Facebook video strategy [2021]

Facebook has managed to establish itself as a leading player in the world of online video, but as with so many aspects of marketing on Facebook, the best strategy for promoting on video on the platform changes every year. Here we look at some Facebook video best practices for 2021.

Guest post by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0

Facebook has led the charge to take over as the king of online video, but while that hasn’t happened, it has settled into a groove of being a reliable host for videos. That said, while Facebook provides a somewhat different audience from YouTube, the strategy for posting videos has changed almost every year. A new report from Social Insider provides an insight as to the best practices on the platform and helps us form a viable Facebook video strategy for 2021.

The Findings And Strategy

As with all reports, we find that some things have changed from last year while others remain surprisingly consistent. Here are some findings along with the strategies to make use of them.

• Pages with less than 5,000 followers benefit from videos. If you still have a small following, videos can help grow your audience really quickly, since the click-through-rate is almost 30% higher than pages with a larger following. Strategy: If you’re not employing videos on your page, do it now. Make sure that you know why you’re posting first, and have a viable call-to-action (follow me, buy now, join my list) so you get the viewer to do something.
• Video on Facebook isn’t that big yet. Even though the platform has been pushing video hard since its launch, it’s still only makes up 15.5% of all its posts. That said, that number is increasing, and videos still brings in greater engagement than any other type of post. Strategy: There’s a lot of videos on the platform, but what you post may have a better chance being discovered than YouTube. Post regularly and consistently for it to be its most effective.
• Vertical videos work best. You might want to produce a slick traditional 1920×1080 video, but people seem to really like the vertical, from the phone-style videos. This can almost double the engagement rate. Strategy: Don’t like to use your phone? No problem, most video editing software allows you to output your video vertically these days.
• Shorter videos work better. Videos that were between 2 and 5 minutes continue to get the most engagement. Strategy: Get to the point as soon as possible, and edit out all the filler to keep your videos in that time range.
• There’s still room for live videos. Live videos are growing in number, now comprising about 18% of all videos on the platform. People are more interested in raw content than videos that are polished. Strategy: Live videos that last longer than 1 hour get the most engagement. But, don’t make it longer just for the sake of hitting that mark. You still need quality content to get people interested for that long.

Facebook videos are very effective for increasing engagement, getting more followers, and raising awareness of your artist brand. You do require a Facebook video strategy to take advantage of the feature however. Hopefully, the short tips mentioned above will help.