Facebook recently reported that it sees 8 billion average daily video views from 500 million users every single day. That’s 760 years of watch time each day.
If you’ve spent any time on Facebook lately, you’ve probably noticed that it’s getting harder and harder to leave the app, especially when you find yourself binge watching cute cat videos for 45 minutes.
That’s because Facebook is strategically updating its app to keep users from having to go outside of the platform to consume content.
And when it comes to videos, Facebook is doing everything it can to keep users from watching videos on YouTube.
Over the past couple of years, Mark Zuckerberg’s app has been incentivizing marketers to upload videos natively to Facebook. How? By putting videos posted directly to the platform in front of more eyeballs than video posts that link to YouTube. This simple (and pretty freaking smart) algorithm change has made Facebook one of YouTube’s largest competitors.
If you’re looking for an easy content change that will quickly yield measurable results, try uploading videos natively to Facebook instead of sharing a video link. You’ll see higher engagement and an increase in impressions. If Facebook’s going to change the video sharing game, why not play along if it’ll improve your overall reach?
The big question remains. Will Facebook push YouTube to irrelevancy? Parachute Media’s answer: not yet. For now, users utilize the two platforms in different ways. But that doesn’t mean that YouTube shouldn’t be worried. With Facebook’s recent algorithm updates, that divide is narrowing.
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