PR pros and anyone involved in the social media space would need to live underneath a rock to miss the fact that video is and has been exploding on desktop and mobile devices. Facebook doesn’t reside under a rock.
During a Q4 earnings call earlier this year, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg reported that his 1.59 billion monthly active users and 1.44 billion mobile monthly active users were logging 8+ billion video views daily, equating to 100 million hours of video. Not a surprise then that Zuckerberg, a bit later during that call, said Facebook was considering a dedicated spot solely for video viewing. [In a BuzzFeed interview last week Zuckerberg said he’d not be surprised to find the majority of Facebook content within five years to be video.]
Not long after the earnings call Facebook made its Facebook Live video service available to everyone in the U.S. via iPhone. Differentiating Live from real-time broadcaster Periscope, whose vids expire after 24 hours, Facebook touted its product’s ability to save and archive video indefinitely on users’ Timelines, an obvious boost for brand communicators or anyone seeking to rack up large numbers of views. Recently Facebook adjusted its algorithm to show live videos higher in people’s news feeds.
Additional proof of Facebook’s full-court press for live video came last week, as it tweaked Live, giving worldwide users access, and adding Android devices to the mix. In addition it augmented Live with features, including the ability to react to videos in real time with its Reactions emoji suite and the ability to invite friends to a Live broadcast.
Minute Waltz
Perhaps a less-noticed corollary to this story is what’s going on videowise at Facebook-owned Instagram. Late in March Instagram said it was adding 45 seconds to its platform’s 15-second video time limit for all users. The 60-second limit will be rolled out for everyone during “the coming months,” Instagram said. Very much in the Facebook style of rollouts, some brands had been provided the additional 45 seconds months earlier, allowing them to preview their Super Bowl ads on the platform and compete for television’s ad dollars.
Although video might seem an afterthought on photo-dominated Instagram, Shareablee data, provided exclusively to PR News, argues otherwise. Consumer engagement with U.S. brands’ videos on Instagram was up 90% (January 1-March 15), according to Shareablee ( PR News March 21). Engagement is defined as the sum of consumer likes and comments. Indeed video posts from brands rose 68% in that period. These kinds of statistics prompted parent Facebook to boost Instagram’s video capability on the backend. Instagram videos now will load through the Facebook video portal, which is supposed to negate buffering. A nifty move by Facebook, considering the amount of competition for the video pie from brands like Snapchat and others.
All this led us to ask a pair of PR pros what the additional time on Instagram means for others in the profession.
1. That’s the Story: While Bianca Prade, SVP, SKD Knickerbocker, and Michael Lamp, VP, social & digital media, Hunter Public Relations, agree communicators were harried in the 15-second format and should welcome the additional seconds for the creative room it provides, both caution against becoming obsessed with it. “Concentrate on your brand’s goals and its story…not the 60 seconds,” Prade says.
Adds Lamp, “Don’t think you have to post on Instagram immediately just to take advantage of the 60-second accessibility.” This is not the time to “get too excited…and start sharing longer videos just because it’s available.”
The reality is with the 60-second format eventually available to everyone, “there will be more competition…and people will be judging (videos) more critically,” he says. Prade agrees. “On a platform that innately appeals to our short attention spans, brands will need to work to create videos…that will keep viewers engaged,” she says. “From professionally shot videos to interesting animation, brands will need to incorporate whatever elements are necessary to encourage Instagram users to tune in for the full 60 seconds and prevent them from scrolling right past the video.”
2. Low-Cost Is Fine, Too: Prade quickly adds, though, that while professional video looks great, “the most important thing is content and the story…we’re all on our mobile phones” and shooting video with them, when necessary, is acceptable. In addition, budgets need not be sky high to get a near-professional-looking video today, she says.
3. Do Your Research: Lamp advocates a measured approach to using the additional time. The first thing he advises is for brands to look seriously at their existing creative on Instagram’s “big brother platform Facebook” which has allowed longer video for a while “and see what’s worked best there.” Find out what the appetite of your consumers is and the types of messages they are willing to receive from you, “what’s the best way to attract them.”
4. Mind the Gap: While you’re investigating that content, Lamp says, take particular note of the drop-off rate (please see sidebar below). “Both Facebook and YouTube give really nice analytics about where people stop watching. So if you’re looking at 60-second video (on Facebook or YouTube) and people stop watching after 25 seconds, you might want to consider whether or not you want to put it on Instagram at the full 60 seconds or edit it to 30 seconds,” Lamp says.
5. Decision Time:Until now, Instagram has been “a peg” in a longer story for brands, Lamp says. Brands previously used short videos on Instagram or Twitter to get consumers to move to another site, possibly Facebook or a corporate website, to see a longer version of the story. With the 60-second limit, however, “Instagram could become a brand’s one-stop shop,” so consumers don’t have to be directed to other sites to hear a brand’s full message, Lamp says.
6. The Fun Stuff: The immediate payoff of 60 seconds for communicators will be a larger window to allow consumers to look inside brands as well as behind the scenes. “From rallies to panels and speeches,” brands “partake in a wide range of events,” Prade says. “60 seconds of footage will give organizations the opportunity to provide meaningful coverage of these events on Instagram.”
She also sees political candidates on the campaign trail taking advantage of augmented time limit. “Similar to the way candidates are now using Snapchat to document their behind-the-scenes lives on the campaign trail, politicians can now provide meaningful insight into their day-to-day, which we wouldn’t necessarily see on the news.” In addition, long-form Instagram video may help voters feel a more personal connection to candidates. “It will play a part in the quickly changing campaign landscape that has been a result of social media.”
Live Events, PR and 60 seconds
Lamp believes 60-second video will allow brand PR pros to “leverage live events much better…you couldn’t do that in 15 seconds…at most you could show a quick clip of the room and say “Wish you were here,” he says. Now you can “do a legitimate sit-down” during an event with an executive or a celebrity. These videos could be shared with consumers and editors, he says.
The one-minute length also allows for more fully realized episodic content. “I see brands as publishers, possibly creating webisodes and sequential experiences with episodes” on Instagram. “How about a new episode every Monday night?” he muses. Importantly, if communicators paired that creative with the sequential targeting of Facebook you could make sure people were aware of each episode, he says, noting Facebook and Instagram “are united on the backend from a targeting and media perspective.”
It will be interesting in 6 to 8 months to see what brands’ average video length on Instagram is, Lamp says. “Remember, the 15-second video of a sizzling hamburger will still be valuable to some brands…not every video should be 60 seconds.” The 15-second limit allowed brands to dimensionalize a product; 60 seconds will let them dimensionalize a brand’s story, he says.
Why Drop-off rates matter with video
- Fools Rush In: Don’t rush to post a 60-second video just to show that “we get it.”
- Decide What Works Best for Your Brand: Some brands can tell their stories in 30 seconds, others need 60 seconds or longer. Look to previous videos for insight.
(see above). - 3-Second Violation: Be careful when looking at drop-off rates. On Facebook, there are two metrics used to calculate video ROI. The default metric is on a 3-second threshold, which can mislead. Lamp notes that in the Facebook environment video autoplays, is muted and activates “whenever you hover over it on your mobile device.” So you could in theory be thumbing through posts on your mobile and something in the real world attracts your attention. You pause your thumbing and look away from your phone. Meanwhile the video is playing for several seconds and Facebook is going to report that as a view. “In reality there’s been no impactful branding there.” The other metric is 98% Completion-View, where the viewer has watched most of the video. It’s best to report both metrics, as together they’ll provide a better assessment of response to video content.
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