Facebook Continues its Video Initiative with Latest Update: Cover Videos
While checking out your favorite business or personal pages on Facebook, you may have noticed something a bit out of the ordinary as of late. You’re not imagining moving images — quite the contrary. The always-evolving social media platform recently released cover videos, which is an option outside of the static cover photo that lives on the top of both personal and business pages.This is part of a 2017 push for more video content that Facebook announced late last year. In addition to announcing more prime visibility for businesses that post videos, the platform also announced that it will be producing original video content — similar to that of Amazon, YouTube, and BuzzFeed.
Overall, these cover videos can be a great piece of real estate for businesses to show off their latest product, service, or promotional content. There’s no denying that consumers want, even expect videos. In fact, 64% of consumers make a purchase after watching branded social videos, according to TubularInsights.Your company can take advantage of the benefits of video by switching out your cover photo to a video. This prime spot will catch your audience’s attention from the moment they land on your page.
Here are a few quick tips for cover videos on business Facebook pages:
- Recommended size of a video is 820 x 462 pixels and must be at least 820 x 312 pixels.
- Always check the video quality after upload to ensure that it’s working properly as this new feature continues to work out its kinks.
- Don’t rely on audio. More than 85% of users are watching videos on their mobile devices and may not use sound.
- Make it interesting and visually appealing.
- Keep it short. Recommended videos are between 15 and 60 seconds.
In addition, the videos are set to auto-play when someone visits your page. If you do have audio, users can control sound from the bottom right corner of the video, but they will be preset to mute, so include captions if you have voice over. Also, cover videos are expected to have the same requirements and guidelines as cover photos.
This push for more video content on Facebook isn’t going to stop anytime soon. As a result, your business should be developing a social strategy that includes the use of video content. On Facebook alone, there are many options including Facebook live, profile videos (similar to cover videos), video ads, Stories, and posts on your timeline.Prior to the launch of cover videos, Facebook released a statement, which read: “We recently started testing the ability on desktop to upload a video as the Page cover. Once a cover video has been created, video will render when people visit the Page.
By making cover video available, we want to help you create more engaging interaction and drive more rich experience for your audience by letting you spotlight your creative content in one of the most prominent space: your Page cover.”
We encourage you to give this new feature a test run. Feature your latest and greatest video content right at the top of your page to grab everyone’s attention from the start.