Speaker Spotlight: Q&A with Michael Boccacino, Director of Content Partnerships at TheSoul Publishing

The countdown is on to SocialDay Festival 2022: the event helping social media marketers do their jobs better. We’ve been working on an incredible line-up this year, with speakers from the major social media platforms, biggest brands and most up-and-coming agencies.

One of these speakers is Michael Boccacino, Director of Content Partnerships at TheSoul Publishing, who will be speaking about:

The rise of short form content and why it’s working now with TheSoul Publishing, the world’s #1 digital studio

Let’s learn more about Michael and his session.

First off, what do you LOVE about SocialDay?

At Social Day it is great to come together and join some of the most innovative minds in the industry. Our virtual world has become an ever more important part of how we engage and communicate. Social Day Forum is an opportunity to hear fresh ideas about how we can push social media further, both in relation to the trends we see now and to look to the future.

Michael, what’s your story?

I am the Director of Content Partnerships at TheSoul Publishing. I have spent the last decade building partnerships for tech and media companies such as BuzzFeed, Grindr, Salesforce, and Disney. Based in Los Angeles, I am responsible for growing TheSoul Publishing’s current, and future, platform relationships across the U.S.

Whats the focus of your SocialDay talk?

I will be focusing on the rise in popularity of short-form content, exploring the ways content creators can learn from this more concise format, as well as uncovering the advantages to a snappier video approach. From TikTok, the game changer in this space, to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, demand for short-form content has skyrocketed in recent years and social media platforms are doing all they can to capitalise on this recent success. My talk will explore how short-form content has played into the success story of TheSoul Publishing, the world’s most prolific digital studio. I am able to offer my unique perspective on how shorter-form content can accompany traditional longer-form content and play into ongoing strategy and plans.

We are really looking forward to your SocialDay session, what are the key takeaways?

Creating engaging content - Short-form content allows teams to create relatable, universal content which shares key messages in an easily digestible manner. Attention spans are shortening - The ways people are consuming content is ever changing, more and more social media users are relying on multiscreening and consuming short form content alongside their TV viewing. How to leverage short-form content to support your monetisable marketing strategy - Shorter content allows brands to easily share key messages and can act as an important conversion tool to longer-form, monetisable formats

What has been your best social media success story?

The cross-platform success of 5-Minute Crafts is unique in an environment where digital media dollars are shifting to the creator economy. Gen Z responds to authenticity, and 5-Minute Crafts cracked the code for what that could look like for a digital publisher, earning the trust of our audience by tailoring our programming to the trends of each platform in order to provide our audience with videos that focus on the things they care about. That's allowed us to cultivate a massive cross-platform community.

What’s the most exciting thing you’ve seen on social media in the last 12 months?

The growing interest in the metaverse is opening the door to new types of content and experiences. For example, our virtual popstar Polar just headlined the Solar Sounds Festival in the popular game Avakin Life. The event offered Avakin Life users a unique opportunity to wear Polar's clothes, her signature facemask, and change their Avakins' eyes and hairstyle to resemble her look. Users are always searching for ways to express themselves, and as they expand their social media activities onto AR/VR platforms, virtual digital goods (and characters) will become the new focus of customisation.

What challenges do you feel you will be facing in the coming years in your role?

The growing interest in the metaverse is opening the door to new types of content and experiences. For example, our virtual popstar Polar just headlined the Solar Sounds Festival in the popular game Avakin Life. The event offered Avakin Life users a unique opportunity to wear Polar's clothes, her signature facemask, and change their Avakins' eyes and hairstyle to resemble her look. Users are always searching for ways to express themselves, and as they expand their social media activities onto AR/VR platforms, virtual digital goods (and characters) will become the new focus of customisation.

What has been your favourite social media campaign in the last 12 months?

While not explicitly a campaign, I really loved the conversation that sprouted up around Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill when it appeared in Stranger Things. Many users on TikTok discovered it for the first time, and the power of that community pushed a song from 1985 to a Billboard number one album. It was the kind of joyful “water-cooler” moment that could only happen because of social.

Finally, what would you like to see happen in social media in the future?

More transparency around what gets shared, and why. We know how powerful these platforms can be, and a lot of the time, they can act as inadvertent gatekeepers for how many people get to see a piece of content. The more we know about content evaluation, the more we can do to remove biases and ensure everyone has an equal chance at engagement.

Learn more about Micheal and The Soul Publishing and connect on Linkedin

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