The Unparalleled Power of Facebook Videos
It’s a truth universally acknowledged – Facebook changed the way people interact with each other forever.
It used to be this super cool new platform where you could stay in touch with your friends without actually seeing them in real life (a great tool for introverts). To continue being super cool and seemingly new, Facebook keeps reinventing itself – and now it’s evolved into a densely saturated haven of content.
The number of friends you have is not good enough anymore – it’s all about the number of followers you have. It’s about how many people you can reach – and the beauty of this network is the ease with which your content can reach thousands of people. The downside is that it’s easy for your message to get lost in the sea of information.
That’s where video comes in.
Facebook has made giant strides with video, to the point where it is in direct competition with the hive of videos itself – YouTube. For CEO Mark Zuckerberg, video is going to be front and centre for the foreseeable future. Back in 2014, he said “In five years, most of Facebook will be video.” Three years later, his prophecy is almost fulfilled.
Video posts can get a lot of exposure and so can reach a larger audience. The average video post generates 135% greater organic reach, when compared to photo posts. People spend about 20 minutes on average on Facebook; so reaching them via video is the obvious way to go.
Facebook Video turned out to be hugely successful generating off-the-charts shares, likes, views and opinions. So why stop there? The powers that be decided to take it one step further with the introduction of Facebook Live.
Live videos allow you to engage with your audience in real time. It shows your viewers a glimpse behind the scenes, making you, your company, and your product relatable. The best feature is, of course, the fact that you can answer your viewer’s questions while you are live, and that it can be viewed as a regular video shortly after you end your stream.
Celebrities in particular took to Live Streaming like ducks to water. They answer fan questions live, make announcements and show coveted glimpses into their private lives – and all this becomes fodder for the rest of us humans. When the service was launched, there was a 40% spike in their number of Facebook Live posts.
Facebook remains the world’s largest social media platform thanks to constant innovation, and insights into what its users want almost before they know it themselves. They know that we want information, and we want it fast with catchy visuals.
You might be wondering – why are we telling you all this? Why is it important to know that users watch 100 million hours of video per day on Facebook? This isn’t a shameless plug for Facebook – this is a way of showing you what benefits you can reap by adding your video to Facebook. Let your customers see your company as human beings. You need to talk to them, interact with them, connect with them – and there’s no better way to do so, than through Facebook video.