New Twist in Programs From Twitter, Sephora

Twitter and Sephora recently announced new educational content programs on video marketing and TikTok content, respectively.

By schooling brands and creators on ways to capture audience attention and build trust, they’re following a well-worn content path – but with a new twist.

@Twitter #Unskippable and @Sephora x TikTok use educational #content programs in a new way, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Get Robert Rose’s take in this week’s CMI News video, or keep reading for the highlights.

Twitter launches online education course on captivating video content

Twitter launched an eight-part educational series to teach marketers how to create video ads that get people’s attention on the platform.

Called Unskippable, the eight-episode video series provides practical advice and promises up-to-date best practices for using video on Twitter.

Once you’ve signed up for Twitter’s free Flight School, you can watch the two-minute episodes on attracting attention, encouraging engagement, captions,  ideal video size, length, layout, and other topics.

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The program’s landing page promises the course will leave you feeling “empowered to create unskippable Twitter content no matter how big or small your budget is.”

Sephora, TikTok, and Digitas launch beauty brand incubator

Cosmetics brand Sephora is collaborating with TikTok and marketing agency Digitas to teach founder-lead beauty brands how to create better content and use influencer marketing more successfully.

As Glossy reports, the Sephora x TikTok Incubator Program will pair three BIPOC-founded beauty brands each quarter with mentors from Sephora, Digitas, TikTok, and the TikTok creator community. The three-module program (two take place over Zoom and one at Sephora headquarters) covers TikTok strategy and planning and influencer marketing fluency (including analytics).

Each beauty brand (Eadem, Hyper Skin, and Topicals) in the pilot program completed Sephora’s Accelerate incubation program and have active TikTok accounts. Here’s an example of a recent TikTok post from Eadem:

@eadem.co @coufe shows how to achieve this gorgeous Valentine’s Day look using Milk Marvel and Cloud Cushion as her makeup base 💘 #EADEM #valentinesday #skincare #makeup #valentinesdaymakeup ♬ Hey It’s Me – Official Sound Studio

As part of the program, each brand will have six new pieces of TikTok content created by BIPOC community creators tapped for the program.

So, what’s the twist?

Robert Rose says the Twitter and Sephora x TikTok examples are part of a shift in how companies approach their educational content courses and thought leadership efforts.

Launching online classes, educational webinar series, or even full-on digital universities isn’t new or trendy. The new twist, Robert says, is how these brands differentiate by taking on educational topics that aren’t just extensions of their products.

Launching an online class isn’t a new #ContentMarketing tactic. But launching one that’s tangential to your mission is a new twist, says @Robert_Rose via @CMIContent. Click To Tweet

Traditionally a software company, for example, would focus its thought leadership or educational courses on something tied to a problem its software solved. A manufacturer might create an online university to teach people how to use the kind of product it makes.

Increasingly, though, brands are rolling out innovative education programs aligned with (but not central to) the company’s mission or product.

Twitter and Sephora are teaching video and influencer marketing – topics that aren’t what you’d immediately think of as either brand’s products or mission. But those topics help their partners, suppliers, and customers make the most of the Twitter and TikTok platforms.

Robert says this kind of twist on content marketing through online courses and education programs will likely spread. He says he wouldn’t be surprised to see an enterprise martech software company roll out courses designed to help marketers understand finance.

And he knows of at least one B2B company already taking this approach. The organization offers management consulting services to law firms, but its content course teaches lawyers how to improve their work-life balance.

Building trust with audiences is all about teaching and inspiring them to do what they need to do to succeed. A great educational program is a tried-and-true way to create that trust.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute