GINGERBEARD News - Facebook Cover Videos
Since the beginning of the year Facebook has started to test and roll out Facebook cover videos for businesses. And as of the 6th June Facebook report that up to 80% of their business pages now have access to the feature. So as they're finally available to the majority, today we're talking all about it!
Firstly, if you've just headed over to your Facebook page only to find that you don't have the feature installed, then don't panic, Facebook will continue to roll out this feature in coming weeks - so keep tuned to your page. In the meantime, read through this article and you'll be in the know as soon as the feature comes to you.
Why The Change?
I guess the first question is why. Why is Facebook switching over from photo to video for their page cover space?
When the change started to come through a Facebook spokesperson said:
"We’re always looking for ways to help businesses create more engaging experiences and drive more rich experiences for their audiences."
"By making cover video available, we want to help you create more engaging interaction and drive more rich experience for your audience by letting you spotlight your creative content in one of the most prominent space: your Page cover."
Facebook recognises that users react and engage better with video. The statistics around video show that it's important to Facebook because of its users shift in viewing content. Users of the platform are watching more and more video.
- Videos on Facebook stand at 3.8 billion daily views (Nov-15) this was double the amount 6 months earlier.
- Video posts have increased by 95% in the US (75% internationally) from Jan-14 to Jan-15
- 100 million hours of Facebook video are watched every day... which is big, but YouTube still outranks it at around 650 million hours. With more video changes planned for Facebook (more news on that soon), we wonder how long before Facebook catches up with King YouTube.
So We've Got The Why, How About The How?
If your page has the function, installing a new video is easy, just log into your Facebook business page and head up to the cover image. From there just click the change button in the top left - just like uploading a new picture.
This new feature will allow you to change to a video - this could be something that you are uploading fresh, or something you already have on your page.
Here Come The Tech-Specs!
A few things to note - the video itself will loop so needs to be somewhere between 20-90 seconds in length, it won't have sound autoplayed, but the user can turn it on and the video will be displayed in an 820x312 pixel dimension. And this will be the biggest challenge for businesses.
Whilst you can upload a video you already have, we'd highlight that you'd want to check that your images are not cut off or distorted in any way. Whilst you might have a great video of your business, you may find that people's heads are being chopped off if you aren't careful.
Round it Out
This change is small but significant for businesses and business owners on Facebook. This new option in this prime space allows us further real estate to use to build our brand image and potentially advertise our business in a prominent space.
There would be arguments that only people who head to your page will watch the video, and whilst this is correct (unless they happen to see it in their feed when you change it), these are people who are generally already more engaged with the brand - they are on the page because they want to know more. Consider your Facebook page more like your website - those who are invested in the brand head there to find out more, this means that the 90-second video option which normally would be considered as a longer piece of content for social media, could well be a great way to communicate with your followers and potential clients.
As discussed in the video above, we'll be testing out this new feature over the coming weeks and re-editing promotional videos that we've delivered in the past for Southern CrossFit, Kirby Swim, RIC Publications, Matters of Taste and Clean Ride into Facebook cover videos.
It will be very interesting to see how businesses, and indeed content creators like ourselves react to the change because there is a massive amount of potential and options here. We're already imagining what uses bigger brands will get up to, what media companies like ours could do and what everyday businesses like real estate agents, gyms, agencies of all types ... well pretty much anyone with a business Facebook page could use the space for.
Anyway, we should probably actually get around to editing our own Facebook cover video! If you'd like one for your business page, you should think about getting in touch. We don't as yet have a package for it... but our brains are already whirring!
And as ever, if you're interested in finding out how video could communicate better with your potential clients and give you better tools to sell your brand, product or service then feel free to get in contact!
Until next time, beard out!
