Whether you are a blogger or digital marketer, you will agree that it’s challenging to introduce your brand to the world at large. The competition is getting fierce, and it’s important to use all tools possible to be one step ahead of your rivals.
The question arises, however, what the best platform for brand promotion is. Well, if we take into account that Facebook is the world’s third most-visited website and that Facebook Messenger is the top mobile app by the number of downloads, the answer seems to be obvious.
So if you want to reach a wide audience and raise brand awareness, don’t hesitate to spend your marketing budget on Facebook, and particularly on branded content. Read this article to find directions on how to create high-quality branded content to grow your business fast.
Benefits of Branded Facebook Content
Before we start discussing different aspects of branded content creation, let’s look through the benefits it brings. There are three main reasons to use branded content:
Reach a wide audience
Post published by the influencer results in a few times more views, likes, shares, and comments than the same post published at the company’s business page.
Here is a great example.
The video that advertises Portal, a video communication device, was published at Serena Williams’ page as well as on Portals’ business page. The video on Serena’s page has been viewed 697 thousand times and shared two thousand times. The video on Portal’s page has been viewed 53 thousand times and shared 165 times. The difference is obvious.
Improve brand loyalty
As you know, modern users have negative attitudes toward invasive advertising. They get irritated with Facebook ads easily. So if you want to improve brand loyalty, you should substitute ads with branded content.
Fortunately, customers tend to be loyal to companies that disclose information regarding their partnership with Facebook influencers and content publishers. So feel free to use hashtags #ad and #sponsored. They will not scare your prospective buyers away.
Humanizes your brand
Users tend to associate the influencer with the brand he/she promotes. For this reason, branded content effectively helps companies to get people emotionally attached to their brands. Let’s consider an example to understand how it works.
Michael Phelps, an American swimmer, supports Colgate’s marketing campaign #EveryDropCounts to raise awareness of water scarcity around the world. Obviously, Michael’s followers have a positive opinion about him and the values he promotes. Numerous sponsored posts published oon Michael’s page allow Colgate to form positive attitudes about its brand.
Types of Branded Content
In 2019, Facebook allows marketers to use the branded content tag with the following post types:
- Photos
- Carousel
- Slideshow
- Video
- 360-degree video
- Infographics
- GIF Animation
- Links
- Plain text
- Live
- Canvas
- Instant Article
- Memes
As you can see, you have plenty of options to choose from. So you can pick the type of content that your customers like the most.
For instance, if you target professionals in the field of chemistry or information technology, it’s better to use infographics and instant articles. If you target high schoolers, it will be a wise decision to create short videos or funny memes. In case if you want to address sensitive conversations, it’s better to use photos or plain text.
Set Content Standards
When you collaborate with influencers, you should set content standards. It will ensure that the quality of sponsored posts will be as good as you expect.
Don’t allow the content creator to publish posts without your permission. Because one low-quality sponsored post may damage the reputation of your company.
Once branded content is published, you should monitor the results using Sotrender. It will allow you to analyze the insights and update your content standards, if necessary.
Introduce a Content Calendar
If you want to achieve great results, you should plan everything in advance. You should decide how many sponsored posts you will create per week or month. Also, you should do a little research to find out at what time of the day and week it’s better to publish new content.
After that, you should create a content calendar and agree on it with the influencer. Keep in mind that an influencer knows his target audience better than you, so you should listen to his/her opinion.
It’s worth mentioning that you shouldn’t share a few sponsored posts a day. It’s highly likely that will irritate your prospective buyers.
Use of Content Creation Tools
Today, Facebook offers a wide range of editing tools and services to create remarkable branded content. For instance, in-built Facebook features allow creating Canvas, a full-screen ad experience, and 360-degree videos. However, you can use additional content creation tools, if necessary:
- Magisto. It’s a professional video maker. It will help you to create a fabulous sponsored video.
- GIFMaker. This tool helps to convert multiple images into GIF animation or video animation.
- Easel.ly. It’s a user-friendly web tool that allows creating share-worthy infographics. You don’t need to have specific skills in design to use it.
- iMeme. You can apply this online tool to design funny memes.
Engage with Your Audience
Branded content is an ideal tool to engage your target audience. Every sponsored post should encourage users to take a specific action: to answer the questions, participate in challenges, etc. It will help you to start a conversation with your prospective buyers and, as a consequence, boost sales.
Update
Sotrender now offers Facebook moderation, so you can engage with your audience by replying to their comments, concerns or questions. That means you will be able to use emojis, preview the whole post, and track conversations. You will also be able to keep track of what individual users are saying about you on your sponsored and regular posts, so you will get the full context of the conversation. You can find out more about how it works in our blog post.
In Conclusion
Facebook-branded content can benefit your business a lot. So if you want to make your company stand out, collaborate with influencers, and create high-quality share-worthy content. Use this guide, plan ahead, be persistent – and the results of your marketing campaign will exceed the most optimistic expectations.
