8 lessons in Facebook video from ONA London

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Facebook icon by Jurgen Appelo on Flickr. Creative commons

One of the sessions at Friday’s Online News Association (ONA) conference on audience engagement was on Facebook video.

Here are tips and takeaways from Liam Corcoran from Newswhip and Sarah Frank from NowThis. Here are Corcoran’s notes and slides.

1. Publishers are posting more video to Facebook every month – and there’s been a growth in engagement

Corcoran shared trends discovered by diving into Newswhip’s social database.

CNN, for example, has increased its native Facebook videos from 35 shared in June 2015 to 313 in February 2016.

The Huffington Post has gone from posting 68 native Facebook videos last June to posting 302 in February this year.

2. Rules for successful Facebook video

For Corcoran, the rules are:

  • Mobile first - requires videos to be square or vertical
  • Being able to watch without sound in now a standard expectation from the viewer
  • Videos have the highest average share rate of any Facebook format
  • Videos are short

3. Facebook Live flips the rules of Facebook video on the head

Facebook Live videos tend to hold people’s attention for longer, Corcoran said.

Talking heads, not a particularly engaging format for pre-made videos, work well live.

4. NowThis has 1 billion video views a month

The success is the result of diving into the distributed model – and focusing on failures, said Frank.

5. Reporters are organised by distribution point at NowThis

Rather than beats, NowThis reporters / producers are organised around platforms. The the breakdown of expertise as follows:

  • Twitter and YouTube
  • Facebook  
  • Instagram + SoundCloud + Vine + Tumblr

A person from the insights team works with each editorial team, Frank said. That person leads on looking at the data and helping the team of producers focus on the lowest-performing videos.

6. Completion drives reach

Frank highlighted the following:

  • Facebook defaults to mute – so videos must work without sound
  • 70% of views are on mobile – so text size on videos is a consideration
  • You have 5 seconds to grab the viewer’s attention
  • Post copy counts. For NowThis shorter copy works best
  • Completion drives reach
  • Emotion drives shares

7. NowThis encourages video producers to ask questions of the video they are making

Producers are encouraged to ask themselves:

  • Would I share it?
  • Do I care about this story?
  • What’s the most compelling part?
  • What emotion am I trying to convey?
  • Will I get users to finish and share?
  • Can I tailor it for the different platforms?

8. Facebook Insights has improved – and it is now great for telling you what not to do

Focus on your failures, advised Frank, learn from what didn’t work.

Related:

5 lessons in audience development