This is the third installment of a series where we spell out the use of video in social media marketing. William wrote about Instagram last week!
I’m about to blow your minds. Every day, Facebook users gobble up 100 million hours of video content. I’ll wait while you recover from that fact…
Facebook video for business is a should be a no-brainer if you’ve been following the progression of the platform over the years. I would be remiss to mention that Facebook has about a billion daily users worldwide, but all the same, Facebook is big business when it comes to communicating with video.
Why? How? Well it turns out, people hate reading. Slate muses that before even ending the first sentence of their story, 38% of the readers had already bounced. Facebook has written algorithms that ensure that if you are posting video, you go straight to the top of the page. As a matter of fact, if you’re using live video on Facebook now (OMG I love it) you’re really not even seeing the full benefits of Facebook today.
Most of us already know that YouTube is really the king of video, but let’s remember that we’re talking about infliential marketing in this post. Personally, I feel like YouTube is a cesspool of garbage, but that’s my opinion regarding the content that populates the channel. But I digress.
Your personal feelings about Facebook aside, they have made some incredibly large steps in becoming the key to how your viewers consume and digest video content. Here are five ways they are going to eclipse YouTube in the next few years.
1. Foresight into Video
The number one reason that Facebook is going to become the king of video is that Zuckerberg and his team have, and have always had, incredible foresight. Google was wise when they purchased YouTube back in 2006 for a measly, by today’s standards, $1.65 billion. Consider that Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion and offered Snapchat $3 billion in cash only to be turned down, and you’ll understand how the economics of social media have changed in ten years.
So. What do Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube all have in common today? You guessed it! Video. And three of those four have either been acquired by, had offers from, or or are themselves….Facebook. Foresight. Boom.
Don’t be shortsighted in your Facebook marketing campaigns. Video is your friend!
2. Dollah’ Dollah’ Billz Y’all
This isn’t pocket change. Ultimately, the race to being video king is going to be won by the guy with the most shekels in his or her pocket. Google is an innovator and has invested kajillions of dollars in the development of cellular telephones, streaming services, internet infrastructure, the list goes on. The difference is instead of being a jack of all trades and a master of none (okay, that might not be fair, but it’s an expression) Facebook knows exactly what its goals are and they are going to use their full weight to make sure things get accomplished. Case and point: the implementation of live video.
3. Understanding the Consumer
Facebook has been the leader in figuring out its consumers since the beginning of time. Basically, it’s because we tell them everything about ourselves so they know we are excellent targets for x, y, and z advertising campaigns. Because I like photography, I get ads for colleges with photography programs and camera makers almost as often as I get ads for business software (because I also like business). Not only does it uniquely track your every move, but it’s also serving up ads with video in them at a much higher rate than standard static advertising, which means you get an advantage when marketing to folks on Facebook with video.
Also, you’ll see that Facebook is using re-marketing, so the latest items you’ve visited on Amazon will sometimes show up in your feed, which for most people is pretty annoying, but for folks like me who are in marketing (and have horrible undiagnosed ADD) it’s pretty awesome.
4. Sponsored Content
I remember when I first joined Facebook asking myself, How the heck do these guys make any money? As time progressed, it became pretty obvious. Today, Facebook’s sponsored content gives you the most bang for your buck when it comes to advertising. You can spend as little as a dollar a day, which is short money even if you don’t have a budget. A white paper released back in 2015 by Marketing Sherpa says that inbound marketing on Facebook through organic and sponsored traffic could yield as much as 450% ROI. Are you serious?! Hey, it’s on the internet, so you know it must be true. Seriously though, the white paper is a good read, as far as white papers go, anyway.
Sponsored content is here to stay and it’s the number one way that social media video marketing is going to change the way the world is advertised to forever.
5. Algorithms
You know that kid you used to stick in his locker in high school? He’s making $250k a year writing code so that your videos show up on Facebook before stuff that isn’t half as cool as your video. If you don’t know what an algorithm is, you’re really missing out. Google defines an algorithm as a procedure or formula for solving a problem. What was Facebook’s problem? People didn’t have enough video in their lives, so they decided to change that. Now your video is valuable as all get out, so let’s make some video together!
If you’re thinking about doing a Facebook Ad campaign, here are a few things to think about:
- Include Video – always always
- Sponsor Your Content
- Share Like Crazy! Get your friends to share! Get your mom to share!
Social media video production is only part of what we do every day. I can say with certainty that producing more content that Facebook is going to love is in our Facebook marketing strategy and will be for a very long time. We would love to help you produce engaging, exciting video that can be used across the board in your social marketing.
