What Facebook Knows About Video
As it turns out, it’s sometimes “pay-to-play” for Facebook, too. That’s kind of nice to hear when it’s been Facebook making advertisers pay to get their content seen by even fans on the social network. Now, even it ispaying to get content created and seen. We’re talking video.
Facebook with live video, Instagram with Discover pages dedicated to video, Twitter with live streaming partnerships are all examples of how video is becoming the dominant form of communication. And the stakes are huge. So huge in fact that Facebook is paying influencers as high as $244,000 to create Facebook Live content. The big price tags are meant to draw influencers away from YouTube, Vine and Snapchat and get them onto Facebook Live. Influencers bring eyeballs. Eyeballs bring ad dollars.
All signs point to video’s presence only growing on platforms, and marketers must pay attention.
The Demand for Video
When almost every platform out there is obsessed with video, it’s a good sign, their users are too. That tells marketers that video should play more than a significant role inmarketing initiatives because it shows no sign of showing down.
The number of hours people spend watching YouTube videos alone is up 100% year-over-year. The appetite is there, and when people watch, they’re more and more turning to their mobile devices. 21% of Millennials are actually now mobile-only when it comes to watching videos. You can expect that to grow as more than half of people prefer to use their phones for tasks over their desktops.
Meeting Consumers with Sight and Sound
Video’s acceleration into mainstream digital marketing happened quickly, and marketers are particularly well poised to take advantage… if they so choose. Because consumers are turning to video more and more, marketers can deliver with content that entertains them, helps them answer research questions, informs their purchase decisions, shows them how-to’s and more. Video is malleable, dynamic and scalable.
The toughest part about leveraging video is choosing what to actually create, and that will come down to business objectives. For example, if awareness is the goal, the content should be entertaining, but if conversions are a challenge, content that addresses questions and helps in research should be a focus.
The video world is no longer YouTube-exclusive. It has some stiff competition, and as the space heats up, it’s time for marketers to get on board because video is becoming the everyday expectation, rather than the occasional content exception.