In the 80s, with the rise of MTV and music videos, artists could no longer hide behind the shadow of a metal sound grate. Terrestrial radio began to die swiftly when you no longer relied on hearing what was happening with your favorite band and instead could see them too! No more faceless interviews at a radio station. Instead, there were sound stages on television where your appearance was just as important as the words you said.
Then in the 2010s, the rise of social media took from TV what it felt it was owed. By 2012, Instagram was on the market, and so quickly, we traded our 180-character tweets and wordy Facebook posts for photos of our friends and favorite celebrities.
Now, over the last ten years, Instagram has changed entirely again. The appearance of Vine in 2013 brought a new concept. Short videos. Then came TikTok in 2016, and by the pandemic of 2020, the world was enamored with 15-second-or-less videos of friends, influencers, celebrities, and more.
As you can see, we’ve come a long, long way from the days of listening to ads on the radio or spotting billboards to know what was up and coming! Now, we find branded content and ads surrounding our everyday lives. Everywhere you turn, there seems to be another post, video, or CTA (call to action) to engage you in buying, liking, sharing, or scrolling.
It begs the question: how did those brands get to be where they are?
Noticeably, not every ad you find on TikTok is for a giant brand name. Some are for small businesses, businesses similar in size to yours! And TikTok means people from all over the world are watching their ads.
So, how do I get them to watch mine?
Just as video stole from recorded music in the 80s, video is now the most important piece of your marketing strategy. According to Hubspot, time spent viewing online videos has nearly doubled in the last four years. Who knows how much it will grow in the next few years?
This means your social media strategy should include video posts on a variety of platforms! If not, you are losing out on a core audience of customers. Every platform has its own video section now. Even YouTube has a section for “YouTube shorts.”
But wait! Don’t even think about starting a TikTok account with no plan to be consistent and relevant.
As we’ve spoken about before, one of the critical steps to creating brand visibility is to post consistently relevant content. And making a plan for consistency might be a struggle for you (as a business owner) when you’re staying on top of trends and algorithms is even more challenging. Research, plotting, and organizing could fill your already full calendar.
All of these constantly changing rules, tasks, and trends will likely take more of your time than you were prepared for, and considering how stretched thin you already are, it might be time to hire someone to help with all of these extra pieces of your business.
That’s where EVA can help! If any part of your business could use an extra set of hands (think: video editing, content creation, appointment setting, travel management, scheduling, etc.) we have a VA who can help you stay on top of it all!
Give us a call and see how we can help you!
