What is Ephemeral Content and How to Use It to Your Advantage?

Even though you’ve probably never heard of it, Ephemeral Content is being used around you every day throughout all types of social media. Whether it’s through Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook, you have probably come across some type of Ephemeral Content. This fancy word is simply used to describe posts that are only accessible for 24 hours. The best example of this would be those temporary stories you see people and businesses posting on Instagram and other types of social media. I know that temporary and marketing are two words you probably don’t hear in the same sentence very often, but this new type of advertising is taking the marketing world by storm. Retailers and businesses of all sizes have taken to these Stories to help build their brand awareness and to help sell their various products.

What is FOMO?

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is what fuels the Ephemeral Content. The goal is to elicit an immediate response of either buying, liking, or sharing the content. This FOMO is what marketers are trying to tap into. By sharing content that is perceived as being important or exciting, they are leveraging people’s need to be included in what is happening in the world.

Another goal of Ephemeral Content is to increase user engagement of the brand. These stories allow the users to engage with the brand on a more personal level than a normal image or video post. Instead of reading the information, scrolling through, then forgetting about what was just read, this type of marketing allows for more of an impression to be made on the short attention span of the user.

How should I implement ephemeral content?

There are many different ideas that have been implemented through Ephemeral Content to help boost engagement from the audience.

1. Running Polls and Q&A sessions is a big tactic that has been used by different companies. This allows you to ask your audience for their opinion on certain things and give suggestions for products or upcoming events.

2. Encouraging user-generated content, such as hosting contests or giveaways through stories is another way companies try to reach out to the audience and get them to interact and promote the brand.

3. Tagging or shouting-out customers in your company’s story is also a great way to make them feel involved with the brand. This personal engagement with your audience will help build relationships with your customers and boost that brand loyalty, which will keep them coming back for more.

What are the benefits of using Ephemeral Content?

Through this type of marketing, you are able to reach a much wider audience. Through Instagram alone, you have more than 200 million people engaging in its stories platform each month. This obviously increases the chance of your brand reaching as many people who are interested in your products or services as possible. Another benefit of this type of marketing is the boost of brand loyalty you will receive. People want their favorite brands to be as transparent and interactive with them as possible. These stories give you that chance. They allow you to continuously keep your audience up to date on what is going on and different things they may need to know about the product or service.

You must be consistent.

Even though this type of marketing can come as quickly as it goes, it is extremely important that you remain consistent in updating and producing these stories. You must keep the same brand voice throughout and ensure that you are giving your audience the opportunity to engage with your brand in an easy and fun environment.