With 1.01 billion daily active users on it’s platform, Facebook is the world’s largest social network. Users young and old use the site as a means to connect with one another, keep in touch with friends, and more recently with the rise of Facebook video, to upload and share videos natively on the platform. Here we explore how to expand your social reach and engagement using Facebook video.

Why Shares are Important

Facebook sharing is one of the easiest ways to expand and grow your current reach on Facebook, especially since Facebook values native video more than external video links. When someone likes your Facebook page, that person — and that person alone — will get most of your Facebook page updates.

Similar to how Facebook photos are shared, when someone shares your Facebook video it shows up on the user’s Facebook timeline and is seen by all of their friends on their respective Facebook news feeds.

Similar to how Facebook photos are shared, when someone shares your Facebook video it shows up on the user’s Facebook timeline and is seen by all of their friends on their respective Facebook news feeds. To put it more simply, if someone has 1,000 Facebook friends and that person shares your video, it now has the potential to reach those 1,000 friends as well! Then, if some of them share it with their friends, it’s going to go out to even more people, giving you more and more potential to go viral.

To encourage that behaviour, you’ll want to optimize your video and posts to be as shareable as possible.

Know your Platform and it’s Features

Facebook is social media platform first, so it’s important to understand the habits of the users. Unlike YouTube video links shared to Facebook, a native Facebook video will play automatically in a video player on mute when it shows up in a news feed.

YouTube video link shared to Facebook
YouTube video link shared to Facebook
Facebook video playing automatically in a video player
Facebook video playing automatically in a video player

The habit of Facebook users is to read or watch a post then scroll on to the next post. If you’ve been on Facebook, you know how quickly one can scroll past a post. Because of this you want to be sure that your video is eye catching from frame one.

One tactic to grab your viewer’s attention is to add text or subtitles to your videos. Even when the video is playing silently on the timeline, people can get pulled in and watch the whole video unmuted. You can even tell the viewer to click to unmute the video to encourage them to continue watching.

Text or subtitles added to a video.
Text or subtitles added to a video.

Viewer Retention

Once your viewer has decided to watch your video, you need to make sure your video keeps their attention.

The most shareable videos on Facebook are ones that elicit an emotional response or share information that relates to the viewer. If your video is funny, educational or informative, it has more chance of being shared with a user’s friend-base.

Call to Actions

You’d think this would go without saying, but you’d be surprised how many people will share your video if you simply ask them to, especially if you are seeking to activate specific communities. Adding a text to your posts telling people to “Tag your Family Members” or “Share if this made you smile” will increase the chances of people actually sharing your content, instead of scrolling past it.

You’ll also want to encourage other forms of engagement as well. Asking users to like your post or leave comments can work in your favor, too. Facebook wants people to stay on Facebook, so when people engage with content, especially content uploaded directly to Facebook, Facebook wants the user’s friend-base to know about it.

Quick Tips

  • Here are some quick tips to help get you started with your next Facebook video
  • Keep It Short : Facebook video isn’t the place to premiere your 15 min short film. Keep content at around 3 minutes max as a general rule.
  • Keep It Relatable: If people relate to your content, they’ll be more likely to share it with their community
  • Repurpose Your Content: If you have videos that you’ve made in the past that still hold up today, it could find a second life on Facebook. Re-edit, upload and see the results.
  • Post in the Afternoon: Your audience may vary, but most active users are on Facebook between 1-4pm.
  • Use Instagram: Facebook owns Instagram, and Instagram allows you to upload one minute videos and share out directly through Facebook. Done and done.

In Summary

Facebook video is yet another great tool you can use to expand your social reach and increase engagement. The best way to reap the benefits of the platform is to, well, use it. Get started today and upload some video!

Ricky Anderson II is a Texas-based video producer and entertainer. He has over 10 years of experience in online video production, with an expertise in creating engaging and entertaining videos.