Here's how to Power up your Facebook engagement with Video

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You can really power up your brand's engagement on Facebook with the compelling power of video content.

Video is really gaining traction on Facebook. An executive at the company just predicted that's all Facebook will be in five years. Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's VP of European, Middle Eastern and African operations, said at a conference last week that in five years, Facebook "will be probably all video," Quartz reported. Mendelsohn added that video is "the best way to tell stories in this world" and "helps us to digest much more information."

Mashable tell us that "Facebook Live has exploded in popularity since it became open to the public this year. Numerous attention-grabbing videos have gone up on Facebook Live, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg's recent conversation with astronauts on the International Space Station.

As GIFs, photos and moving images have become increasingly popular replacements for text reactions, Facebook has responded by allowing users to post videos as comments on the social network. "

Over 4 billion video views happen on Facebook everyday. Make the most of your video strategy with these best practices as suggested by Facebook...

Upload videos directly to Facebook

Facebook reminds us that by uploading videos to Facebook directly, you can take advantage of these two benefits:

• Your videos will play automatically in News Feed – Native videos start playing immediately as people scroll through their Feed. Videos initially play silently, but people can tap the video to play it with sound in full screen.

• Your videos will have view counts – Public videos from people and Pages will now show view counts to help people discover them.

Facebook direct upload left vs YouTube link on right

Create rich content. Make quality count.

Make sure you create great engaging video content for your audience. Make sure that the video content actually resonates.  As in any social media, Customer or Consumer Insights is your First Step in Digital Marketing with any content you create for your audience on Facebook. You can have the best video content, but is it relevant to your audience?

• Focus on quality from the first frame – Since videos auto-play silently in Feed, you should lead with imagery that will catch a person’s eye from the very beginning.

• Premiere exclusive video content – Post exclusive video content to your Page to reward them with something that they can’t get anywhere else,

• Provide context – Set context by pulling out a key quote or moment from the video as the text component of your post. This will help set expectations for the experience ahead.

Get better engagement with a video Call to Action

Use a call-to-action to invite people to visit a destination such as a website where they will find more information, watch more, or purchase something. This makes it easy for people to connect more deeply with the stories and content they love and drives referrals back to you. Examples for the call-to-action include Learn More, Watch More, Shop Now, and Sign Up.

Use the power of Tagging other pages in your video posts

Tag the Pages of people that appear in your video or that you want to make aware of your video to drive up organic reach. These people's pages will automatically "re-distribute" your video.

Learn from Video Insights

For each video you post to your Page, you can view metrics like video views, unique video views, the average duration people viewed your video and audience retention. These metrics are designed to help you learn what’s resonating with people and tune the length and content for your video audience.

Fine tune your content based on this feedback. It's incredibly useful as you go forward.

Use Facebook's APIs 

You can use Facebook's API's to upload, set a call-to-action, and get insights for Facebook videos.

The APIs make it easy for you to upload videos, read videos, set video call to action, and get video insights.

Upload Specs

As you think about sharing video on Facebook, keep in mind these recommended upload specs as shared by Facebook:

• We support almost all types of video files, but recommend using the MP4 format.
• Resolution should be 1080p or under. To optimize the quality of your videos, upload HD video.
• Although we support file sizes up to 2.3 GB, there may be longer upload times associated with larger files on slower Internet connections.
• Videos must be less than 60 minutes long. The longer your video is, the larger its file size will be. This may affect the quality of the video and the time it takes to upload.
• We also recommend Stereo AAC audio compression with 128kbps, or more, preferred.

Use Facebook Live for those special video posts

Live video is changing user consumption of news and entertainment and is further connecting TV and social media. More brands and news organizations are using live video to augment their digital reach.And, now Facebook Live is impacting the whole spectrum as a platform both for real-time storytelling and journalism. You cannot deny the awesome power of Live Video – if it's done right.

First of all, is your audience going to appreciate the Live video format? Will it add value and enhance their experience? What's the kind of live content that your target audience wants. What resolution to their need or problem will you provide with your live video? You need to plan your live 'broadcast' around that.

Read more on: 

How to use Facebook Live video like a pro. The essentials of getting it right.

People watch video on Facebook to connect with moments shared by their friends, catch up on news from the day, and much more. More than 65% of all views are happening on mobile devices as people turn to Facebook at different times and places throughout the day. Video is compelling on mobile, as well as desktop. And, video, specially when directly uploaded on to Facebook makes for winning content. Use the Power of video now.

And that's the basics of digital marketing strategies. That's 101. Please share this post with your friends and colleagues today... And do comment if you feel you want to add to this.

Read more on mobile: 5 Ways to Develop a Consumer Focused Mobile Marketing Strategy