The company's looking to become a bigger site for discovering videos
The number of videos in people's Facebook feeds grew by 3.6 times over the past year, the company says, a trend likely to grow as the company pushes deeper into video.
Facebook has gradually been encouraging more news feed videos from marketers as part of an effort to siphon ad dollars away from Google-owned YouTube. The company started letting advertisers test video ads that play automatically in news feeds in late 2013. The company has also tweaked its news feed ranking to take into account how much time users spend watching videos. That means a popular video can move higher up in a user's news feed.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees video as becoming much more prominent in the years ahead.
It's a new era for video on Facebook compared with 2008, when the site was simply hailing the ability to upload video in high definition.
Now, in 2015, Facebook users are likely to see more videos from brands and from their friends, as the company tries to become the site where people discover videos.
"We're increasingly seeing a shift towards visual content on Facebook, especially with video," the company said Wednesday in a blog post offering video growth stats and tips for how to get videos seen. The post was directed at both paying advertisers and Facebook users, including video professionals.
Since June 2014, when Facebook tweaked its news feed algorithm for video, the site has averaged more than 1 billion video views per day, the company reported Wednesday. Facebook says it has more than 1.3 billion total users.
The increased viewing activity is not just due to the algorithm change. People are posting more videos. Over the past year, the number of video posts per person has increased by 75 percent globally, Facebook said.
For successful videos, Facebook recommends that brands include exclusive video and links to related content such as retail items. The company provides analytics tools for Page owners to see how their videos perform.
The videos that do best are the ones that grab people from the start and are short and timely, Facebook said Wednesday.
Want an example? Facebook points to this video of Taylor Swift singing in her car. It's short, and it certainly grabs you. Then again, it achieves a similar effect on YouTube.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com
If the FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) sector and their measured worth are the final argument for the successful 21st Century model, then they are beyond reproach. Fine-tuning masses of algorithms to reduce human touchpoints and deliver wild returns to investors—all with workforces infinitesimally small compared to the giants of the 20th Century—has been proven out.
Marketers have made strides this year in sustainability with the number of brands rallying behind the Not Business As Usual alliance for action against climate change being a sign of the times. While sustainability efforts have gained momentum this year, 2020 is shaping up to be the year brands are really held accountable for their work in this area.
As a Marketer, the ‘Scotty from Marketing’ meme troubles me.
In this bonus last episode of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with former ANZ group general manager of marketing, Louise Eyres, talks about the importance of thinking like a customer and using intuition to solve customer painpoints.
It's a pretty interesting article to read. I will learn more about this company later.
Dan Bullock
40 staff and 1000 contracts affected as foodora closes its Australian operations
If you think it can benefit both consumer and seller then it would be great
Simon Bird
Why Ford is counting on the Internet of Things to drive customer engagement
It's a good idea. Customers really should control their data. Now I understand why it's important.
Elvin Huntsberry
Salesforce CMO: Modern marketers have an obligation to give customers control of their data
Instagram changes algorithms every time you get used to them. It really pisses me off. What else pisses me off? The fact that Instagram d...
Nickwood
Instagram loses the like in Australia; industry reacts positively
I tried www.analisa.io to see my Instagram Insight
Dina Rahmawati
7 marketing technology predictions for 2016