Video has always been the area of YouTube. It is the go to place most people go to find answers to questions to music videos. Last year Facebook fired a shot across the bow of Google and YouTube. They are revamping the video experience on the service and is going head on with YouTube.
Before the changed the video experience was lack luster on Facebook. There were many reasons why and here are a few. First,it was hard to find videos, Search hardly ever brought videos you wanted to see. YouTube let’s you put keywords in on each video. . Next, analytics didn’t show anything in depth. YouTube probably has one o the best dashboards for social media. I can find what I need, when I need it. One of the best is that YouTube shows where people stopped watching, it. It will allow you to see if videos are too long. The last one I will cover, and there are many more, is there was no way to embed videos. One of the best things about YouTube is you can host it on their site and embed it on your site or allow others to do so. The only place you could watch a Video on Facebook, at the time, was only on Facebook.
Facebook now is testing more video features.
These appear to be just on the iPhone currently but said they will be testing on Android in the coming month. The first are suggested videos. When you watch a video other suggestions will appear in your newsfeed. One really interesting thing they pointed out was they know people multi task while watching videos. This is making them consider using a floating window while you are in the Facebook app.
If you are familiar with the “Save” feature on Facebook. They are doing the same thing for Videos. You will be able to save a video for viewing later. It will be accessed under your Saved tab. Its very similar to the “Watch Later” section in YouTube. Plus this will allow you to save it to share with others as well.
The last thing they are doing is working on creating a Video Portal on Facebook. A set place you can go explore videos or find them from friends. This would be a great feature for them to implement. They are going all in on video and you definitely need a place that makes it easier to discover them. At this time they aren’t saying if it will be set up by category or keywords. This part of the service is still in planning from what I have read from Facebook.
Tools for Publishers
Video Matching Technology – This has always been a double edged sword for me. I firmly believe we should respect copyright of others. They are working on this to keep people from uploading other peoples content. I believe this is definitely a problem on the site. However, if you have something that is Fair use in your video it should not be taken down.
Page Insights – Facebook has updated the insights to show you 30 second views, total views and Popular videos. I would love to see more in depth video manager like YouTube. It can give you more in depth info on a per video basis. Its a step in the right direction for the insights.
