Video Marketing Archives - Page 4 of 4

Should Your Energy Utility Have a TikTok Account?

The popular video-sharing app TikTok has been making headlines lately. It may leave you wondering if you’re missing out by not connecting with customers on the trendy social media platform. But does your energy utility really need a TikTok account?

It depends.

Every company that embraces the world of social media needs to go into it knowing that each platform attracts very different audiences. This is true especially for energy utilities.

Instead of jumping onto every new social media fad, take time to evaluate your energy utility’s marketing goals and understand the value of each platform. You don’t need a presence on every platform; you need a presence on the right platforms for your brand and audience.

What is TikTok?

TikTok allows users to create and share short-form videos that can range from 15 seconds to three minutes long. Creators sync videos with trending sounds and songs, as they perform dances, act out skits or offer informational tips and tricks. Basically, TikTok offers a bit of everything to its more than 1 billion monthly active users who tune in to laugh, learn or simply be entertained by quick video content.

How to determine if TikTok is the right social platform for your energy utility

Before creating a new account for your energy utility, follow this five-step process to determine how TikTok fits into your social media strategy.

Know your engagement goals
Determine if TikTok is the best platform to focus on
Identify if your audience uses TikTok
Analyze your analytics options
Draft a content strategy

Know your engagement goals

What are you trying to achieve with social media? Are you trying to drive program participation, share informational content or simply just “show up”? Know what is motivating your energy utility to join a new social media platform before you jump in.

Determine if TikTok is the best platform to focus on

With other social networks like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you can simply take premade content and post it. TikTok, on the other hand, requires you to research trending topics, hashtags, sounds and songs, visual effects and more to create a relevant video that people will want to watch. The most successful videos utilize trending sounds, hashtags and challenges. Before starting your account, decide if you have the resources needed to support a TikTok account.

Identify if your audience uses TikTok

Like all marketing efforts, you should focus on the platforms and channels that help you reach your target audience. Look into the demographics of each social media platform you’re interested in using, starting with TikTok.

The age groups that use TikTok and Facebook differ, according to the Pew Research Center.

TikTok:

21% of U.S. adults
48% of 18- to 29-year-olds
22% of 30- to 49-year-olds
14% of 50- to 64-year-olds

Facebook:

69% of U.S. adults
70% of 18- to 29-year-olds
77% of 30- to 49-year-olds
73% of 50- to 64-year-olds

There is a plethora of research available on the demographics of any social platform. Use these resources to your advantage to decide which is right to reach your energy utility’s target audience.

Analyze your analytics options

Each social media platform has its own realm of analytics to monitor your engagement, reach, follower count and more. Still, every platform is different.

All TikTok accounts have access to analytics, but you’ll need a Business Account (formerly known as a Pro Account) to gain deeper access to metrics. Even then, some metrics show seven days’ worth of data, while others offer a seven- or 28-day look into the past. And any metrics related to time of day are not presented in your local timezone — they’re in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) — so you’ll need to convert them before interpreting the data.

Make sure TikTok’s analytics options will support your utility’s engagement goals.

Draft a content strategy

Lastly, you’ll want to develop a content strategy that will put your energy utility on the map and determine if — and how — TikTok fits in. Do you want to stick with infographics, articles and quizzes? Or are you willing to produce your own videos, showing your lineworkers in action or listing ways to save energy and money that sync to a popular song? Decide if TikTok fits into your overall content strategy before dedicating time and resources to the social platform.

TikTok Content Strategy for Energy Utilities

Engaging TikTok videos can take on different forms, from comedic performances to strictly informative tips. Choose one — or a mix of several — of these formats to achieve your energy utility’s social media goals.

Education. Teach customers how to read their energy bill or how time-of-use rates work through informative videos.
Life Hacks. Whether it’s changing an air filter or switching to LEDs, offer your audience ways to save energy with quick tips.
Awareness. Inform viewers of your utility’s efforts when it comes to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources to build trust and encourage adoption of products and solutions.
Comedy. Share safety tips and do’s and don’ts in the form of an entertaining story to educate viewers and put a smile on their face.
Connecting with younger audiences. More than half of the U.S. population is now the Millennial generation and younger. Match the fun tone and hop on trends to engage with this audience on TikTok.

Examples of Effective Energy Utility Content for TikTok

These content creators found creative and engaging ways to communicate energy education, tips and advice with TikTok videos.

Twin Home Experts expose caulking mistakes and share DIY home improvement hacks in this engaging video.

@twinhomeexperts
The ULTIMATE in Re-Caulking …..#caulking #tub #shower #foryou #plumbing #twinhomeexperts
♬ original sound – Twin home experts

Fayette Electric Cooperative used a trending sound and completed a fun challenge while promoting its Youth Tour to Washington.

@fayetteelectric
apply now! deadline is jan. 21, 2022. #googleearthtrend #googleearthchallenge #googleearth #traveltiktok #travel #washingtondc #scholarship #texas
♬ original sound – Ian Asher

Loxone Electronics shared quick tips to cut electricity costs with captions, making the video more accessible for viewers.

@loxone.electronics
Tips for saving up to 500$ in electricity costs per year 💵 #loxone #homeautomation #smarthome #electricbill #energysaving #fyp
♬ Pieces (Solo Piano Version) – Danilo Stankovic

Waste-Ed utilized a voiceover and edited video footage to communicate the benefits of charging with solar energy quickly and effectively.

@getwasteed
Ready to swap your phone charger for a window solar panel? 📹grouphugsolar (IG) #solarenergy #chargingphone #renewableenergy #savingenergy
♬ A-Punk – Vampire Weekend

Best Practices for Energy Utilities on TikTok

If you decide to dive in and create a TikTok account for your energy utility, these tips can help you create successful content.

Use Hashtags. Hashtags can boost your visibility and reach, allowing users to find your content more easily. You can even search hashtags you use often to keep an eye on what other creators are posting.
Utilize Your Knowledge. Who better to offer energy-saving tips to customers than their own energy utility? Share quick fix ideas or behind-the-scenes information about utility operations to build that relationship with your audience.
Use Music. Sound is integral to TikTok videos. Use voiceovers and music that match the tone of your video, and time any actions or footage to match the beat. Explore sound playlists to find inspiration and trending sounds to help your videos stand out.
Be Authentic. Being genuine and personal helps users see the humans behind the company. Don’t be afraid to try something new and add some personality to your content.

Make sure a TikTok account is right for your energy utility

How your energy utility uses social media is more important than how many platforms it’s on. Make sure you research each social media platform and analyze how it aligns with your goals before you take on the responsibility of managing and monitoring yet another social account.

Be wary, too, of social media trends that barely outlast the latest internet meme. Remember Vine? Neither do we. Be prepared to adjust your strategy with social media as the industry grows and develops.

Interested in creating a social media strategy for your energy utility but don’t know where to begin? Questline Digital can help.

Learn More

Webinar: Using Interactive Content to Engage Customers

Interactive content is not a new concept, but it can be daunting for many companies to understand, let alone produce. However, it’s not as difficult as it appears to develop interactive content.

In our latest webinar, “Using Interactive Content to Engage Customers,” Matt Irving, Brian Lindamood and Robert Abbott share best practices and benefits of using interactive content to increase engagement and grow customer satisfaction for energy utilities.

What is Interactive Content?

Interactive content is easiest to understand as a two-way experience. It requires and encourages active participation from the user. In fact, customers are more likely to learn and remember your message when they actively participate. This type of content is more conversational because it allows the user to decide what path to take. Questline Digital Creative Director Matt Irving explained, “Your click is your voice.”

Customers now expect interaction. We live in an on-demand world, where consumers are constantly “choosing their own adventure.” Irving shared that 81% of marketers agree that interactive content grabs attention more effectively than static content.

There are a few key factors that make interactive content so powerful:

More rewarding – Customers want to have fun
Human nature – We love to interact
Social sharing – Encourages customers to share with friends
Competitive advantage – Helps break through noise in the content space

Benefits of Interactive Content for Energy Utilities

Beyond the theoretical reasons to use interactive content, there are very real benefits. In general, interactive content can help marketers:

Generate first-party audience data
Gain insights on consumer interests
Increase engagement
Optimize lead generation

For energy utilities in particular, interactive content can help them stand out by:

Teaching complex topics
Increasing program awareness
Improving customer experiences
Learning customer preferences and behaviors

Interactive content is also proven to build relationships by building brand awareness and deepening customer loyalty. This type of content doesn’t need to be complex in order to meet business goals.

“We measure customer relationships in decades, and maintaining customer satisfaction with their utility throughout that lifecycle is so important,” said Brian Lindamood, Questline Digital VP of Marketing and Content Strategy. “When an experience is entertaining, as well as informative, it really makes the customer not just more interested, but more likely to engage with it. You’re showing the customer that you care about their needs and interests. … You’re literally interacting with them while also demonstrating that your utility is a helpful resource for them.”

Tips for Producing Interactive Content

Robert Abbott of Context Digital shared helpful insights on both the technical and creative sides of developing interactive content. As with anything, producing this type of content could incur added costs and resources, but it’s a worthy investment. Customers will recognize and appreciate the investment in their entertainment and education.

Abbott stressed that it’s one thing to have the idea for an interactive content piece and it’s another thing to build it. All teams need to be aligned in figuring out the best solution that meets the goal. In the end, the product needs to be produced with the audience in mind. “Always consider what your audience needs or wants,” Abbott said.

Some other tips that Abbott shared, included:

Consider if you have a compelling reason to use it – Don’t create interactive content just for the sake of creating it
Don’t always reinvent the wheel – Use content you already have and repurpose it
Decide on how to measure success – Clicks and engagement rates are important, but consider quantitative metrics as well
Match the format to its intended function – Make sure the type of content is created for the right goals
Consider partnering with interactive content providers – You don’t have to do everything; allow experts to guide you to create a better experience for customers

Interactive Content is King

There are numerous types of interactive content to consider when producing new assets, including:

Calculators
Quizzes
Polls/Surveys
Games
Infographics
Clickable images
Interactive video

Each format has its own specific benefit to improving engagement or enhancing the customer experience. It’s up to your energy utility to research what hurdles your customers are facing and which format can best solve their problems. Put customers first and the content will follow.

Connect with your energy utility’s customers and build engagement with an interactive content strategy from Questline.

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Animated Videos Bring Energy Trends to Life

Technology seems to advance at the speed of light these days. Yet few things are changing as fast as home energy use. From smart devices to electric vehicles to solar and other renewables, consumers have more control over their energy use than ever before.

The nonprofit Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative (SECC), which works to educate the public about the benefits of smart energy and energy technology, enlisted Questline Digital’s help to create fun, engaging resources that would bring these issues to life. This partnership fueled one of our most creative projects to date: “The Evolving World of Energy” video and content series.

Industry collaboration

SECC asked Questline Digital to develop a toolkit of resources to engage residential consumers on specific energy topics through a variety of mediums. The first initiative was an educational video series focused on the ever-changing developments in energy, including electric vehicles and clean energy sources like solar and wind power. Since SECC’s members are made up of energy utilities and other industry partners, the video series needed to be easily sharable on their digital channels, including websites, social media and eNewsletters.

“We started with Questline Digital after creating three ‘The Evolving World of Energy’ fact sheets and decided a compelling character could brand the videos and mediums together,” says Greg Schwartz, SECC’s Director of Operations. “Visuals like infographics, videos and even social media images to accompany the text-based mediums would help to capture consumers’ attention and be better for sharing.”

“The Evolving World of Energy” video series

The three video topics included: emerging energy technology, electric vehicles and renewable energy. Before starting production of the first video, Questline Digital’s Creative & Content team brainstormed and presented ideas for three different concepts. SECC ultimately chose Professor Energy, a fun and energetic character to serve as the guide and voiceover throughout the video series. Professor Energy was inspired by “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” the Emmy Award-winning science program known for being quirky yet educational. This video series concept is a nostalgic nod to classic science education programs.

“Professor Energy was created with the mindset of breaking barriers in the male-dominated energy industry,” says Joe Pifher, Questline Digital’s Creative Director. “Her character has a ton of personality, helping to take dry subject matter and turn it into something engaging.”

“Questline Digital’s expertise has proven invaluable to SECC as we’ve sought to fulfill our mission of helping consumers in North America understand the benefits of smart energy. Through videos, infographics, fact sheets and other resources, Questline Digital has helped us provide factual information and practical tips to consumers around renewable energy, electric vehicles, smart home technology and energy efficiency.” —Greg Schwartz, SECC Director of Operations

For the scriptwriting process, the goal was to incorporate the most important information from SECC’s in-depth fact sheets (six to eight pages long) into a three-minute video. In addition to providing educational insights and the latest statistics, the videos needed to engage and entertain viewers.

Each video in the “Evolving World of Energy” series starts and ends with black-and-white footage reminiscent of an old-fashioned educational film, which serves as a dramatic contrast to the colorful contemporary animation that follows. This visual look also illustrates energy’s dramatic transformation from the past into the future. Each video featured real-world examples and provided Professor Energy with plenty of adventures as she navigated different scenes.

For example, in the “Evolving World of Energy” video, Professor Energy demonstrates the convenience of smart home technology by adjusting her home’s AC from her smartphone while relaxing on the beach. In the video “Renewable Energy 101″ she appears in a solar farm, as photovoltaics pop up in the scene all around her, showcasing this fast-growing renewable resource.

The video “Electric Vehicles: How Much Do You Know?” was the most comprehensive of the series, both in animation and scriptwriting. This video needed to dispel common misconceptions around electric vehicles while showcasing new opportunities and efficiencies. This video featured additional characters, including a talking electric vehicle named Eve. In this video, Professor Energy and Eve drive around town, highlighting the benefits of EVs versus gasoline-powered vehicles. Questline Digital also created the “Electric Vehicles: The Ride of the Future” infographic with key trends and statistics from the video.

SECC shared these resources through a variety of channels:

Industry and consumer websites: Resources were available to view or download by members and non-members.
In-person conferences: Videos were showcased at several member meetings and a consumer symposium comprised of SECC members and non-member attendees.
Webinars: The Electric Vehicles video and infographic were prominently featured in an EV webinar that had 100 attendees.
Social media: Shared on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest (including paid media)
Email marketing: Resources were included in announcement emails and educational recap emails. They were sent to SECC’s consumer email list (4,996 subscribers), member email list (1,603 subscribers) and industry non-member email list (1,820 subscribers).
SECC Members: Resources were shared on member social media channels and included in eNewsletters, as well as utilized for internal education.
Google Adwords: EV content was used in Google Ads, generating a high number of clicks and impressions.

Results and metrics

“The Evolving World of Energy” video series proved to be a success, helping to increase consumer understanding of renewable energy and smart technology. Combined, “The Evolving World of Energy” video series garnered more than 5,400 views on YouTube.

The video “Electric Vehicles: How Much Do You Know?” is the most popular to date, reflecting growing consumer interest in EVs. The video and accompanying infographic were added to the main navigation element on SECC’s consumer website. They also serve as key decision-making resources for companies and organizations to join SECC.

“Electric Vehicles: How Much Do You Know?” video

4,422 views on YouTube
Nearly 16,000 views on Facebook
41,951 pageviews on consumer website

“Electric Vehicles: The Ride of the Future” infographic

284 industry downloads
894 pageviews on SECC’s consumer website

Learn how Questline Digital’s Electric Vehicles Content can drive your EV marketing strategy to the finish line.

Learn More