The way we share and consume content inevitably shifts over time and Facebook videos have become both increasingly common and popular over the past few years. More and more, video clips are being shared between friends or through pages instead of via a written status.
Live video rolls out in the US
With this in mind, Facebook has developed its exciting new live video feature which it is currently rolling out in the US on both iOS and now Android devices. The feature lets users broadcasts live from their phone and followers can subscribe to be alerted when future broadcasts are happening.
Major publishers in the US, such as the Washington Post and USA Today, are on board with the trend, frequently posting live videos to viewers. These are proving extremely popular and Facebook has announced that people are three times more likely to view a live broadcast video than a regular video.
In fact, this new way of sharing video content is proving so popular that Facebook announced this week “that Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in News Feed when those videos are actually live”. The fact that they are live makes them highly relevant and therefore of a greater interest to the viewer.
How live video’s are ranked in the newsfeed.
Facebook uses various different signals and signs to determine where different posts will feature on somebody’s personalised Facebook timeline. There are certain indicators that can highlight how popular certain content is. For instance, Facebook says that if the sound is turned on or a video enlarged to full screen, they can tell that it has been engaged with, even if the viewer did not decide to like it.
The difference in viewing behaviours between regular video content and live video content is proving so different that Facebook are actually beginning to see them as entirely different content forms. Facebook are eager to continue learning about how this new feature is being used in order to rank posts appropriately.
This new live video feature feels very aligned with the popularity of other time-limited sharing platforms, such as Snapchat, and it will be exciting to see how it performs as it is introduced globally.
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