Edutainment Content: What It Is & How to Create It

Posted on July 12, 2023

In today’s digital age, attention spans are getting shorter and shorter by the day, and the demand for engaging content is rising. The concept of entertaining, educational content, or “edutainment,” has gained significant popularity and has proven to be an effective method for captivating the imagination and holding audiences’ attention while teaching them new concepts or materials.

Understanding Edutainment Content

The goal of edutainment is to teach an audience what you need them to know in an entertaining way. As counterintuitive as it may seem, one of the best ways to get them to care about your story is to design content that’s relevant for them; not you.

This type of content goes beyond traditional education methods by incorporating:

Engaging storytelling techniques
Interesting visuals
Interactive elements

All of these techniques are designed to make learning more enjoyable and accessible. This encourages and motivates learners to actively participate and engage with your content.

Work doesn’t feel like work if you enjoy it, and when you present educational content in an entertaining way, you create a more immersive and enjoyable experience. This leads to improved retention of knowledge and an increased interest in the subject matter. For example, in some schools, students have fun while developing their problem-solving capabilities with the wildly popular video game Minecraft. It’s been successfully used in the classroom to teach students complex concepts by presenting them as fun parts of the game.

While it may seem new, edutainment content has a long history of success. Generations of young children have benefited from TV shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Rodger’s Neighborhood, which teach essential skills through music and comedic skits. Similarly, kids have enjoyed shows like Bill Nye the Science Guy, and The Magic School Bus which present scientific concepts in a fun format.

Creating Edutainment Content

When designing and creating edutainment it’s important to know who your target audience is. Understanding their needs, preferences, and potential educational goals will help you tailor the content so it resonates with them effectively.

Whenever it’s practical, consider adapting your content for different mediums so you’re able to deliver your message across multiple platforms. There’s power in repetition. If you have content presented as a video, part of a game, and also as a podcast, you’ll naturally increase the opportunities for your audience to interact with it in a manner that best fits their needs.

Power of Immersion

Storytelling plays a critical role in effective edutainment content. By crafting compelling stories you invite your audience to become fully immersed in your world. Here you can present them with complex ideas and information in a highly relatable format. By incorporating visuals such as illustrations, animations, or slideshow presentations, you can further immerse your audience and enhance their learning experience.

Designing Effective Edutainment

Adding humor to edutainment will make it even more appealing. When something is funny it feels lighter and easier to connect with. Interactive elements like funny little multiple-choice quizzes, puzzles, challenges, or interactive simulations increase active participation and reinforce what’s being taught.

Providing the chance for continuous communication and feedback with user surveys and assessments will make it easier for you to make any needed improvements going forward.

Implementing suggestions will also help keep your content fresh, effective, relevant, and entertaining.

The Best of Education and Entertainment

Edutainment content combines education and entertainment to create immersive and fun learning experiences. By understanding your target audience and using a variety of different mediums, you can design effective edutainment content. Embracing this approach can revolutionize the way your audience learns and at the same time make education more accessible and enjoyable for all.

Do you need help creating effective edutainment content? Contact ArachnidWorks; we will ensure your content resonates with your audience.

The Do’s and Don’ts for Holiday Social Posts

Posted on November 3, 2022

Every fall, when temperatures dive and the Maryland nights grow longer, Brian, our CTO, starts his tradition of listening for the first annual playing of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Released 28 years ago tomorrow, Mariah Carey’s blockbuster, officially launches the holiday season around here, whether we’re ready or not.

For our content marketers and social media marketing strategists, the sappy tune also triggers our holiday social media planning. At AW, our team has been handling the social needs of our clients long enough to know that holiday posts need a little something extra. By keeping in mind a handful of Dos and Don’ts, we can ride the coattails of the most important seasonal trends and avoid any eleventh-hour social media crises.

DO: TWEAK YOUR POSTING CALENDAR

Review your typical posting schedule and adjust it so you can reach clients and potential customers during the ramp-up to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hannukah. Organize the dates throughout the holiday season that are most relevant to you, schedule those posts, and set reminders so you can stay on top of plan. Keep in mind that it’s a fine line between keeping your base up to date and inundating them with TMI.

DON’T: DISCONNECT FROM YOUR CLIENTS

Even the best holiday social media posts don’t take the place of a personal connection with the people to whom you owe your business. Do your best to communicate with your clients in non-digital ways when possible. You know you can’t speak with or visit everyone, so make sure your holiday posts for social media are authentic and meaningful enough to foster genuine connections.

DO: CREATE A THEME THAT REFLECTS YOUR BRAND

Ignore the hackneyed and the trite colors and images in favor of the visual components that make up your brand. The goal is to make your content stand out from the rest and appeal to your audience, so if a color palette of magenta and melon make your message pop, go with it—leave the red and green, and the blue and gold, for those with more traditional brands. Don’t be shy!

DON’T: STUFF YOUR CLIENTS’ STOCKINGS WITH NONSENSE

During the month of December, one well-known social media site lists the following dates as “not-to-be-missed” opportunities for reaching out to your clients and customers: Eat a Red Apple Day, Let’s Hug Day, National Roast Suckling Pig Day, Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day… You get the idea. Unless any of these reflect your brand and give you an opportunity to tell an authentic story about your company, skip them. Before you post anything, especially a holiday social media post, ask yourself why. If you don’t know the answer immediately, hit delete.

DO: HOST A GIVEAWAY OR CONTEST

Your loyal followers will likely enjoy the chance to win something from you that they’re pining after. Choose an item that’s appealing to your regular base, but also shareable to encourage new followers.

DON’T: USE THE HOLIDAYS AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO SIMPLY SELL, SELL, SELL

Holiday observances around the world are becoming more secular, but for many, Christmas and Hannukah have deep cultural or religious meaning. Be respectful in your choice of images and words. Most people want warm wishes and cheer rather than links to your best-selling product’s page.

DO: ENCOURAGE POSTS FROM FOLLOWERS

Try including 1–2 photos in a social media post from a holiday tradition you or your team members enjoy observing, and invite your followers to do the same. Encourage the authentic, the genuine, and the meaningful—you’ll build your digital community and engender the type of trust and goodwill that elevates your brand.

Keeping in mind these couple of dos and don’ts, some careful planning, a solid strategy, and a commitment to brand awareness will go a long way toward a successful social media strategy this holiday season…and you don’t even have to wait to hear “All I Want for Christmas is You” to get started.

Too much on your plate for the rest of Quarter 4? Do you know how important a solid social media strategy for the holidays is for your company? No one ever said you have to do it alone. ArachnidWorks is here to help! Let’s talk.

Best Social Media Platform for Businesses 2022

Posted on February 17, 2022

You know the basic social media platforms, those Old Reliables that we’ve been a part of for years. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, and TikTok are the dominators in the social media world. So how do you know if you’re using the most appropriate platform to reach your target audiences?

The top social media platforms for businesses in 2022 are:

Facebook
Instagram
LinkedIn
Twitter
Snapchat
YouTube
TikTok

Why Use Social Media at All?

A brief reminder. For marketing success in 2022, social media isn’t an option. It’s a necessity. It builds brand awareness, gives your business a human touch, increases traffic to your website, and increases engagement for your business. Not just random engagement, though; targeted engagement that converts your audience into leads and leads into conversions. Social media is a fantastic way to track customer data, keep an eye on your competition, and gauge how the public views your business.

Define Your Target Audience

Because different social media platforms attract different users, you need to understand who your target audience is. Some things to keep in mind:

Is your perfect customer male, female, or either? Yes, men do purchase beauty products, but your ideal focus for this market is women.

What’s the age of your ideal customer? If you’re selling hip-hop albums, chances are you’re not selling it to Grandma Joan who lives next door and loves Kenny G.

Other interests: Outdoor enthusiasts will be first to buy your hiking equipment, but your ideal customer may also like fishing and camping.

Income and education: Nothing is more frustrating to a middle-class worker than seeing ads, for yacht sales, million-dollar vacations, and limousine rentals. Make sure you consider income and education levels when defining your audience.

Define Your Goals for Posting on Social Media

First, what’s the nature of your business? Are you looking to connect with potential clients to promote services, or e-commerce customers to purchase physical goods? What’s your company culture and how will it reflect in your posts? What platforms are your competitors using, and how can you leverage this knowledge? What kind of content (written or video, for instance) do you want to post most often?

Understanding what you hope to achieve from your social media presence is an important step when choosing the right platform.

And now it’s time to look at the best social media platforms for businesses, who uses them, and which are best for you.

Social Media Platforms for Businesses

Now that you’ve defined your target audience and goals, you can begin to choose the best social platform for your business.

Facebook

Facebook sees an edge in female interaction over males and remains popular for users between the ages of 18 and 65. It appeals to people with the widest ranges of income and education, and is a great place to build business relationships, show a human side of the business, and connect with potential customers.

Instagram

Video has taken center stage on Instagram, as have stories involving social causes and concerns. Instagram is working to expand its purchase platform, Instagram Shops, and make it easier to connect buyers with the products they want. The platform is most popular for users between the ages of 18 and 29. The average users’ income is slightly higher than Facebook and has more women users than men.

LinkedIn has a larger appeal for men, and definitely has users with a larger income than Instagram, with over half of users reporting incomes of over $75k. It’s a preferred platform for professionals and B2B communications and appeals to a wide range of age groups, primarily from 18-64.

Twitter

Twitter, surprisingly, has a slightly larger male following than females and is preferred by a younger audience with its biggest age group 18 to 29.

Snapchat

Snapchat has the highest audience of 18-29-year-olds, with income levels spread pretty evenly across the board. Women have a slight edge over men when it comes to using this platform.

YouTube

YouTube is becoming a significant contender in the social media world. Users are evenly split between men and women, it appeals to all ages from 18-64, and it boasts a wide range of income levels for its users. If you haven’t considered YouTube for your business, it may be time.

TikTok

Dominating the 18-29-year-old market in short, bite-sized pieces, TikTok is seeing a steady growth in popularity. It holds a slight edge for female users, but the income levels are very evenly split across the platform’s users.

ArachnidWorks Can Help You Decide

We confess we’re kind of obsessed with social media. We can help you choose the best platforms for your business. Got questions? Let’s connect and talk about it!

Social Media Marketing Trends For 2022

Posted on December 15, 2021

It’s hard to believe it, but we’ve made it to 2022! As marketing pros, we’ve learned a few lessons throughout 2021, and spotted some emerging social media marketing trends. So what are they?

1. Short and Sweet

This is more of an extension of an existing trend than a new one altogether, but it’s worthy of a second look; short content for the win! Shorter is better when it comes to social media content. It’s thought to be more effective since the attention span of younger users is much shorter, accustomed as they have become to TikTok style short form content.

Advertising on these emerging popular platforms, like TikTok, will continue to be an effective marketing strategy.

2. Permanent Posts Take the Lead

A “Story” is disappearing content that’s viewable for about a day before it’s gone for good. While this will still be a good choice in some cases, 2022 will see more businesses turning to those that can be viewed days, or even weeks, after the initial publishing. It’s estimated that permanent postings give the most return on your social media investment.

Disappearing content still has its place in some platforms where it will continue to thrive. The best recommendation is to consider the platform, your audience, and the intention of your post. Are you having a moment of light hearted fun, for instance, or are you advertising for an event with a ticker? A great approach is to use a mixture of disappearing and permanent postings.

3. Augmented and Virtual Reality Marketing Step Strongly into 2022

More and more consumers are diving into the virtual world, and many smart businesses will be taking advantage of this trend. Some ways to take advantage of this niche are offering virtual tours through a facility, or adding a scannable code on business cards that will allow a user to view your products, or recording events and allowing visitors to view the events as if they were part of them.

This may be a costly set-up, but the attention it brings to your brand may make a great return on your investment.

Continue reading →

Is LinkedIn Premium Worth The Expense?

Posted on October 10, 2016

From $30 a month up to $120, LinkedIn offers a wide variety of services. For regular users of the free service, it’s easy to pass at those prices. However, most LinkedIn Premium subscribers say the services are worth it, so let’s take a look to see if LinkedIn Premium is worth the expense.

You can look at LinkedIn Premium somewhat like an exclusive club for sales professionals, job seekers, and recruiters. While many users decide to return to the free version, others continue to pay even if their specific goals are achieved.

What does LinkedIn Premium Offer?

LinkedIn Premium’s base version is geared towards job seekers who are willing to spend $30 a month for three InMail messages, expanded details about the people who view their profiles, and additional tools to help boost profile visibility.

A Step Up for Businesses

The Business Plus plan is $60-a-month and it includes 15 InMail messages. Also included are unlimited searches in your extended network as well as advanced search filters. If you’re looking for a lead-builder tool that provides lead recommendations and real-time insights on existing accounts and leads, you can choose LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator Professional version for $80 per month.

The Best of the Best

Premiemium Hiring, the “elite” LinkedIn service, provides a recruiting-specific design with 30 InMail messages, unlimited visibility of your extended network, advanced search, and automatic candidate tracking and integrated hiring for $120 per month.

While the benefits of LinkedIn Premium aren’t always visible right from the start, they can be very positive for the long term. That being said, if you would like to share your discuss LinkedIn strategy, we’d to talk to you!