The power of Facebook
Who knew that Mark Zuckerberg betraying his Harvard uni mates and creating a small social network, called Facebook, would trigger a digital revolution, and become the most successful and popular social network in all of web history! Surpassing Bebo and MySpace (now just rotting remnants) Facebook has retained and increased its popularity, by simply being an innovator. It has constantly evolved to meet the needs of its users.
For video enthusiasts, Facebook is, along with YouTube and to a lesser extent, Vimeo, the number one place to attract viewers and customers alike. There are also many indications as to why creating a video exclusively for Facebook is likely to get more views than if you upload to YouTube. In 2015, Facebook videos officially surpassed YouTube videos on the Facebook platform altogether, with 80% of all video interaction on Facebook being with natively uploaded videos, and since June 2014, there are 1 billion views daily of video content on the social network.
Business 2 Community found further evidence of Facebook’s power, finding that videos have a 875% higher organic reach compared to text posts on the social network and 250% higher compared to image posts. Finally, video ads have an average click-through rate (CTR) of 84%, the highest of all digital ad formats.
The beauty of Facebook videos is that for businesses, you can track audience views that turn into actual sales, so it’s important to get your message and aesthetic on point. The most popular that get those all important views and shares on Facebook, according to Social Media Examiner, range from inspirational to news/educational style videos. So, whatever you have to offer, be it a service or product, make sure it is structured in one of these styles if you want to hit the million mark.
Generally, Facebook users like authenticity, so your video need not be Hollywood standard. Also, it’s important to remember that 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, so pay more attention to visuals than anything else. In Digiday UK, Sahil Patel writes: “The news shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, as Facebook has built a video ecosystem that does not require users to turn the volume up. Most users’ news feeds are now inundated with short videos that feature text or captions narrating what’s being shown on screen. While most of these videos feature narration or some form of background music, the intent is to make it easy for people to consume the information presented in the videos without needing to turn the sound on.”
Another important factor to take into consideration is length, with one minute being too short and five minutes being too long the optimal time is between two to three minutes - the first three seconds are crucial. As Buffer App Blog explains: “Unlike other video platforms, videos on Facebook appear within the user's’ feed—and, here’s the kicker—as they scroll through, the video will autoplay in order to captivate their attention and convince them to watch more. As such, your video should have a powerful first few seconds that captivate even without sound. Buzzfeed has become a master at this, as proven by their 6.8 billion video views on Facebook to date. Buzzfeed doesn’t waste time in capturing people’s attention. In general the first frame is already geared towards piquing someone’s interest.”
Facebook’s new found position as a video sharing hotspot is perfect for any brand looking to expand their market and reach thousands, if not millions, more potential customers. So, investing some energy in creating regular videos is definitely worth it.