Are You Making the Most of Your Content Investment?

As much time and effort as your marketing team puts into content, sometimes the results are not what you hoped. There are many reasons your brand’s content may not be performing well, such as miscommunication with retailers, low-quality visual content, poor timing, or missed SEO opportunities. In this blog post, we’ll help you identify where your content can improve — especially on social media — and how to work with retailers. We’ll also explain how you can make the most of your brand’s content investment through social media content syndication.

Why Your Brand’s Content Sometimes Falls Flat

First, let’s look at some of the reasons your content may not achieve the goals you’ve set for it.

Bad Timing or Targeting

The greatest content in the world won’t make an impact on an audience who never sees it. Social media algorithms can be tricky to understand and use to your advantage. It takes testing to discover what kinds of social media content, posted at what times, shows in the feeds of your intended audience. You may also be limiting your reach by posting too infrequently, at the wrong times of day, or on the wrong platforms. 

Poor Quality Images

Less-than-stellar images, cropped or modified product photos, old or pixelated versions of your logos, and other content of poor quality can affect content performance. If you work with retailers to share your brand’s content, they may not be sharing the best versions with their audience. Even if it’s not used intentionally, poor quality content can seriously harm your brand image. It can damage your conversions, too. More than 90% of consumers consider visual appearance as a key factor in their purchase decisions.

Lack of Reach

Many brands invest heavily in great content, like product imagery, clever how-to videos or valuable blog posts. That content might live on your website, dependent on search engines to lead people to it. However, you don’t have to wait for the audience to come to you. You can share and amplify it through content syndication. 

What is Social Media Content Syndication?

Social media content syndication is a digital marketing practice that repurposes a piece of your own content across different platforms. 

What is Social Media Content Syndication

For example, a bike shop brand might write a longform blog post about the best bike for different types of terrain. With social media content syndication, that same blog post can be shared across multiple social media accounts to reach your audience in new ways. Instead of just living on a retailer’s site, that single piece of content gets a ton of traction when syndicated socially.

You could even repurpose the blog post into different types of social posts, to be dispersed across multiple social accounts. For example, the blog post could be broken up into six different social posts, spotlighting each different bike. Each post shared on Facebook might focus on the bike features in the copy, while the same post on Instagram may use different images of the bikes on said terrain. With minimal adjustments to visuals or copy, one piece of content can effectively be recycled multiple times.

Benefits of Social Media Content Syndication 

Using social media content syndication gives content posted on one social media platform has an even higher chance of engaging your audience — and getting conversions — on another platform. If your content doesn’t perform so well on LinkedIn, for example, it may really shine on Twitter instead. You can even gain followers who discover your social media channels through other platforms. Social media content syndication allows your content to reach its fullest potential. 

Social media content syndication also cuts down on time spent creating content from scratch. Once a fresh piece of content is complete, you know that it will serve multiple purposes across your social media accounts.

A major advantage of syndication is the ability to target local audiences by sharing your content with your retailers. Most retail stores engage with their communities using one or more social media platforms, and they may be starving for quality content. By making your content available to them, you reach more potential customers and ensure the integrity of your brand. You’ll also have control over the quality of the content — from the visuals to the captions — when you use a social media syndication tool like ThumbStopper.

Help Your Content Investment Go Further with ThumbStopper

How do you know which publications or retailers get the most traction for your brand? How can your syndicated content avoid bad timing and algorithm miscalculations? How do you ensure that your content doesn’t fall flat in the hands of retailers?

Thumbstopper’s content distribution platform can tackle these problems for you. ThumbStopper’s Brand Manager™ stores your brand’s digital assets and effectively distributes content automatically. Upload your own content to ensure your products or services are represented in the exact way that you want. Better yet, allow ThumbStopper to automatically aggregate content from your platforms.

With ThumbStopper’s Brand Manager™, you can focus on creating engaging, strong content. Thumbstopper takes care of the tedious distribution and syndication parts, to your brand’s success. Learn more about ThumbStopper’s brand services today.

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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It's one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience - with your accessible, branded content - in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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Key Points:

 

  • Companies should understand the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to ensure their websites are accessible.
  • Brands that concentrate on accessibility on social media demonstrate care for their customers and build a positive brand reputation.
  • Brands should always consider inclusive design, such as plain, straightforward language, in their social media posts.

 

 

Accessibility may not be a term you usually associate with the internet and social media. You might picture wheelchair ramps, directional signs in braille, or sign language interpreters at live performances. The landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 dictates the legal necessity of these and similar accommodations in public spaces. As we’ve come to rely on the internet for everything from entertainment to buying groceries, it’s become clear that the internet is now also a public space. It must be accessible to everyone. And like other applications of ADA, businesses that do not comply are liable for damages caused by inaccessibility.

 

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) are an international set of standards to provide instruction on meeting accessibility needs. It’s important for companies to understand how this applies to their websites, especially if they engage in e-commerce. In terms of social media, the requirements are less concrete. But prioritizing accessibility on your company’s social media is essential to your reputation, even if the legal requirements are uncertain. We’ll look at why it’s important to your customers, how it affects the perception of your brand, and how to make these changes efficiently.

Social Media for All

The cornerstone of accessibility is inclusive design: products or experiences that are accessible for everyone regardless of disability. The most important place where this shows up is on company websites where most users expect to also find links to the brand’s social media profiles. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of websites are not accessible, despite the fact that the application of ADA to the internet is over 20 years old. Making websites accessible is a complex process without the use of specialized software like Accessibe or EqualWeb.

Unlike websites, making sure your social media is accessible is a straightforward, ongoing process. Every social platform has been quick to release optional accessibility features. These features are important to many users even if they don’t rely on them to use social media.

Making your social presence accessible tells users that your brand cares about people, not just profits. It’s the same idea as the push for the representation of different body sizes in fashion or more expansive skin tone ranges in beauty products. Brands that meet the needs of underrepresented groups endear themselves to others as well. And while optimizing your brand website for accessibility might be a larger project you aren’t ready to tackle yet, starting with your social media pages is a great way to show customers that you’re listening to their concerns. 

 

Making Content Accessible

Shifting to accessible content means incorporating inclusive design into your creative process. The practice varies by type of media. For platforms that have graphics or videos with captions, it means not only adjusting each component but also being mindful of how they interact with each other.

For example, YouTube’s automatically generated closed captions and subtitles are often inaccurate. It’s one of many examples where the caption generation software has issues picking up strong accents and mumbled words. This could be remedied with handcrafted video transcription services. If that’s not in the budget, the video creator could add their script or transcription to the video description.

None of the technology for accessibility is perfect yet. Teaching computers to digest complex information for human understanding is difficult, and the variations in disabilities further complicate it. The majority of adjustments creators need to make revolve around helping assistive technology better understand their content. Let’s look at how to make different kinds of content accessible. 

Text

  • Use plain language that’s easy to understand 
  • Avoid text in all caps
  • Capitalize the first letter of each word in a hashtag, like #SocialMediaMarketing, a practice called camel-case

Videos

  • Provide descriptive captions. Instead of just displaying the words people on-screen say, explain background noises and other sounds that are relevant to the scene.
  • Add your own subtitles or enable auto-subtitles on the video platform of your choice
  • Use captioning for live videos when possible

Graphics

Distribute Accessible Content

Many users find their new favorite brand through social media. When disabled people (who make up 26% of the population according to the CDC) can’t access your brand’s social posts, you miss the opportunity to connect with a demographic that’s eager to engage in online communities. On a hyper-local level, that kind of connection goes even further.

That’s why ThumbStopper exists to help brands distribute their social content to their retailer network. Retailers can connect with their local audience – with your accessible, branded content – in a more personal way. And since content goes to their page automatically once they sign up, retailers can effortlessly promote your brand online while focusing on running their business. 

Ready to see how ThumbStopper can help your brand improve its reach? Check out our brand reach calculator or book a demo.

 

 

accessibility
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