Creating Facebook Videos that Work

Tips for Making Facebook Videos the Sell


Today we posted an article on our other blog at Hurricane Images Inc.  Like it or not, Facebook is almost a ubiquitous presence in our lives.  And increasingly it’s become important for small businesses-- for branding, customer relations, and marketing.  Creating video for Facebook isn’t like creating video for other platforms, though. It’s a unique interaction, and if you’re going to be successful, your video should be custom built for the platform.  I'm posting the first five tips here.  If you like them, mosey on over to Hurricane Images Inc to read the next five.  And a little lagniappe.

1. Create for Facebook.  This means design your video for how people will watch it on Facebook, and upload it directly to Facebook.  Attention spans are short, 85% of videos are watched with the sound off. Facebook gives priority to their “own” content, versus Youtube links.  So design your content for the medium.  Marketing is only an expense when it doesn’t work; otherwise it’s a profitable investment.

2. Start hard.  The first three 2 seconds have to stop them in their tracks because viewers are scrolling downwards through their feed.

3. Make your visuals lively.  Seems like this goes without saying, but the visuals have to be striking.  This isn’t a medium that does well with elegance, slow moving frames, or talking heads.

4. Be unbelievable brief:  2-30 seconds is perfect.  Anything over 60 seconds is lost. What’s worse, if you bore them they’ll walk away with a negative impression.  So what if you have more to say? Create a second, longer video and link to it.  Or your website.  “Want to learn more, visit:  www.hurricaneimagesinc.com”

5. Call to action.  Tell them what they should do.  It doesn’t have to be “buy my product;” it can be as simple as “learn more.” Go to the “Edit Video” section of your video and under the “Call to Action” section, you will find various options (Learn More, Watch More, Shop Now, Book Now, Sign Up and Download).

Want more?  Read on.