Every year Facebook holds a big developer conference where they announce their newest features, updates, and tips for getting the most out of the upcoming changes. On day one of this year’s F8 Conference, Facebook unveiled a suite of changes to the way they display, surface, and otherwise support the surge in video content.

If you’re invested in the success of your brand or business on Facebook you’ll know that the individual user’s feed is Facebook actively filtered, surfacing content which is deemed relevant and engaging. With Facebook prioritizing video content as highly as they have from a development standpoint, it’s a pretty safe bet to assume that they’re also helping to prioritize video content within the user’s feed.

Our initial experiments have shown a sizable increase in organic reach and engagement for video based content over Photo, or text only posts. But hey, don’t take our word for it: Try out the new features, see what works, and adjust your strategy accordingly! If you’re not already leveraging video content I think you’ll find it can make a huge difference to your overall success!

Watch the full video here or read on for highlights to get ahead of the game:

https://www.facebook.com/FacebookDevelopers/videos/10152795634488553/

Facebook video highlights

The surge in online video (5:40)

• Mobile video will increase 14x by 2018 & 69% of mobile traffic will be video (Cisco)
• 3 Billion video views a day on Facebook (65% on mobile)
• More than half of video views on Facebook come from Shares
• Call-to-Action link at end of video can drive additional interaction back to brand
• Video tab has been completely redesigned to include playlists, driving discovery

What works well on Facebook (11:00)

• Remember the ‘sound off’ experience – many users are on mobile! Does your video still work? Is it still engaging? Does it still convey the story you’re trying to tell? Consider text overlays, animated graphics, and/or closed captioning!
• Act Fast: You have just a few seconds to capture attention, make it count!
• Consider adding a lot of motion in the first few frames – more likely to grab attention
• Know your Audience – Review Insights data to see who is interacting with your video

New Tools for Creators (16:30)
Video upload file size has been increased to 1.5 GB
Better scheduling & take down of the video
Removing a video does not remove the Insights data
Library Seeding: Upload many videos at once, without publishing

Localized Subtitles (20:00)
You can now upload subtitles for multiple locales and engage the audience more directly in their native languages. This is great if your brand is global, or looking to reach more of a global audience, as it removes the need to create dozens of additional videos for subtitle-only localization changes.

Embedded Video (25:00)
One of the biggest struggles with Facebook video has always been that it could not be shared outside of the Facebook platform. In order to view the video, a user either had to have a Facebook account, or the video had to be uploaded into another platform such as YouTube for external viewing.

That’s changed with the introduction of Embedded video. Now when you share a video on Facebook, you can use the ‘Embed Video’ option to create a code snippet which can be included in your blog posts, official website, or other rich-media platform.

This allows you to:

• Reach users outside of Facebook
• Remove the need to upload to multiple services
• Leverage the Like & Share functionality of Facebook for promote sharing of content

Additional Resources
F8 Videos, Full List
https://developers.facebooklive.com/ 

What the Shift to Video Means for Creators
http://media.fb.com/2015/01/07/what-the-shift-to-video-means-for-creators/ 

Telling Rich Stories with Facebook Video
http://media.fb.com/best-practice/facebook-video/ 

Facebook for Business
https://www.facebook.com/business/news/ 

How the Facebook News Feed Works
https://www.facebook.com/help/327131014036297/ 

Facebook Auto-Play Video (2014 article)
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/facebook-is-investing-in-video-2014-1 

Any questions, or topics you’d like to see covered in the future? Post them in the comments below and/or tweet me @kindofstrange!