3 Ways You’ll Be Using Facebook Video Differently in 2017

WHAT A REVOLUTION THE INTERNET BROUGHT TO PUBLISHING.

Through the late 90s andearly 2000s, we’ve seen barriers to sharing the written word completely flattenout and disappear. Anyone with a keyboard could start a blog. Then social networks camealong and suddenly, ordinary people could become influencers, too!

Smartphones gave us theability to develop content from wherever we happened to be at any given pointand upload it to the web, where social sharing meant our words, imagesand video could be seen by hundreds, thousands or even millions of people.

Now, an executive at Facebook is predicting thatin just five years time, Facebook will be “definitely mobile,” and “probablyall video.”

CAN YOU IMAGINE A DIGITAL WORLD DEVOID OFWRITTEN TEXT?

It might seem crazy, butit’s not all that far fetched to think that video will soon take over. For starters, it’sso much quicker and easier to create video than to sit down, collect yourthoughts, write them all out and edit it into something fit for publicconsumption.

People are also far moreforgiving of off the cuff, real-time video than they are a piece of writingthat’s obviously just been dashed out in a hurry. It’s okay if the video you’reshooting is a little shaky or goes in and out of focus — in fact, that can add to theexperience and make it more exciting! People feel like they’re really therewith you.

But a sloppy piece of writing?

Well. Ain’t nobody got timefor that.

So it’s true… Facebook isvery likely headed for a textless world in the next five years, where videoreigns supreme. But the evolution has already begun! In fact, the way you useFacebook is going to be a whole lot different just one year from now. Here’sare 3 surprising ways you’ll use Facebook differently next year:

1. YOU’LL WATCH LESS, AND EXPERIENCE MORE

360° video has been peggedthe “next big thing” for years now, but 2016 is where it’s really taking off.Facebook added 360 video to the Newsfeed this May and according to NicolaMendelsohn, the Facebook executive quoted above, the network expects virtualreality to grow.

They’re definitely not alonein that prediction. Tech M&A advisory firm Digi-Capital believes the VRmarket will explode and surpass $30 billion by 2020. The Motley Fool cites Piper Jaffray asestimating that throughout 2016, Samsung will sell 5 million Gear VRs, Facebookwill sell 3.6 million Rifts, HTC will sell 2.1 million Vives, and Sony willsell 1.4 million PlayStation VRs.

2. YOU’LL BECOME MORE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT YOUR VIDEO CONTENT

Well, you’ll have to. Thecompetition for limited attention spans is only going to get tougher as videousage increases and written text declines. As Mendelsohn told the crowd in herdiscussion about video, we’ll still be writing, but perhaps the utility of ourwriting will need to change. “You’ll have to write for the video,” she said.

Already, humans have a shorter attention span than the average goldfish.Content creators are going to be increasingly challenged to produce short formvideo content that still gets the message across.

3. YOU’LL WORK HARDER AT STORYTELLING

Some industries are just waymore difficult to create social content for than others. Do you really want toshare Facebook posts about unsexy products like toilet paper?

And yet TP brand Charmingets a ton of social love, thanks to their storytelling strategy centeredaround the Charmin Bears. In a recent study of visual Facebook content, thefolks over at Convince & Convert found thatCharmin achieved the greatest boost in shareability (+585%) among studiedbrands when using its characters the Charmin Bears. Mr. Clean was anothersocially successful brand character.

Now, I’m not saying you needto rush out and create a mascot, but you definitely need to start thinkingabout the stories you’re telling and how you can do so more effectively. Smartbrands are giving audiences videos they actually look forward to seeing.There’s a story there and they can’t wait to see what happens next!

The way we use Facebook israpidly changing and will continue to evolve at an incredible clip over thenext few years. Are you ready for it?

Originally posted on Inc.com

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Edited by Larry Kim

Source: https://medium.com/the-mission/3-ways-youll-be-using-facebook-video-differently-in-2017-1f9bd4319ffa

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