Platform Features To Know
Every social media platform has its own special features and unique formats.
Here are a few key platform features that today’s influencers are using to help market movies, podcasts, books and songs.
Instagram
- Story Swipe Ups - Build up the hype by releasing first looks, trailers or snippets with Instagram stories. (If an influencer has more than 10K followers, they can add a link to their stories to lead their audience to an off-site location, like a specific landing page or affiliate site.)
- Lives - Generate real-time engagement between an influencer and the makers of the product (artists, actors, authors) with Instagram Live. Recently, Instagram began allowing up to four people to live stream instead of just two, increasing the engagement with multiple fan bases instead of just one to two.
- Behind-the-Scenes - Unique content like interviews or behind-the-scenes videos can be created on IGTV or Reels (max 30 seconds on Reels or as long as 10-minutes on IGTV). Bringing the influencer’s fan base behind the scenes of the creator and/or the creative process not only increases trust and builds connection but can also be fun and generate more engagement.
YouTube
- React To/Review - A first-look reaction video of the influencer watching a short teaser clip is a great way to hook an audience and entice them to want more.
- Tools - Cards and the End Screen features can be utilized within a YouTube video to conduct polls, promote other videos, as well as direct the viewers off-site to a landing page (where they can purchase the product/subscription). (Picture: cards)
- Respond to Comments - Actively responding to comments not only builds community but also entices viewers to continue commenting. Plus, the more comments and interaction your video has, the more value YouTube's & Google's search algorithm places on it for certain searches. You can drive viewers to a YouTube video via other platforms by telling their followers that they are responding to comments.
TikTok
The short-form version of YouTube...but here, the main feature is music!
Songs are foundational to TikTok, setting the tune to all types of trends, challenges, lip-syncs and dances. This has massively impacted the music industry and its consumers globally. If a song is trending on TikTok, it is most likely rising on the Billboard Charts.
Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” is one of the first examples of how a viral song on TikTok was directly correlated with increased sales and streaming numbers. Here are a few more examples:
- “Savage Love” by Jason Derulo
- “Savage” by Megan Thee Stallion
- “Addison Rae” by The Kid Laroi - This is a great example of how big of an impact influencers have on our society now. Addison Rae is one of the top-grossing TikTok influencers and was the subject of this 17-year-old rap star’s song which brought her even further into the spotlight.
- “F2020” by Avenue Beats - This 2020 anthem was made by a trio that rose to fame overnight, with one video getting over 16.7 million views. Fan-made videos followed quickly and the hashtag #F2020 trended, currently boasting over 186.9M views.
Influencers are a great way to boost streams. When TikTokers like Addison Rae and Charlie D’Amelio use a song in a video, it’s a guarantee that it will be a hit on the Billboard Charts.
Plain and simple: if you have a song, hand it over to an influencer who can promote it with a dance or lip-sync. Who knows, it could be the next viral trend, thus sky-rocketing streaming and sales.
Twitch
There are a multitude of features that Twitch offers besides the obvious live stream. Influencers can also engage through interactive tools and teasers.
One day before their TV show launch, “Stranger Things” hosted a four-hour livestream where influencers played video games in an ‘80s-themed basement. Twitch users were able to interact and vote on creepy, “strange things” to happen that would interrupt the influencer’s game, like flying books and flickering lights.
To top it all off and give the incentive to stay on for four hours, viewers were treated at the end to eight minutes of the unreleased episode.
Clubhouse
Media companies should immediately begin capitalizing on this up-and-coming, audio-only app. There has already been a plethora of talk shows, D.J. nights, networking events and theatrical performances. Publishers and authors shouldn’t miss out either. There are plenty of opportunities woven into the app’s audio-only features to build business, market and network for media companies. Some specific ideas:
- Workshops/How-Tos
- Conversational Q&As.
- Influencer Appearances
Clubhouse is also good for sponsored influencer appearances within Branded rooms. This is cost efficient too because the only cost is the appearance fee and you don’t need to worry about licensing due to it being live and near impossible to record.
Collaborating with the app’s influencers...
In December 2020, Clubhouse began testing an invite-only Creator Pilot Program with more than 40 Clubhouse influencers. These people have been promised regular meetings with one of the app’s founders and
most importantly, early access to special features and tools. The influencers and invite-only features on the app inspire both FOMO for those missing out on invites, and a substantial ROI for the influencers, based on the exclusivity of the invites.
Instagram and Facebook share the same ad platform...which presents many cross-promotional opportunities for brands.
TikTok influencer marketing (29%) recently surpassed Instagram (25%) as U.S. teens’ preferred social platform.
Youtube influencer marketing continues to prove that there is an ongoing shift (especially among younger users) toward video content.
Publishing
Video Games
It’s never too late. A single skateboarder-turned-influencer was able to revive “Dreams,” a nearly 50-year-old Fleetwood Mac song. TikToker @420doggface208 posted himself lip-syncing to the song, cruising on a skateboard and drinking cranberry juice. The song soared to the top of the charts and overnight, a new generation of Fleetwood Mac fans were born.
The video trend became so popular on social media that Mick Fleetwood, Dr. Phil, Jimmy Fallon and even Stevie Nicks recreated it. The hashtag #dogfacechallenge brought in over 100M views.
Creating a hashtag is useful to promote user-generated content. UGC is a strategic way to not only get consumers involved but also to create authentic content that can be repurposed.
79% of people say UGC highly impacts their purchasing decisions.
The results:
