The explosion of content on digital platforms has allowed many brands, influencers, bloggers, entrepreneurs and marketers to reach their audience with maximum engagement. At first, digital platforms had adopted basic advertising principals of using a visual, headline and a body copy to grab the target market’s attention. Facebook, however, revolutionized online ad engagements over digital platforms. Content is now classified in the following manner:

Social Posts – These are adapted in different dimensions for various social platforms chosen by brands, influencers, and bloggers and so on. Social posts are subcategorized further into text-based and visual content. Social posts are the pioneers of content which gave the famous term ‘Content Is King’. Even a long, meaningful article requires a short social post to introduce the subject matter to the respective audience.

Banner Ads – These are categorized further into Facebook Click-To-Website Ads, Facebook Page-Like Ads, Google Display Ads and Web Banner Ads. Not only Facebook, other social platforms have also initiated ad displays such as Twitter and Instagram. These ads have existed for years now and the formula for its viewership, impressions and ad exchanges have become sophisticated enough for many brands to easily extract data in order to justify social media marketing strategies.

Videos – This piece of content has amplified visual consumption by users to frames per second. With the start of auto play on Facebook, videos have become the fastest form of content engagement in the history of content. Just visual is not enough anymore.

Gifs – With the release of Instagram’s newest app for gifs called Boomerang, these visual montages are the up and coming marketing trend for brands in Pakistan. Yes, gifs have been used by global brands to get the quick ‘’Hey guys! Check this out!’ response from its audience, it did not seem to catch on in Pakistan until recently. Bloggers have used for informal practices for their audience; however brands haven’t taken gifs as a serious form of marketing technique until now.

Infographics – Admittedly, there has been an influx of reports, studies and advice regarding the benefits of using infographics and data visualization. They should all be taken into consideration because infographics are a brilliant form of content for this increasingly visual world. However, this does not mean that your next content plan should be filled with infographics. One or two in a month are enough but they should make an impact. Infographics have a lot of data that gives users an opportunity to make informed decisions and gives you credibility on common interests.  Use it wisely.

Over a decade, the fragmentation of content has made a significant impact on the transformation of various social media platforms. Visual content has bombarded the online browsers to see, like, share and move on. This has made things a lot trickier for marketing strategists. There is just too much content on the internet and it’s getting more and more difficult to stand out.  So what do you do? Find out when in my next post.