BuzzStream and Fractl conducted a survey of over 1,000 consumers to better understand the emotional impact of sound and how it relates to content marketing. Survey respondents were asked to play five viral videos from the last couple of years and then pick which emotions were activated when the video was played. Each group was presented with a different viewing format. The first group had to watch the videos with sound, but without captions; the second group had to watch the videos without sound, but with captions; and the third group was only able to listen to the video’s sound and was not allowed to watch the video. Robert Plutchik’s comprehensive Wheel of Emotions was used to categorize emotions.

The impact of sound on content marketing

Sound is a strong trigger for emotion. It can have a significant impact on the listener, inspiring either positive or negative emotions, and has the power to completely change the sentiment of your content. In fact, 69 percent of respondents in the sound and no video group believed that sound had a significant impact on their emotional response. The goal of your content should be to leverage positive emotions to grab a person’s interest. Without the right sound, your content could be devoid of an emotional trigger, which impacts overall emotional responses.

Knowing that sound enables interspersed emotional triggers, marketers can leave their audience feeling a range of strong and weak emotions in a variety of ways. Applying sound to content can induce the type and level of emotion you want your audience to feel at certain points.

The emotions of sound

These eight emotions were the most prevalent in all five of the viral videos watched by our survey takers: interest, curiosity, uncertainty, admiration, acceptance, cheerfulness, amazement, and astonishment. Generally, these are positive, strong emotions that drive people to care about and share the content.

The only negative emotion we saw commonly evoked was revulsion, which fits into the disgust segment of Plutchik’s wheel. This emotion was strongly evoked when the audience was not able to view the video accompanying the sound in all five viral videos. However, when given the context of video, our survey takers did not feel negative emotions as strongly as they did the positive ones. In fact, in place of revulsion, they felt delight and serenity.
To better compare the emotions of sound in all five viral videos, we converted the results of our survey into heat maps (click on the titles below to view the corresponding video):

The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Volvo Trucks)
Sound, No Video	Sound, No Captions	Captions, No Sound

Monty The Penguin (John Lewis)
Sound, No Video	Sound, No Captions	Captions, No Sound

Most Shocking Second a Day Video (Save The Children)
Sound, No Video	Sound, No Captions	Captions, No Sound

1 is 2 Many PSA (The White House)
Sound, No Video	Sound, No Captions	Captions, No Sound

First Moon Party (HelloFlo)
Sound, No Video	Sound, No Captions	Captions, No Sound

Sound is at the heart of every great video, and it’s a great way to trigger an emotional response—which is essential if you want your content to go viral. As a marketer, a well-executed video produces everything you want from your content—it entertains, it informs, and it inspires your audience to take action. Realizing the role sound plays in its success and tailoring it to perfectly complement your content will help elevate your next video.

The post Sound in Viral Videos: How It Significantly Impacts 69% of Consumers appeared first on BuzzStream.

For brands, retention is especially crucial because followers are often direct consumers. For example, on Twitter, 72% of followers of a brand are more likely to purchase a product from them.

So why do people start and stop following brands? BuzzStream and Fractl conducted a survey with more than 900 respondents to better understand why people unfollow brands in social networks.

How can you grow your following on social media?

If someone likes a brand, there’s a good chance they’ll consider following it via social media. Strategists can have a big impact with special promotions and offers that can only be seen by followers. Just don’t expect your new followers to jump into a conversation ― only 4% of our respondents said that they follow brands on social media to give brand feedback.

• 16% of the respondents said they will follow a brand because they like the brand
• 15% said they follow brands to be notified of special offers / promotions
• 12% said they follow brands to learn about new products and services

There are 30 million small businesses with pages on Facebook, and yet according to our survey, a majority of people only follow between one and four brands on social media. With so many brands competing for attention, it’s incredibly important they retain existing followers.

• 50% follow one to four brands
• 26% follow five to nine brands
• 22% follow 10 or more brands
• 3% follow zero brands

Facebook continues to be the most popular network for brands. We asked our survey takers, “What is your preferred social network to follow brands?”

• 38% of the responses indicated Facebook is the most preferred social network to follow brands
• 19% said Twitter is the most preferred social network to follow brands
• 15% said YouTube is the most preferred social network to follow brands
• Less than 2% said SlideShare, Vimeo, and Vine are the most preferred social networks to follow brands

How can you retain your followers on social media?

Getting people to stick around is more about avoiding activities that tend to turn off followers. Specifically, 45% of our respondents said that they will unfollow a brand on social media because of too much self-promotion (e.g., when a company ignores its audience and constantly promotes its brand). Another 34% said they will unfollow a brand on social media if it uses automated messaging (e.g., when you follow a brand and automatically receive a message saying “Thanks for following me!”).

People tend to have certain expectations when they follow a brand. For example, about a quarter of our respondents expect a response within an hour if they leave a comment on a brand’s Facebook or Twitter page. But 24% of our respondents expect a response to a comment they made directed to a brand they’re following on Facebook within 1 day or longer; 19% said the same thing, but for Twitter.

• 16% expect a response within 12 to 24 hours on Facebook; 13% on Twitter
• 13% expect a response within 1 to 2 hours on Facebook; 14% on Twitter
• 12% expect a response within 30 minutes to 1 hour on Facebook; 14% on Twitter

Perhaps brand perception is more important than a brand’s social media activities. In fact, 48% of the respondents that took our survey said it is likely that they would immediately unfollow a brand on social media if it garnered press for poor customer service. However, we gave our respondents five different social media blunders as examples of poor customer service and in three of the five examples, respondents told us that if the blunder did not affect them personally, they would not take action. A majority of the responses indicated that our respondents would not unfollow a brand because of these particular social media blunders.

• Customer service turned into a nightmare for US Airways when the company’s social media coordinator accidentally posted an X-rated picture. The inappropriate content was unexpected for their Twitter followers and resulted in a backlash.
• In an attempt to connect a current event like Hurricane Sandy to its marketing message, Urban Outfitters posted a free shipping offer on Twitter. The company’s followers responded that the offer was insensitive.
• When American Airlines announced its merger with US Air, it set up its Twitter account to automatically respond to any tweets in a positive manner. But when someone sent the company a derogatory tweet and the airline responded with a cheerful response, followers began thinking the airline was not genuine in its responses.

After a poor customer support experience, brands can use their social media channels to defuse the situation and engage with their current customers. Furthermore, they can create and post content that acknowledges past blunders and describes steps they took to remediate the outcome.

But how frequently should brands be posting content via social media? Posting too frequently or infrequently could lead to an exodus of followers. In fact, one of the more important social media activities people expect is a consistent frequency of posts. Generally, on all of the social networks people would prefer if brands post between two to five times per day. Brands that post content more than six times a day risk losing followers.

• On Facebook, 68% of respondents said that they would want a brand to post between 1-2 times per day on Facebook, while 19% want them to post 3-5 times per day
• On LinkedIn, 63% want brands to post 1-2 times per day and 24% prefer 3-5 times per day
• On LinkedIn, 72% want brands to post 1-2 times per day and 13% prefer 3-5 times per day

Lastly, 26% of our survey-takers’ responses indicated that when following a brand, what matters to them most is that it fits their interests.

• 25% said what matters to them most is that the brand offers high-quality products
• 21% said what matters to them most is that it fits their personality
• 17% said what matters to them most is that it is socially responsible
• 12% said what matters to them most is that it can be recommended to friends and family

The post The Unfollow Algorithm appeared first on BuzzStream.

BuzzStream and Fractl have collaborated to review the trends in outbound versus inbound marketing techniques and tell you why link building is essential to your digital strategy. By analyzing reported results, costs, and trends in online marketing, we show you how to judge for yourself whether the ROI is worth the investment for your brand.

What link building achieves

The most important thing to understand about link building is the results this strategy can achieve, especially in comparison to old PR methods.

Consider this: According to research from Nielsen and GroupM UK, only 6% of search engine users click on paid ads, but 94% click on organic search results. When it comes to earning click-through in organic results, however, ranking has an impact that can’t be understated. 90% of users will click on one of the first three results when searching for branded terms, and 61% will stay within the first three results for non-branded term searches. The average for clicks below the first three results is just 32%, meaning that your content needs to rank highly in order to earn the most traffic from organic search.

Link building practices play a powerful role in boosting search engine result rankings. Google’s algorithm updates are famous for penalizing sites based on blackhat or spammy link building, but have consistently recognized and rewarded the companies that have worked to grow traffic with authentic and value-added efforts. Sites that have earned backlinks from popular content on high-authority sites continue to rank better with every algorithm update – an indication that content marketing is and will continue to be one of the most valuable tools in link building.

This kind of outreach also holds another benefit for brands: By establishing relationships with well-regarded publishers, brands are positioning themselves for potential long-term exposure from key influencers in their industries. If a company works to consistently create and promote quality content, it will stand a better chance of earning better backlinks now and in the future.

Follow the money

If the results alone don’t make the case for link building as one of the most important tactics of digital PR, then the costs are sure to catch the eye of strategists and CMOs. HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2014 report estimated that companies save an average of 57% on inbound leads versus outbound leads. The savings increase for smaller companies: Brands with less than 26 employees save 64% on average, and those with a staff of 51–200 employees save 68%.

The savings are likely a significant reason that 81% of companies say they’ve increased their spending on link building in the past 12 months, and 73% say they’ll continue to do so in the next 12 months. Increasing investment in efforts that are consistently earning more ROI is compelling, but according to the results from Moz’s Link Building Survey 2014, another reason companies gave for increasing link building budgets is “to raise the bar on existing efforts, and to beat competitors with increasingly sophisticated content assets.”

Strategy

Staying on the cutting edge may be the most important argument for considering link building as a substantial factor in your digital strategy. Older PR tactics like press releases are becoming outdated; even the press agrees that releases are currently one of the least desirable formats for content. From a business perspective, the number of companies reporting outbound marketing as a primary lead source has fallen to 22%, the first decrease in four years. Conversely, the number of marketers practicing inbound techniques has risen to 85%.

The tides are clearly turning in marketing strategies, and more companies are increasing their efforts – and finding increased success – in attracting consumers with high-quality content, social media campaigns, and dynamically designed assets that more naturally earn the attention of online audiences. As the volume and quality of content continues to rise, marketers will need to work harder and smarter to form crucial outreach relationships and innovate to earn publishers’ attention in order to achieve the search rankings that will get them into the most coveted search engine rankings.

Want to dive deeper on comparing your investment and return from digital marketing methods? Learn more about our industry research at frac.tl/press.

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