Facebook: An Important Part Of Your Online Video Strategy
YouTube has been the dominant force when it comes to video sharing and distribution since it popularized the space when it launched in 2005 and for most people including brands it’s the first and only place they upload their video and it’s the only part of their online video strategy. YouTube has proven themselves time and again as the destination for online video and they have some very compelling stats that make them hard to ignore.
- 2nd largest search engine in the world (Only their parent company Google receives more searches per month)
- 2 billion videos per day are watched
- Every minute 24 hours of video are uploaded
- 51% of users visit YouTube weekly or more often
- Average person spends 15 minutes per day on YouTube
- There is more HD content on YouTube than on any other online video service
With stats like these it’s no wonder that most businesses and individuals rely on YouTube as their sole video distribution partner; but as these numbers also suggest the competition to get your video noticed and viewed on YouTube can be incredibly fierce.
If you are one of the brands who rely solely on YouTube for your video strategy maybe it’s time to look at expanding your strategy to include additional and complimentary distribution channels to get your videos in front of as many viewers as possible.
You may be surprised to learn that with their over 400 million users worldwide and known primarily for social networking and Farmville recent comScore data suggests that Facebook is a video platform to watch out for.
According to recent article found at AllFacebook.com the social networking giant Facebook has recently surpassed 2 billion monthly video views and according to TechCrunch the site has tripled its viewership in a only a year which places Facebook firmly in position five behind Yahoo, Fox and Vevo while attracting a larger viewing audience than Hulu, Viacom and Microsoft.
While there may be a few flaws with Facebook video such as no dedicated search results to display just video results and the embed function only appears to be enabled if you are the owner of the video these are small flaws that Facebook may be working on overcoming if they wish to become a serious competitor to Google and YouTube in the video market.
If your brand is currently using Facebook as part of its social media strategy and have already created an official page to give your fans a place to engage with the brand, incorporating Facebook video into the overall online video strategy as a compliment to your YouTube strategies may be a quick way to get your content in front of many more eyes with very little additional work.
Are you a business or brand that currently uploads video to Facebook and to YouTube? What has your success been when using Facebook video compared to YouTube? What other video sharing services do you use? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
