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Content Manager
Content Manager: Best Practices, Steps, and Answers to Common Questions
What Does a Content Manager Do?
A content manager is the one in charge of organizing, curating, and overseeing the production and distribution of content for a business. A content manager’s responsibilities go beyond just creating the content; they ensure the content achieves the company’s objectives in a way that reflects the brand voice and works with each platform it is destined for.
This means your content manager must have both a vast understanding of your brands and products as well as all video and social platforms' best practices in order to integrate your messaging in a way that reaches audiences and is searchable. Brainiac can handle all of your video and visual content needs, managing large scalable campaigns and delivering clever solutions
10 Things You Need To Know About Content Managers
Understanding the role of a content manager comes with a lot of questions, especially for business owners and CEOs who are considering the impact of hiring one. Here are the top 10 queries people search for online and the answers:
1. What skills should a content manager have?
A content manager needs to have a strong understanding of SEO, content strategy, branding, creative cohesiveness, and analytics. Additionally, creative production skills, project management abilities, and familiarity with various content types (like blog posts, videos, and social media posts) are crucial.
2. How does a content manager handle different content types?
A content manager should create or adapt each piece of content based on the platform it will be released on and what audience it is targeting. For instance, short-form videos on platforms like Instagram and TikTok require different strategies than longer, in-depth blog posts or YouTube videos.
3. How long should an organic Instagram video be?
An organic Instagram video should ideally be under 60 seconds and if you are hoping for free viral views, closer to 15 seconds. Instagram, like most platforms, factors in viewer retention when deciding how many viewers to show your video to, so keeping it short ensures that a larger portion of your video is seen can be key to the free viewership you seek.
4. How long should a paid Instagram ad be?
Paid Instagram ads should be around 15-30 seconds. The key is to grab attention quickly and deliver a clear call to action before the viewer scrolls past.
5. How long should an organic TikTok video be?
For organic TikTok videos, aim for between 8 and 13 seconds. Viewer retention is a major factor in TikTok deciding how many viewers to feed your video to, so when you start to run past 15 seconds, no matter how many viewers find your information interesting, the standard scroller will count against the retention percentage and your video is less likely to be seen.
6. How long should YouTube Shorts be?
YouTube Shorts organic videos are very much geared to the ten-second viewer, however, they can be up to 60 seconds. Remember, on most vertical formats, viewer retention percentages play into how many people the platform shows your video to. If retention is high with the first 100 people they show it to, then they show it to another hundred and another hundred, etc.
7. How to use YouTube Shorts to lead someone to a longer widescreen YouTube video?
If your YouTube Shorts video is compelling, you can use it to lead people to longer format YouTube widescreen content, as there is a "view related video" option that can be added to the lower left corner of your shorts content.
8. What is the difference between a content manager and a content strategist?
While a content manager oversees the day-to-day production of content, a content strategist focuses more on long-term planning, audience research, and content goals. The two roles often work together to ensure consistency and relevance.
Brainiac can work to create a full strategy for your video content while implementing the creation and distribution of the content for each of your chosen platforms.
9. How can a content manager improve content performance?
A content manager can improve content performance by monitoring analytics and experimenting with different distribution times (yes, the time of day and week it is released is important) and content formats. A/B testing content and distribution channels is also very helpful.
10. What tools should a content manager use?
Tools like Google Analytics, Google Sheets and Docs, content management systems, SEO software such as SEMrush and Tubebuddy, and social media scheduling platforms like Hootsuite are important. Also necessary are the standard filmmaker tools such as Photoshop, Premiere, Lightroom, and other creative software, tools and professional film equipment.
This is why content creation is often best to outsource to a professional team like Brainiac, as the number of software programs and types of equipment required is fairly sizable to deliver consistently branded materials.
Best Practices for a Content Manager
1. Develop a Content Strategy
Think of your content strategy like you would a sales funnel. What do you want them to think about the first time they see you, and the next time they see you, and after that? What information do you need to share the first time and how can you expand that relationship the next time? How do you keep them engaged once they know everything that you are about?
How do you plan to retarget? Figure out how to first get your target audience's attention on the best platform suited for that audience, and then decide how you want to retarget them, keep their attention, and achieve your messaging goals. Once you have the plan, then develop the best creative assets you can to achieve those goals.
2. Optimize Content for SEO
SEO isn’t just for website content. Whether you’re posting on Instagram, YouTube, or creating blog articles, a content manager should be using strong SEO software to create keywords for traditional crawlers and strong content for the more advanced AI crawlers, when delivering content on most social platforms. This includes also includes optimizing titles and descriptions, and ensuring content is shareable and searchable.
Brainiac offers advanced services within the creative content itself.
3. Create Engaging and Platform-Specific Content
The type of content you create should be based on the platform you plan to release on. For Instagram, focus on short, engaging videos or carousel posts. Carousels have become increasingly important as the engagement they encourage will drive the content through the algorithm and help it excel in the feeds in terms of visibility. For YouTube, longer videos work better but don’t forget the power of YouTube Shorts to attract a quick, mobile audience using the same techniques you would on TikTok and Instagram.
Conclusion
A content manager is a necessity for any B2C company seeking national attention and sales. By managing various content types effectively and optimizing for specific platforms, your content creation and management company can keep you visible and assist in conversions and engagement.