Facebook bets on online video right now – and that seems to be a long-term strategy of the platform. It currently got into a huge fight with YouTube over views, and even introduced an auto view option that led to the introduction of the YouTube video accusing Facebook of stealing billions of views – and that video went viral.
In November Facebook hit 8 billion of views daily thanks to that.
Snapchat gets up to 2 billion of views a day, and over a billion of YouTube users watch hundreds of millions of hours on the platform daily, according to YouTube official statistics.
These numbers look great, don’t they? That reach and access to followers is every marketer’s dream.
However, once you try to use online videos to your benefit, you may find that is not as easy as it seems from the first glance. Why, will you ask? Well, because almost every website and platforms is keen on creating something of its own, which results in the requirements being so drastically difficult, that you cannot possibly understand them, let alone remember.
Does it start playing automatically? What are the metrics? Where do you get the analytics? Is the sound automatically turns on?
That’s enough questions to make someone head spin.
So Martin Beck from Marketingland decided to sum up everything there is to know about the online videos to make their use easier.
Here’s the chart he came up with:
Now that you’ve seen the chart you might be even more confused because you need to know how to read it. Which at the moment doesn’t seem like quite an easy task.
But worry not, for you will get a detailed instruction on how to use this chart below.
Here is what you need to know:
1. How to get a view
You’d be surprised, but you get a view not only if the person watches the whole video. Few seconds is enough for a view to be registered.
Which is a relief, especially for those with videos longer than 2-3 minutes – those videos rarely are viewed in full, unless they are unconventionally unique, interesting and exciting.
Even then, last few seconds usually remain unviewed.
2. What is the auto-play
We can explain it on the example of YouTube. Back a few years it didn’t have an auto-play option, so you needed to click on the video to start viewing it.
Now those days are gone, and the video starts playing as soon as you open the page. Many platforms use this trick to get more views, including YouTube and Facebook.
3. What is auto-loop
Auto-loop means that video starts playing again if you remain on the same page after watching it.
4. Audio state
That concerns the sound – whether it is turned on by default.
5. What is the maximum length
Requirements on different websites can vary a lot. For Twitter you get 30 seconds, whilst on YouTube you get more freedom.
6. Can you embed the video
On this option depends whether you can share the video outside the platform itself. Most websites have this option on.
7. Are view counts public or closed
Here you have two options – either every visitor can see the amount of views, or only owner or admin of the page has this privilege.
8. Metric
How easy is the access to the websites statistics and can you view the results your video is getting.
With this chart the art of uploading videos to different platforms will become less complicated for you – at least we hope so.