation of this common thread:
Consistent messaging: To provide this integrated experience, brands must maintain a consistent brand image and message throughout their workplace policies, procedures and values.
Innovation: Thanks to the huge amounts of content created every single day, the world of social media is saturated. As a result, brands must constantly look for exciting and innovative ways to reach and engage their audiences in our interconnected world. We do this by continuously experimenting with a wide range of cutting-edge technologies, such as making virtual reality experiences and developing content in the metaverse.
Adaptability: All content producers and marketing departments must be willing to experiment with new mediums and methods. From garden-themed shorts on our TikTok channel to in-depth documentaries on our YouTube channel, we’ve been embracing content diversification for years.
Overall, it’s critical to understand each platform’s unique functions. Then you can tailor your branded content to fit in with its surroundings and appeal to its specific audiences. Continue researching and studying platforms, both new and old. This allows you to fine-tune your strategy and, as a result, grow as a content creator and as a brand.
