The 4 New, Need-To-Know Changes to Facebook’s Video Content
It seems like every few days Facebook tweaks its News Feed in favor of video posts. And that’s great news for every video content creator out there. Yesterday’s announcement brought four major changes to the platform that you’ll need to know before you post that next multimedia message to your page or timeline.
1. Bringing Sound to Videos in News Feed
That’s right – after hearing “positive feedback” from test groups, audio will auto-play as a user scrolls past videos in their feed. But don’t worry – the sound won’t be abrupt. Facebook says the sound will fade in and out as the video passes by, and if phones are on silent, they’ll still have no sound at all. The feature does allow a user to disable it by going into Settings and switching off “Videos in News Feed Start With Sound.”
What does this mean for content creators? Your videos should most definitely have some high quality intro music or sound within the first few seconds. Otherwise, your users might scroll right past it.
2. Vertical Video
The onset of vertical video has made every traditional videographer die a little on the inside. But with the prominence of Snapchat and its ease of use, vertical video is officially a thing. So, Facebook is embracing it by giving us a larger preview of them in the News Feed.
What does this mean for content creators? Drink the kool-aid, and embrace vertical video. OK, well maybe don’t completely embrace vertical video. But definitely don’t be afraid of it. Now, more than ever, portrait video shots are acceptable, so you may want to dig through that archive of vertical videos you’ve been hiding lo these many years and let them see the light of day.
3. Watch and Scroll
You know that cool little function on the YouTube app that lets you watch the original Catch Me Outside video while simultaneously searching for her latest appearance calling out Dr. Phil? Well, you’ll soon be doing that on Facebook. According to the site, “It’s now possible to minimize the video you’re watching to a picture-in-picture view that keeps playing in the corner of your screen while you browse other stories in News Feed. You can drag the video to any corner of the screen, and if you’re using an Android device, you can keep the video playing even when you exit the Facebook app to do something else on your phone.”
What does this mean for content creators? Feel free to start creating long-form video. The whole purpose of Facebook’s last update was to elevate longer video content, and this another step in allowing people to watch for longer periods of time while also doing other things online.
4. Facebook Video App for TV
This is big. Facebook has released its very own Video app for Apple TV, giving us even more options to watch video content. According to the site, the app “will roll out soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV, with more platforms to come” and will allow users to watch videos shared by friends, Pages, top live videos from around the world, and recommended videos. It will even let you save videos to watch them later and bring up past videos you’ve already watched.
What does this mean for content creators? In Facebook’s big push toward hosting and promoting longer video content, it’s growing up a little from the viral video days. So again: create longer, compelling video content that tells a story for Facebook. With all these new features, the social media site will start looking a lot more like Netflix every day.
As stated in one of our previous posts, Facebook continues to prove itself to be a go-to platform for video content. When uploading and sharing your multimedia, don’t just post to YouTube. Be sure to get your message out there on as many platforms as possible, and don’t underestimate the power of social.
