Ephemeral content—some sort of rich media (usually images or videos) that are only available for a short amount of time before disappearing—came up as a topic our #ContentChat community wanted to learn more about. So this week, we led a community conversation to find out more about how people are—or aren’t—using it as part of their content marketing strategy.
#ContentChat POLL: Which of the following ephemeral content types are you most regularly consuming:
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
Facebook and Instagram Stories were by far the most popular channels for ephemeral content, with Snapchat coming in last by a significant margin.
Let’s start with a shared definition of ephemeral content: ephemeral content is some sort of rich media (usually images or videos) that are only available for a short amount of time before disappearing. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
Q1: With this definition in mind, what types of ephemeral content are you currently producing as part of your brand content marketing strategy?
Livestreams are making their way into B2B content marketing plans.
A1: I’ve been part of a few livestreams as part of my brand marketing activities. I’ve done a littl3 bit of dabbling in IG and FB stories, but haven’t quite figured out how I can make best use of them for my content marketing. #ContentChat https://t.co/IxwloEF3nb
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
A1: I did some livestreams (Periscope) at events, too. I’m curious how the IG and FB stories work for brands? #ContentChat
— Andrea VassalloMeyer (@andreamv) July 23, 2018
Polls are gaining in popularity across all the ephemeral channels. And as ephemeral content on Twitter too.
A1 Polls and questions have been effective on IG stories. Polling on Facebook works but I would say use an image o gif so it pops up in the feed. #ContentChat pic.twitter.com/s3mSKCRoqh
— Annoyin’ Observer (@SirKingofGifs) July 23, 2018
Ephemeral content can act as a promo or trailer for your content marketing efforts.
A1: I agree with you Erika as content marketing is not about content that disappears after a while. Maybe these stories can be used as a teaser. #ContentChat
— Wayne Hendry (@ideakid88) July 23, 2018
I like the idea of having promotional content have a short shelf-life so that when someone new comes to your feed the static content is evergreen. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
Conferences provide multiple opportunities for ephemeral content.
A1. We produce @instagram stories as part of our #brand #content #marketing strategy, especially for conference coverage. #ContentChat
— SourceMedia (@SourceMediaCo) July 23, 2018
While Twitter chats engagement window makes them ephemeral, our community is split on whether they count, thanks to recaps like the one you are reading right now.
A1: Lately we’ve spending a lot of time engaging with amazing #TwitterChat groups like this one! #ContentChat
— Crowdlinker (@crowdlinker) July 23, 2018
A1 So does a twitter chat count as ephemeral content? #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 23, 2018
@martinlieberman I’d agree with you – plus most of that chats I am in live on in blog post recaps that become permanent content. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 23, 2018
IG Stories can be an integral part of your Instagram engagement strtaegy.
A1: Our agency typically incorporates Instagram Story into any content strategy that includes Instagram for our clients as well as ourselves. It is a great way to keep audiences engaged and the client top of mind. #ContentChat https://t.co/xVb5Gex6oY
— Power Digital (@PwrDigMarketing) July 23, 2018
A1: Instagram stories. Our brand’s target audience is too old for Snapchat, but we have a key audience demographic that is very active on Instagram. #contentchat
— Caitlin Kinser (@caitlinmarie89) July 23, 2018
Many of us are still trying to determine if ephemeral content has a place in our content mix.
A1: I’m occasionally using stories on Instagram but I have a hard time seeing the value of the short term content and I don’t have the resources (yet) to come up with the engaging content that might be more effective from a relationship-development standpoint. #ContentChat
— Derek Pillie (@derekpillie) July 23, 2018
Q2: For those of you who have been producing ephemeral content, what are you seeing as the benefits to your business?
IG Stories aren’t just for awareness—they can drive leads, too.
A2: As an agency, we’ve used Instagram Story ads as a very successful tool for our internal lead gen efforts for new business. We’ve seen great response to this short form content versus long form video efforts. #ContentChat https://t.co/Pp3Y0lz7Uj
— Power Digital (@PwrDigMarketing) July 23, 2018
Ephemeral content allows brands to try out new ideas and less formal content without detracting from the brand.
A2. It doesn’t have to be as uniform as the rest of your #content. You’re not messing up your @instagram aesthetic if you post a story, especially since it disappears, so a #brand can use it to experiment. #ContentChat
— SourceMedia (@SourceMediaCo) July 23, 2018
A2: Some of our clients have had success using IG stories to test out new post styles/formats, increase discoverability through trending hashtags, stay top-of-mind without clogging up user feeds #contentchat
— Crowdlinker (@crowdlinker) July 23, 2018
Ephemeral content can make your social channels a must-visit stop more frequently.
Agreed. But I also like the idea of ephemeral content being used to create urgency, relevancy, and timeliness. Makes the idea of social much more real-time because if you miss it … it’s gone! #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) July 23, 2018
A2: Big benefit: promoting timely content (meeting and event registrations, submission deadlines, etc.) without that then living in your feed after the dates have passed. #contentchat
— Caitlin Kinser (@caitlinmarie89) July 23, 2018
Q3: For those of you who aren’t creating ephemeral content, what has been your barrier or point of resistance in doing so?
B2B marketing has a long sales cycle, which makes having a storehouse of evergreen content take priority over ephemeral content.
A3 We know our audience/community isn’t a real-time social audience, and our sales process is very long-tail. So our content needs to have a shelf life and be evergreen. #contentchat
— Martin Lieberman (@martinlieberman) July 23, 2018
Too many things to do and not enough time.
A3: For me, it’s really just come down to time. As a solopreneur, I have to spread my business development time pretty far so ephemeral content has seemed less important than evergreen content. #ContentChat https://t.co/K0cbyTe6IR
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
A3. There’s a lot of #content ideas I have that haven’t got to the top of my priority list yet. Evergreen content seems to rise higher, ephemeral content is way down the list. #contentchat
— Tod Cordill, MBA (@todcordill) July 23, 2018
A3: So far the right context hasn’t popped up for me yet. I have to train myself to ask the question: Does ephemeral content make sense in this context? How does it add value? I don’t want to do it for the sake of doing it. #ContentChat
— Maureen Jann (@SuperDeluxeMo) July 23, 2018
Industries with significant compliance burdens may not be able to move quickly enough to make ephemeral content happen.
A3 I think the spontaneity of it all keeps it an enigma for some larger more traditional companies..#IMHO #ContentChat
— Shruti Deshpande (@shruti12d) July 23, 2018
A3: Maintaining a proper editorial calendar for stories can be overwhelming. The immediate-posting nature of story content can be an issue for larger orgs that require sign-off at specific stages of content creation and distribution #contentchat
— Crowdlinker (@crowdlinker) July 23, 2018
Q4: What are some examples of brands turning ephemeral content into a real brand benefit? Share links if possible, including some of your own content.
A4a: @Nasa has a number of interesting IG stories: https://t.co/bSL1QppcUc #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
A4b: The folks @Sephora do a lot of fun IG stories highlighting their new products. https://t.co/3si0og19He #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
A4c: @lushcosmetics goes live on Instagram for fun Q&A sessions, and regularly posts IG stories. https://t.co/Bw1u3vqno9 #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
A4: The recent addition of the ‘Ask a Question’ feature to IG stories is HUGE for user research and test marketing. Any brands not using this are missing out. #ContentChat
— Crowdlinker (@crowdlinker) July 23, 2018
A4 I haven’t taken any screenshots but I do love Converse and not going to lie some of their stories/ads have intrigued me to purchase #ContentChat
— Annoyin’ Observer (@SirKingofGifs) July 23, 2018
A4) I don’t have any links, but I remember watching some IG stories for Fashion Tech Week in Silicon Valley, and it was pretty cool so catch glimpses of panel discussions and behind-the-scenes fashion show set-up. #contentchat
— Roxanne (@rescuemom_nyc) July 23, 2018
A4: I’ve seen numerous beauty brands use Insta Stories to display how to use new products followed by a swipe up to shop. Here you’re getting instant sales–particularly when a sense of urgency is included like stating that it’s a “limited edition” product. #contentchat
— Caitlin Kinser (@caitlinmarie89) July 23, 2018
I saw @lushcosmetics using that functionality on IG in a livestream today I think. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) July 23, 2018
A4: For clients, we’ve seen huge success with our interactive Instagram stories that encourage a reshare and have seen increased follower growth as a result. It also helps us generate UGC for our content calendars. Here’s an example for one of our clients #ContentChat pic.twitter.com/DDkftCXpJz
— Power Digital (@PwrDigMarketing) July 23, 2018
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