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The rapid rise of online video over the last decade means that businesses not taking advantage of it for marketing purposes are missing out on a lot of traffic. According to a Cisco Global IP Traffic forecast, “IP video traffic will be 79 percent of all consumer Internet traffic in 2018, up from 66 percent in 2013.”
YouTube is still seen as the main player for online video services although Facebook has quickly established itself as a major player in the brand marketing segment. As of November 2014, after last year’s boom of premium ad options for native videos, Facebook has surged ahead of YouTube video posts. Following the proliferation of social networks sharing has become as prominent as searching. YouTube introduced easy video upload yet a lot of content users do not know about will surface through social networking.
The rise of the ubiquitous viral video, attributed to YouTube, is also the result of sharing via Facebook and Twitter. Marketing strategy for online video content should consider the nature of the video and ultimately its potential lifespan. Video on YouTube is longer staying, with more in-depth content users will actively search for. Facebook’s focus is on short and superficial, relying on exposure through social buzz; once out of the news feed exposure dramatically decreases. Choosing your online video marketing strategy platform should reflect the video content generated by your brand for the right brand focus.
Facebook’s main advantage is in the nature of the platform: extensive and constantly rising social user base. Preferential treatment is given to its native videos when determining what users see in their feed, together with the recently introduced autoplay video content in news feeds within its App Install ads.
YouTube on the other hand is investing into community of creators of staying quality. Something to keep in mind about YouTube is that, unlike Facebook where content is tied to the platform, link sharing is possible wherever your online coverage is supported.
One study examining the inherent differences of Facebook video and YouTube links discovered that although there are 8 times as many YouTube links shared compared to Facebook, engagement rate for Facebook is 40% higher with twice as many comments than YouTube. Deciding which platform fits your needs doesn’t necessarily have to be about exclusivity as both can be used despite their seemingly divergent focus.
Michelle Phan, covered in our recent post, is a user whose content fits the YouTube model. She also advertises new videos on Facebook to direct her audience to YouTube using call to action at the end of a short Facebook video. With this approach she has gained positional advantage of both platforms to promote content and drive YouTube views with different content to fit Facebook posts for more efficiency.
BuzzFeed is an example of another approach with brand content that falls right between both platforms. BuzzFeed’s strategy is to maximize views and exposure by using both platforms to get content up and to as many people as possible. This approach also takes into account that each platform has different ways of content discovery. Also in BuzzFeed’s case preference among its users for one platform is not necessarily constant; a big hit on Facebook can be a flop on YouTube and vice versa.
In the fast changing online marketing environment it is important to implement the right strategy for your needs to get ahead of the competition. If you are interested in collaborating with a professional video marketing company we want to hear from you so that we can assist you in developing the right product for your needs. If you are interested in having a collaboration with a professional video marketing company, please do not hesitate to contact us!
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