How to Use Audio Content in Your Social Media Campaign

What’s the latest content marketing trend to hit the shelves? Audio content.

The eCommerce industry is booming. By 2024, experts have predicted sales to bump up by an average of $6.38 billion per year. By 2040, 95% of all sales will be conducted via eCommerce.  In a nutshell, the only way to stay competitive in this ever-growing market is to have stellar content marketing.

But what if your content marketing is missing something? If your engagement is dropping, your traffic decreasing, your hopes sinking, there may be one solution you might have missed.

Let’s dive into audio content.

What is Audio Content?

Any material or information that is published onto the internet, and is consumed by listening, is referred to as audio content. 

Audio content has made the rounds through the likes of entertainment (like audiobooks and most popularly, podcasts), and successfully as marketing collateral such as any branded media. 

The key difference between audio and written content is that audio content is much more consumable. On average, videos and audio content get 1,200% more shares than text and images combined.

Let’s take a look at some of the many ways audio can be incorporated into your social media campaign:

Audio Content Channels

YouTube

Plenty of brands are seeing the appeal of YouTube to market their services. Remaining the most dominant social media platform in 2022, with no signs of slowing down, it’s a pretty valuable channel. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to producing content with audio, the copyright laws can get a little difficult to follow. Which audio can you use freely? Whose permission do you need? In order to monetize your services, you need to ensure you are paying respect to intellectual properties and keeping everything above board.

Here are 3 suitable ways to use audio content on YouTube:

• Get yourself a royalty-free music license: providers like Epidemic Sound allow you to browse and broadcast using their vast royalty-free music library. Never worry about copyright infringement again!
• Copyright-free music library: although be careful with this one! Not all music libraries are completely copyright-free, so you may need to do your own research on domains for good measure. 
• DIY: and of course, there’s always music you make yourself. Anything you’ve created can be published online, as you hold all of the proper rights.

Failure to take on board the strict copyright laws can resort to the 3-strike policy. One strike will remain on your account for 90 days, with the addition of the offending content being removed. A second strike will resort to the chance of demonetization across your entire platform, and a third strike… you’re out! 

Facebook

Facebook is a pretty good space for honing in on your target audience. Many companies use this platform to ensure their products and services are being met well, as Facebook is often the hub for customer reviews and testimonials. It’s also a great hub for Facebook Gaming which has recently taken the audience by storm. 

Although audio can be used to create exciting content, it’s crucial you follow correct procedures. Not only do you need to be considering whether the audio fits with your target audience, but also, are you allowed to use it? 

Well, if you use a royalty-free music library like Epidemic Sound, you can. Once you’ve subscribed, you’re free to play any of their vast collection with your Facebook streams. If you want more guidance on this topic, check out their article.

Failure to comply with copyright laws can be disastrous for marketing collateral and can cause brands’ to be silenced on social media platforms. As a general rule, only use royalty-free music within your content (whether marketing or entertainment), unless you have the right to use other audio.

Instagram

For brand awareness, Instagram is a great place to set up camp. With an audience of over 1.15 billion, the potential for brands young and old is immense. When you consider the fact that 90% of these 1.15 billion people follow at least one of their favorite businesses, it’s pretty easy to see the potential. 

But now, it isn’t simply well-crafted images that get the attention of the masses. When it comes to maximizing the awareness of your brand – there’s no competition: in-feed video posts are the supreme. You can even earn on top of your marketing, by partnering with other brands, enabling badges on your live feed, and allowing ‘in-stream video ads’.

It’s also been proven to boost engagement by adding music or audio – according to Brandwatch, 60% of IG stories are played with the sound on. That’s a lot of potentials to get the attention of your audience!

But what audio will you choose? You’ll want to avoid full-length tracks, as you risk fatiguing your audience. You’ll also want to steer clear of live event audio – it may have been a fantastic experience for you, but through audio, it doesn’t always convert that well.

Using a source like Epidemic Sound allows you to play high-quality, popular tracks through any Instagram video. Getting your audio sorted and out of the way will mean more time to add the finishing touches to your content. 

TikTok

Although TikTok was originally marketed for a younger audience, it’s slowly penetrating a wider audience for advertising. 38% of all users are now above the age of 30, meaning the potential to reach your desired audience may be well within your reach.

However, just because TikTok marketing can be as easy as pressing record on your mobile, doesn’t mean you should resort to lazy content marketing. Simply reading out loud your company’s USP, and hitting ‘post’, isn’t going to be enough to bring those customers in. 

As the competition is high here, content on TikTok needs to be fun, vibrant, and most importantly engaging. The app’s algorithm works on an engagement basis, meaning, the more comments your videos receive, the more likely you’ll be promoted on the home page for everyone to see. 

Make sure the audio you use on TikTok is fun, and up to date. Don’t shy away from remixes and edits (those are all the rage right now!), and pair your content with audio that accurately represents your brand. 

With Epidemic Sound’s 30-free-day trial, you can take your pick from their large archive of audio and musical hits.

Finding the perfect audio match for your project has never been easier.

Twitch

Marketing on Twitch will involve using live streaming as a method, as opposed to the publication of content. Does that mean that audio is less important here? Absolutely not!

Keeping your audience engaged with music and sound is one of the easiest ways to be successful on this platform. The longer a viewer is with you, the more likely they are to subscribe and even make donations to your channel. 

That being said, Twitch operates on a similar 3-strike basis to YouTube. In order to not gamble with copyrighting laws, make sure any audio you play is 100% royalty-free, or, you own the rights. 

Alternatively, the Epidemic Sound Library hosts a giant range of audio and music for you to use on Twitch. Once you are subscribed to the service, you are free to use any audio to compliment your streams and bring in happy viewers. Isn’t it about time you grabbed yourself some unique audio?

Wrapping up

To summarise, as a content creator, there are plenty of opportunities to create engaging, share-worthy content. Using audio is a step in the right direction, and is only going to get more popular with the increase in social media users. 

To compete with other businesses, you need to make sure you’re keeping up with the trends – in a safe, and copyright-free manner. If you’re a freelancer, production company, or brand in need of music for your social media platform, Epidemic Sound has the answer for you. 

Their license provides you with professionally composed music to use in your, or your clients’, content with no risk of breaking copyright laws. No matter the project – whether personal or professional, digital advertising or client production – the Epidemic Sound Library can provide your work with the audio it needs.

Also, if you don’t have the time to clear the video you produced yourself, you can even let the client do it! Epidemic Sound’s simple Clearing Too means no more waiting for clients to publish their videos to then clear it – invite them to do it themselves and optimize your time.

To get started, check out Epidemic Sounds’ plans and pricing here.

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