Welcome to the latest edition of Social Commotion, Motion’s roundup of social media updates and news. Check out our top social media updates from August 2024.
Guidelines for Making Social Media Content More Accessible
Social media is a powerful tool for connection but can also be a source of exclusion if accessibility best practices are neglected. One in 4 Americans live with a disability, and many are active social media users. Marketers play a crucial role in ensuring that this powerful tool is inclusive to all.
Accessible content has benefits for brands, too. For one, accessible content can reach a broader audience, increasing engagement and potential conversions. And demonstrating your brand’s commitment to accessibility can improve brand perception, reputation and customer loyalty.
So, how can you make your brand’s social content more accessible? Start here:
- Add alt text to images. Brands can briefly describe the image content in-feed for visually impaired users.
- Prioritize text accessibility. Ensure text on your social posts is readable with sufficient contrast and font size.
- Be mindful of emoji usage. Although emojis can enhance communication and provide humor, excessive use can be challenging for those with visual impairments.
- Include closed captioning. Providing closed captions for all videos for people who might be hard of hearing.
By implementing these best practices, your brand can create social media content that is engaging and inclusive, fostering a more positive experience for all.
TikTok Exec Shares Her Tips for Creative Brand Content
What’s the best way for brands to engage people on TikTok? According to Sofia Hernandez, global head of business marketing at TikTok, just look to Chipotle.
The Mexican chain restaurant’s #GuacDance challenge is a great example of a TikTok creative campaign because it leveraged trending hashtag and encouraged user-generated content (UGC), Hernandez says. She also recommends that brands:
- Embrace humor and authenticity. People use TikTok for entertainment, so use humor to connect with users. And as with every piece of content, keeping it authentic to your brand will help ensure that it resonates with your following and, in turn, increase overall engagements.
- Focus on creating native content. Don’t just replicate traditional commercials and post them on TikTok. Instead, create content that feels natural on TikTok and leverages the platform’s trends and features.
- Partner with influencers. Influencer marketing is a powerful tool on social media, especially TikTok. Brands succeed when they partner with creators who resonate with your target audience.
How to Build Successful Influencer Partnerships
At Motion, we like to say that no one understands an audience more than the one who built it. It’s one reason why influencer marketing has so much, well, influence—because influencers can persuade their followers to act.
For brands, a successful influencer partnership means increased brand awareness, reputation and sales. Working with an influencers gets your brand’s products and services in front of new audiences, can help build trust and credibility around them and motivate people to purchase.
Here are three things brands should keep in mind to reap the benefits of influencer marketing.
- Find the right influencer. It is important to partner with influencers who fit your brand and target audience well. Authenticity is key, and consumers will recognize when a brand inauthentic partnerships.
- Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate. Building relationships with influencers takes time and effort. Yes, your brand may have specific goals that you want to hit. But a successful influencer campaign is a partnership—they know their audience best, after all. Influencer marketing takes collaboration to make authentic campaigns with measurable results.
- Find the right approach. Speaking of results, sometimes it can be difficult to measure the return on investment (ROI) of an influencer campaign. It can take several touch points for a consumer to convert, which is why, at Motion, we work to structure agreements with multiple posts over time and on different channels.
Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media with Social Commotion, The Motion Agency’s monthly roundup of social media updates, or contact us today to help your brand navigate the ever-changing landscape of social media.
