Video May Save Your Business from Facebook Apocalypse

The recent announcement by Mark Zuckerberg explaining the new algorithm change has businesses freaking out and extremely concerned their marketing efforts may become a bit strained.

In case you missed it, Facebook will begin to prioritize updates that “spark conversations and meaningful interaction between people.” This means that the algorithm will prioritize updates from friends and family versus business updates or news articles.

Many are looking at it as the coming marketing apocalypse, but fear not!

Facebook explains that it will rank updates that “inspire back-and-forth discussion in the comments and posts you might want to share and react to.”

“As we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.”

While there are several things businesses can do to improve their chances to continue to show up in their followers’ News Feeds (10 Tips for Business Pages) incorporating video into a marketing strategy will become even more crucial to marketing success.

During the Facebook Q3 Earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg offered a few tips for marketers unsure how to progress their strategies.

“Over the next three years, the biggest trend in our products will be the growth of video.”

Video may be your business’ lifeline to continued success with marketing on Facebook.

Video is No Longer an Option

Videos are watched the most on websites and Social Sites. 500 million videos are watched daily on Facebook. People viewing videos that are interesting or meaningful are more likely to share the video with their networks, which improves the visibility and brand recognition. Thus, businesses will be compelled to create shareworthy video.

Additionally, the more interaction and engagement the video update generates, the more likely future updates (video or not) will meet the algorithm criteria (which means future content may continue to show in the News Feed.)

Videos Need to be Significant

Videos must be meaningful to your business and message. There are specific types of videos that can be created to generate interest.

The top four most popular types of videos include:

1. Explainer Videos
2. Product Demos
3. How-To (Instructional) Videos
4. Testimonials

Explainer Video

An Explainer Video is a short, fun and informative video about products or services that is usually 2 to 3 minutes long…Because it is light, entertaining and fun to watch it captures and retains viewers more effective than just text or boring videos.”

(Watch our video about Explainer Videos)

Almost 50% of internet users look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. So, providing a video that explains what your business does or what your products do will not only help your business on Facebook, it should help your business generate new leads or purchases.

4 times as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

Product Demos

Product Demo Videos are demonstration videos that show how to use a product. 4 out of 5 consumers believe that demo videos are helpful. In addition to providing information on how a product works, it is also used to promote the purchase of the product (think late-night infomercials.) Watching how the newest copper pan can cook so easily is designed to inspire a purchase.

How-To Videos

How-To videos are instructional videos that show how to do something with the product, whether it is how to cook with a copper pan, draw with the pens a business sells, or knit a blanket with the yarn or knitting needles for sale on the site (or in the store.)

On YouTube searches for how-to videos were up 70% just over 2 years ago and there is over 100 million hours of how-to video content on the site.

Testimonials

Testimonial videos are either a compilation of reviews left by satisfied customers or influencer videos where someone is endorsing products or services.

Brands that inspire a higher emotional intensity receive 3x as much word-of-mouth as less emotionally-connected brands. The same academic study also found that highly differentiated brands earn more positive word-of-mouth.

Plant Your Flag in the Feed

Stay relevant and meet the criteria of the new algorithm by creating engaging video content to maintain your updates place in your followers’ News Feeds. Produce meaningful content and inspire engagement and interaction with video.