Facebook Video Marketing – The 2016 Hustle

As of January 2016, that figure translated into more than 100 million hours of video watched per diem (according to Zuckerberg).

Sharing and engagement rates for video are off the charts, the numbers have been growing year over year, and it’s only getting easier to find, watch, and upload video.

The writing is on the wall – video is one of the best ways for marketers to use Facebook. And thanks to a slew of new features that were just introduced at Facebook’s annual global developer conference F8, that writing just got even bigger.

F8 went off with a high definition, real time streaming bang. Two days of new products, tools, demos and speakers – including Zuckerberg himself – introduced a wide host of innovations, but the strongest themes (and the most exciting advancements) were about video sharing.

Videos for profile pictures, live video streaming, new tricks for streaming events, and enhancements to the searchability and shareability of videos abounded.  It’s all great news for users and marketers alike, so without further ado, here are some of the exciting developments in video – both unveiled recently and during F8.

Live API

Facebook’s Live API is a tool allowing custom tweaks and enhancements to video streaming that will allow developers to create amazing interactive user experiences. Boasting features like camera switching, instant replay, on-screen graphics and special effects, Live API can mix multiple video and audio sources and, by combining it with Graph API, you can also gain access to comments and reactions, reflecting viewer engagement in real time – a crucial tool for analysing the success of campaigns.

Video Search

Facebook recently launched an entire tab dedicated to searching and sharing videos in its mobile app.  Search by topic, find videos as they’re broadcasting live and interact with them in real time, and easily post live videos yourself.  For marketers, this is another big reason to post great video content and experiment with live video.  In the past, users could only find your videos by stumbling across them in their busy newsfeed, but now they’ll be easy to find by anyone searching your topic.

Video Profile Pictures

In 2015, Facebook launched the Profile Expression Kit.  Currently in closed beta, it will allow users to upload a video up to 7 seconds long and use it as a profile picture.  It’s a huge opportunity for businesses and marketers to stand out and get their personality across with a powerful first impression. Imagine being able to unleash your full brand identity and prove your status as a frontrunner in social media marketing right from your profile pic!  Good branding is all about showing rather than telling, and your Facebook profile picture will now become a better platform to do just that.

At present, the video must be uploaded using a handful of apps (Boomerang by Instagram, Lollicam, BeautyPlus, Cinemagraph Pro by Flixel, Lollicam, MSQRD, and Vine).

Publishing Video Across Multiple Pages

The crossposted video app is another exciting new tool, which will further improve the reach of your vids – and enable you to better track performance. You can now share videos across multiple pages in one fell swoop. Crossposting allows an admin of multiple pages to schedule and publish videos to multiple pages at the same time, speeding up the process and enabling videos to stretch across different audiences.

Reaching your potential customers is all about understanding their behaviour and giving them what they want. It’s about storytelling and connecting. Fast, entertaining, relevant and convenient. Do we think Facebook’s new video sharing apps are powerful marketing tools? Hell yeah!

Stay Tuned for More Good News

As exciting as F8’s video announcements were, the future of film on Facebook is looking even bigger.  We’ll be keeping a sharp eye on the developments, filling you in, and using them for ourselves, so listen (or should we say watch?) for more updates.

But before we go … a few exciting non-video developments.

Ok we can’t help but mention a few exciting non-video developments before we go:

Facebook Messenger Bots are now available to all businesses.  Creating automated responses to FB messages and personalised greetings to those who message your business is just the beginning –  messenger bots will provide services from subscription automation to customized communications to e-commerce purchases.

The launch of the Account Kit allows your audience to perform app signups and other opt-ins without sharing information from their Facebook profile.  Hello, even easier customer access.

And now, if you’ll excuse us, we have some filming to do. Til next time!