Best practices: how to maximize your impact with video on Facebook.

In May 2014 (how time flies by!), Facebook made multiple changes to their algorithm in the way it treats native video content. Mainly, the aspect that we noticed the most is the fact that videos now autostart when you scroll through your newsfeed (that is actually an idea they had from Harry Potter’s “magic images” in the Daily Prophet newspaper!). Native videos are also now favoured over other types of content (photos, text, etc.) in what users will see when they spend time on Facebook.

Mark Robertson, founder of TubularInsights (formerly ReelSEO), was recently interviewed and he presented a list of best practices when using video on Facebook.

Here are some insights of what he said in the interview:

  • Facebook video can have a great initial impact (a form of “push”), while YouTube could give you more views in the long-term, thanks to its discoverability and indexing features. In the end it all depends on your business objectives (evergreen content vs impact right now). In the end, publishing on both platforms could often be the best solution.
  • You should consider producing videos that aren’t in the horizontal format, so that your content takes up more screen real estate (see image at the top of this post).
  • You should always add on-screen text, and subtitles. 85% of video content are initially viewed without sound on Facebook.
  • Make sure you have a great thumbnail image for your video, even on Facebook.
  • Consider doing live video in the near future. Evaluate if that is relevant for your brand.

As always, the article goes deeper on these insights and covers many other aspects of video on Facebook, it really is a great article to keep handy while preparing your content strategy for 2017. And should you want some help to building and documenting your 2017 strategy, do not hesitate to reach out to us at Toast Studio!