32 billion videos are viewed on Facebook per day. These type of posts are also getting the most engagement, interaction, and click-throughs – seems like an obvious investment, right?
If you want to get your story, tips, product or service out in front of a Facebook audience, video is undoubtedly the way to go. With Facebook constantly rolling out new features such as cover videos and 360 degree videos, the possibilities for video marketing are endless. Ready to take the plunge? Here are our top tips for making the most of Facebook video.
- Catch the audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds.
A Facebook user scrolls through their newsfeed quickly in order to take in as much information as possible. You must grab their attention quickly, in the first 2-5 seconds of the video. Facebook introduced the auto-play feature in order to catch the attention of your audience, and it’s up to you to make them want to watch more.
How can you do this? There are a number of ways:
- Use a great thumbnail. This is like the cover of a book – make it eye-catching, enticing and let the audience know what the video is about in a very small amount of text.
- You could use starters such as ‘Did you know?’ or ‘What if…’ to tease the audience and excite them. This is very effective in capturing an audience’s attention!
- On the flip side, an immediate start is always beneficial. Brands such as Buzzfeed always go straight into the video without trying to capture people’s attention. This is also a great tactic as it saves the user’s time and brings them value immediately.
- Add captions to your videos.
85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound. Auto-play means that the video starts playing immediately, but in mute-mode – this is where captions come in. Users tend to lead busy lives and are often scrolling through their Facebook feeds while commuting or in public. They aren’t going to scramble around for their earphones to watch your video, so make it as easy as possible for them with captions.
When you are uploading a video to Facebook, you can upload an SRT file for your captions. With tools like Adobe Spark and Animoto, you can add custom text overlays that look eye-catching and appealing!
- Share something unique, useful and actionable.
Modern day users crave free, insightful and useful information that they can take away and apply to their life in some way. They hate ‘fluff’, waffle, and boring information that has been used before. This is your chance to share your expertise. Our last blog post featured our top 5 video ideas for small businesses – check this out here. (James – insert a link to that blog post over the work ‘here’)
Understand your Facebook audience and their needs. Once you have established this, focus on the solution. Videos that offer a solution to a common problem are often shared on Facebook and can go very far if it is done right! Making it educational, humorous or emotional will help it resonate with your target audience and make it shareable content.
- Keep it short.
As we mentioned before, users are impatient and aren’t willing to dedicate a lot of time to watching your video. Statistically, videos up to 2 minutes long get the most engagement, and after that, the engagement level decreases. Think of it like this: The shorter the video, the larger the impact.
The best way to keep it short and sweet is to get to the point fast and avoid going into detail. If you’re making a video based on a blog post that has multiple points (like this one!), keep each point restricted to a few words. In your post, you can leave a link to the full blog post.
- Close the deal.
You have made all that effort to create a great video, or invested money into having one created for you, so why leave it at that? It’s important that you tell your audience exactly what you want them to do next, or they will just continue to scroll through their newsfeed without giving it a second thought.
If you want to encourage engagement, tell your audience to comment with their answer to an open question, or their opinion on something presented in the video. If you want more traffic to your website, you can add “Find out more here: Link” or “Read the full blog post here: Link”.
Have you ever used Facebook video? What has been your experience? Share your thoughts with us by tweeting us @visualpunch
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