• Including entertainment in social media marketing strategies can have multiple benefits. 
• With a diminishing attention span, entertaining elements can enhance a campaign’s effectiveness. 

The social media marketing landscape is already crowded with mundane content, and to gain audiences’ attention, marketers should focus more on entertainment. Data suggests that around 5.07 Billion people, over 60% of the global population, actively use social media and are bombarded with content 24/7. Including entertainment elements in social media strategy can be beneficial.

Nowadays, people are scrolling endlessly through feeds. DataPortal says that an average person spends around 2 Hours and 27 minutes daily on social media. Plus, the attention span has come down to around 3 seconds, meaning that if the content fails to grab attention in the first three seconds, it’s a wasted opportunity. Entertaining content, whether it be numerous, informative, visually captivating, etc., is more likely to pique audiences’ interests. 

The Amalgamation of Social Media Marketing & Entertainment

Social media thrives on entertainment, and content thrives and reaches audiences more if its makers include entertainment. Incorporating such elements into marketing campaigns helps capture target audiences’ attention and achieve desired results. A Sprout Social study suggests that video content is the king and potentially persuades audiences to gravitate towards engaging formats.

Entertaining content sparks interactions like comments, shares, and user-generated content, which are valuable metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for assessing the effectiveness of a social media campaign. In the vast ocean of social media marketing, humor, storytelling, or interesting visuals can grab attention and make the brand memorable. 

Benefits of Entertainment-Focused Social Media Marketing

Entertainment-focused social media marketing is a strategy that emphasizes creating engaging and enjoyable content for the target audience. This approach goes beyond simply promoting your product or service and focuses on promoting them while embedding entertainment aspects in the campaigns.

It Helps Cut through the Clutter

Studies suggest that the average attention span is now reduced to around 3 seconds, and social media users worldwide are constantly bombarded with content. Entertainment can help cut through this clutter. Also, a study conducted by Sprout Social shows that entertaining formats, especially videos, help in effectively grabbing attention. 

Marketers can intelligently use humor, storytelling, and visually appealing content to help differentiate the campaign and the product or service from traditional promotional campaigns. Entertaining content can spark conversation and increase interaction. Plus, when people enjoy your content, they associate it with positive emotions, enhancing brand loyalty and affinity. 

Wyzowl reports state that 86% of video marketers credit videos with increased traffic, and 84% reported a rise in sales. Multiple brands have capitalized on entertainment, for example, Dollar Shave Club with its hilarious launch video, Old Spice with its unexpected and quirky campaigns, GoPro featuring user-generated content, etc. 

Various Aspects of Entertainment-focused Social Media Marketing

Social media marketing thrives on entertainment, and incorporating this into the marketing strategy can be the key to capturing audiences’ attention and achieving desired goals. Various aspects of entertainment-focused SMM include content, embracing the power of storytelling, facilitating real-time conversations, leveraging influencer prowess, and even vlogs.

Content is the Undisputed King 

With diminishing attention spans, short-form video formats like TikTok, Instagram, etc., are gaining significant traction. Data suggests that 63% of GenZ preferred video content, so creating bite-sized snackable videos that are engaging and showcase the product in an entertaining way can make people laugh and boost sales. 

Marketers can go beyond static posts and host polls, quizzes, or Q&A sessions to enhance user engagement. They can also allow the audience to be a star by engaging them in User-Generated Content (UGC) to promote social proof and authenticity. For example, IKEA’s #BuildTogether campaign, where buyers shot videos of themselves assembling IKEA furniture to win rewards. 

Embracing the Power of Storytelling

Humans connect with stories, and marketers can capitalize on storytelling to promote the brands or the people behind them. They can tug at audiences’ heartstrings, spark curiosity or help inspire relatable narratives. For example, Nike excels at such avenues by telling stories of accomplished and budding athletes. 

Laughter can be a potent tool, and intelligently sprinkling humor might make the brand seem approachable and relatable. But remember that humor might backfire if it hurts their sentiments and crosses the line. Hence, marketers must work on knowing the audience and their preferences. 

Engaging Audiences’ in Real-Time Conversations

Marketers can also work on engaging with audiences in real-time, and live streaming and actively responding to comments help. Live Streaming allows a brand to connect with the audience in real time, showcase brand personality, and answer questions. 

Marketers must also work on actively responding to comments and messages, as this shows responsibility. It shows the audience that you actually care about their feedback and helps create a sense of community. Multiple community management tools can help you interact with the audience. 

Leveraging Influencers and Vlogs

Marketers can team up with influencers who resonate with the target audience, as they can extend your reach and build trust with potential customers. They can further leverage influencers’ content, such as infographics, entertaining videos, Vlogs, etc. All of these can promote the value while entertaining them. 

Essential Considerations While Incorporating this Strategy

As already discussed above, Entertainment can be a powerful tool in social media marketing, but marketers must consider these considerations for effective implementation. These could include knowing their audience, aligning with their brand identity, striking the right balance, and measuring and adapting accordingly.

Knowing Your Target Audience

Understand that entertainment is subjective; in context, a joke might be funny for someone and offensive for others simultaneously. Hence, it’s crucial to understand the target audiences’ demographics, interests and sense of humor. Research on current trends and understand what could resonate with target audiences. 

For example, Gen Z might respond well to edgy humor, while professionals would be more relatable with a subtle approach. Also, humor is culturally specific; what works in one market might not work in another. For example, British Airways’ “Chicken Run” ad featured a man chasing a chicken through the airport. Still, the Chinese idiom “to chase a chicken” refers to futility or uselessness, so it sent a different message than they aimed for. 

Aligning with the Brand Identity

Marketers must not force humor or trends that don’t fit the brand image. The key is to focus on entertainment that complements the brand personality and values. For example, luxury brands use sophisticated humor, while children’s clothing brands might focus on lighthearted and playful content. 

They must focus on maintaining brand voice, and entertainment content must also reflect it. Maintaining consistency helps streamline the brand voice and can help build brand awareness and recognition. For example, Apple always chooses sophisticated entertainment, subtly promoting its products and services. 

Striking the Right Balance

Even if entertainment seems advantageous, it’s essential not to neglect the core purpose of social media marketing, which is promoting the brand, products, and services. Hence, marketers must strive to strike a balance between entertaining content and brand messaging. 

Focus on showcasing how a product or service solves a problem and enhance this message with entertainment. Marketers must steer clear of sensitive or offensive topics. There’s always an underlying risk of offending the target audience or going too far, which can damage the brand’s reputation. 

Measure the Effectiveness and Adapt

Just because something is entertaining does not guarantee it will help achieve marketing objectives. Hence, marketers can use critical metrics like engagement, reach, and conversion to measure the campaign’s effectiveness and use analytical tools to track what’s working and what’s not. 

Also, social media trends, audiences’ preferences, and algorithms evolve constantly. Therefore, marketers need to adapt their content strategy based on data and audience feedback. They can also stay agile and experiment with different formats and approaches. 

In conclusion, entertainment-focused social media marketing can be a powerful tool for engaging the audience using entertainment elements. Audiences tend to lean towards entertainment more than traditional mundane advertising, and including these aspects can enhance the effectiveness of the marketing strategy.