(Facebook) Watch This Space – Really- Watch It!
Well, in case you hadn’t heard yet and as per usual – things are changing in the social media world on an almost daily basis. The latest big change in Facebook came yesterday when Facebook rolled out Facebook Watch internationally.
It hit the USA last year and some of us have had Facebook Watch for a while – but for most people – you may not even have it yet, or know what it is even if you do have it.
Check your phone. If you open FB and you have got Watch you will have a little Blue TV screen with an arrow on it – which you will find either by clicking on the 3 line icon on the bottom right or in the middle of the screen at the bottom, or both.
OK, so now we have established whether you have it or not. The question remains……
What IS Facebook Watch?
Well, in a nutshell, it is Facebooks attempt to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime video, TV, YouTube Originals, even its own IGTV. It’s all about long-form video – and not just the stuff your average user or business on Facebook creates. There are programmes and series that have been and are being developed for Watch. Watch will also show videos from people you follow and other stuff it thinks you might like.
Make no mistake – Facebook is after more ad revenue with this endeavour.
So Why Do I Need Another Place To Watch TV?
Good question.
Well, Facebook has put some thought into how to make this different. First off, you can start a ‘Watch party’ in a FB Group. What this means is you can invite your friends/customers / whoever – to watch the video with you, live as it were! And advertisers will be able to buy pre-roll and mid-roll ads – like on YouTube (talk to me if you don’t know what that is). We will have to wait and see how it takes off, so far in America, the response has been underwhelming – with lots of people watching once and then not returning.
Meanwhile an Update On Posting Strategies
You may have heard me harping on about the decrease in reach after Facebooks algorithm change earlier in the year. Well, as a direct response to it showing your stuff to fewer people and prioritising advertising in your news feed, the top 20,000 pages on Facebook posted an incredible 8.1 million times in the second quarter of 2018, up 24% from the first quarter.
In plain English, that means they post 4-5x a day. Some posting up to 80 – yes you read it right – 80 times a day. That’s a Twitter strategy, not a Facebook strategy in my opinion.
If you’re worried your content is getting lost in the deluge, you would be right.
But don’t worry about it – because the engagement on those pages posting multiple times a day is not increasing. In fact, page engagement is down 50% and post engagement down 65% (ref Buffer).
The main reason for this – as I have always said, is not the increased competition or event the improved quality of the content No – it’s that Facebook is prioritising advertisers over non-advertisers.
So, Do I Need A Facebook Page?
Well, the answer to that is yes – unfortunately, you do. There are 3 very good reasons why you need an active Facebook Page.
- You cannot have an ad account without a Facebook Page – and you NEED an ad account
- If people look for you on Facebook and you do not exist, Facebook creates a ghost page. People can leave reviews on this page even though it is not real and you can’t do anything about it – you don’t control it. It is not your page! It also looks a bit shit – so people will think you’re a bit shit. Sorry – that’s how it rolls. Imagine looking up a company on Google to find they have no website! How shit do THEY look? It’s the same for any social media website. And if you have a page and it has 3 fans and no posts – well that’s just as bad, or worse – then not having one at all. Did I make the point?
- It’s a reasonable tool to use when growing a group (which DOES have some real value). But you have to have a strategy around that too.
Not my usual meandering Blog content – but I thought I would keep you up to date re the new stuff at Facebook.
Hope you found it interesting. Feel free to comment or let us have your thoughts about “The Facebook”. And if you need any help then email me on carole@carolefossey.com or hop on over to join the https://www.facebook.com/strategysocialmedia/Strategy Social Media Facebook Page where there are occasional opportunities to join the secret secrets, where you can learn all our ninja sectrets!
