Shared/Social Media | Glossary

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Shared media is any type of content–text, images, audio or video–that is shared and interacted with between individuals online. These interactions can be anything from liking, re-posting or commenting to even repurposing and remixing. This type of content and these type of interactions exist on social media platforms. These platforms include websites and mobile applications with Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter being arguably the most popular ones.

Since the early 2010s, when social media became a mainstream way for brands and organizations to communicate with their consumer base, it has proven to be an effective strategy for marketing. Producing social media content allows you to build your brand image and disseminate your message, or promote your product, to millions of people at once in both a creative and strategic way.

Benefits of Shared Media

Shared media offers several benefits. Not only is it a communication tool, allowing you to speak directly to costumers and potential costumers, but it allows you to build a community around your product or service. With a dedicated community that regularly interacts with your content, you can gain a better understanding of what your customers like and dislike, what type of things are currently trending among your customer base and also access demographic details like the average age of your customers and their gender. This information is valuable in helping you decide on effective keywords to use in your shared content and to help improve your search engine optimization (SEO) ranking since social media posts and interactions are tracked by search engines. Different types of shared media will yield different types of responses and benefits.

The Different Types of Shared Media

Shared media can be in the form of text, video, images or audio and the type you should incorporate into your marketing strategy greatly depends on what your product is and what social platforms you will be using.

Text

Text is the oldest form of shared media, but it is still highly valuable, especially if effective keywords are used to increase reachability. Text-based media exists in two forms; short-form and long-form.

Short-form text is text that is under 1,000 words long and includes Instagram and TikTok captions, YouTube descriptions, Twitter posts, blog posts, and short web articles. On Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, short form text acts as a supplement to video and image content.

Long-form text refers to website pages, ebooks, news articles, blog posts, and editorials longer than 1,000 words–usually used to refer to those that are 2,000 words or more. Consider incorporating long-form text content into your marketing strategy if your brand is meant to be informative or educational. For example, if you have a website focused on brand strategy, consider publishing a series of detailed articles or ebooks that explain the steps to establishing and marketing a brand. Long-form content like this allows space for you to incorporate more keywords and more targeted search engine optimization (SEO). Long-form content, which is more detailed and engaging, is best if it"s human-produced and proofread. Utilize Scripted"s network of highly-vetted expert content writers and editors to help you find your brand"s voice and produce high-quality website copy, blog posts, ebooks, and more forms of text. If you need article or blog post ideas, use our free, AI-powered Headline Idea Generator.

Image caption: Insert your desired keyword or topic into Scripted"s Headline Idea Generator to get instant article, blog post, video and podcast ideas.

Video

Similarly to text, video content also exists in both short-form and long-form. Both types can be beneficial to your branding and marketing goals in different ways.

Short-form video is online video that is between 5 and 90 seconds long. Notably, they are also most often in vertical format to match the dimensions and orientation of an upright mobile phone screen. Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, TikTok videos and YouTube Shorts all fall into this category. Short-form videos are quickly and easily consumed by audiences, because of how short they are, and are easily shareable. Because of this, short form videos are often what go viral in online spaces. Utilize short-form video to promote a new product in a snappy, fun way or, if your brand is more educational based, do a rapid-fire of niche-related facts or tips that would be useful to your audience base. Short-form video best performs when accompanied by a caption, or description, that utilizes keywords that are likely to be searched within the platform. Scripted"s AI Tools are can help you formulate captions for your short-form videos.

Long-form video is video content that is longer than 90 seconds and is often, but not always, more formal than short-form video in the sense that it may be shot on a camera instead of a phone and may be more intensely edited. Examples of long-form video, which is commonly hosted on sites like YouTube and DailyMotion, include tutorials, short films and documentaries, long-form vlogs, video podcasts and video essays. This type of content is best if your brand is informative and you want to communicate big ideas in a detailed way. For "sit-down" style videos like tutorials and video essays, a good script is necessary so you get your key messaging, ideas and any brand promotion out there in an effective way. Utilize Scripted"s network of expert content writers to develop and write strong, keyword-rich scripts for your long-form video content.

Images

Though video content has taken centre stage in recent years, images, which can be photos or digitally made graphics or artwork, are still a very valuable form of shared media. Images are an effective way to break up a long article or blog post and add additional context or explanation to the subject at hand. On a platform like Instagram, whose original purpose was to showcase photos, images, more specifically infographics, are a way to disseminate information to your audience without solely relying on the caption.

Audio

The main form of audio-based shared media are podcasts. Podcasts are digital audio files, that usually exist as a series, that can be downloaded in MP3 format or streamed on your phone or computer through a platform like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. They are essentially modern day radio shows. Podcasts are popular in the news and lifestyle sectors, but are also gaining popularity in the business, tech and science sectors. This form of content is best suited for your brand if you want to incorporate guest interviews or dive deeply into big topics and news stories. Similarly to video content, a good podcast requires a strong, keyword-rich text description, called "show notes" in the podcasting sphere, and a script or outline for to guide the direction of the show. Scripted offers various AI and human writing services to help you generate podcast topics and produce scripts and show notes.

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