Video is King

(3 minute read)

On average in the US 18-34 year-olds spend 30 hours per month on social media, and 26 of those are on Facebook. Scrolling through your Newsfeed lately on Facebook, you may have noticed an influx of videos automatically playing as you scroll by. Although silent until you click on them, it catches your eye amongst bland statuses or still images. Facebook is training us to expect video as the new top communications method.
 
At the annual F8 conference this year, Zuckerberg emphasized video, particularly live video, as an initiative of Facebook and included plans for 360 degrees and virtual and augmented reality.

The Newsfeed algorithm has been reformatted to give higher preference to video, especially if posted natively on Facebook. Soon the social platform will be able to automatically tag people in the videos. Profile pictures now have the option to turn into short videos, created right on Facebook or with videos apps such as Instagram’s Boomerang, Vine, etc. 
 
Facebook Live is the latest push on video allowing users to live-stream video, applying filters similar to those on Instagram, and viewers to comment and “react” to the video using a set of 6 “Reactions” in real time. Zuckerberg explained in his F8 keynote that comments are eight times more frequent on live than regular video and viewers watch live video three times longer. 

To make things even more aligned, any camera is able to stream to Facebook Live now- even a drone. Facebook released the API for the live-streaming video feature, allowing developers to build live Facebook video right into their apps. 
 
Looking towards the future, if live video is Facebook’s current phase, then artificial intelligence and virtual reality look like being big parts of the next. From social media platform to fully developed media company, Facebook has big plans to connect the world through video.