On January 11, because they want more social interaction and engagement from their users Facebook announced changes in the way they are going to prioritize their newsfeed, with person-to-person posts given higher priority than brand posts. Simply speaking, brand posts will be shown less frequently.
We’ve emphasized here before that Facebook is still an important social media platform for personal injury attorneys and other businesses, but you will have to implement changes to your Facebook and other marketing plans, in order to keep front and center.
An underrated aspect of all social media discussions is video. Even on Facebook video has exploded over the past two years, but they haven’t quite figured out what to do with it to make it work better for them and their users. Their new changes will affect the frequency that videos are shown because it is passive, i.e., not social and not interactive. Videos on public pages will see the biggest negative impact from these changes.
How to successfully use Facebook video marketing
In this article, we will show you how you can adapt and succeed with video on Facebook following their recent changes.
- Always produce high quality and high value video content. Since Facebook wants their users to interact more, you have to produce videos that generate enough interest to want the audience to engage. This means you have to ensure that your video content is relevant and important, as well as interesting. You have to subtly encourage your viewers to interact (without asking them to – that’s called “engagement bait” and you will be penalized for it). You must make your videos as valuable as possible.
- You must cultivate meaningful interaction. According to an article on Brightcove.com, meaningful interaction will get you more Facebook points. The article states, “What is meaningful interaction? For starters, interactions from your connections will get the biggest boost in the new ranking system because interacting with people you’re close to is more meaningful.”
That means that the more likes, comments and shares you get, the more your videos will be exposed to a broader audience.
The article continues, “An interesting spin on this is that the quality of and effort in the interaction also affects its rank. According to Facebook, ‘typing out a long and thoughtful reply to a friend’s post will increase the ranking of that post more than just scrolling through the Facebook feed, passively reading or watching without interacting with others.’ Ultimately, your Facebook video strategy will be successful if you can tap into your viewers’ interest and excitement for your video and get them to interact with it as deeply as possible.”
- Live video streaming will be extremely important. Even Facebook tells us this in their update. In their announcement they point out that on average, live videos on Facebook get six times more interaction. You are being explicitly told that live video streaming will be an important factor in your ranking in the newsfeed. We suggest trying a livestream for a time-sensitive event, like a seminar, or real-time news story. The key here is to create a sense of urgency which can give people a reason for seeing what you have to say first. This will help attract a captive live audience.
- Create or join a relevant group. When you become part of a group on Facebook, there is plenty of interaction which is personal and authentic. When you post a video to a group that is already interested in what you have to say, it will encourage engagement with it.
- Have your staff weigh in on your Facebook videos. Ask your staff to share your video posts with their connections and to interact with the videos. This will increase the engagement factor of your video posts and likely get you a higher ranking on the newsfeed.
No one really knows how the changes are going to play out, so to be smart and adapt your Facebook video strategy now in a way that can help you remain successful on their site. As we’ve said in previous articles here, you also want to expand into other social networks as well, including YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram.
If you have any questions about all the changes being made or need us to help you produce professional-quality videos for Facebook, let us know. We have the knowledge and the expertise.
Group Matrix Blog – February 19, 2008 – by Sharon Bowles
