YES! You heard it right! Facebook has just given business owners the ability to leverage the prime billboard space on their pages with video!
Facebook Business Pages Add Video Option for Cover Space
Facebook has been saying for some time now how important good visuals are to a business’s ability to reach and engage audiences on the platform, but they took added measures in recent months that lead many in the industry to believe you’ll receive priority in search results and reach when you utilize their growing number of visual tools. The most recent push is for the implementation of video content in Facebook as the social media giant takes strategic steps toward taking on other video and digital TV giants like YouTube, Amazon, Netflix and more.
With a number of limited mini tv-like video series slated to release this summer on Facebook, Facebook is looking to early adopters of such use of the platform to really launch the popularity of use and encourage other adopters moving forward. It’s said these early adopters will most likely be rewarded by Facebook with broader reach and visibility of their posts and ads utilizing the technology.
So, does it surprise anyone they’re making it more appealing for business page owners and managers to implement the use of video on the pages with prime space like the business page cover?
It didn’t surprise us that they would eventually come to the release of this ability; especially after the redesign of the page several months back that moved the profile image off the cover inset and squared off to the left of the cover image while minimizing the size of the cover image space. We were surprised at the timing of the release; since we hadn’t seen any previous buzz about it. And, pleasantly surprised on how easy it was for a page manager to use.
You can select to use a video that you already have stored in your page’s video library or upload a new video, and you can reposition the video prior to publication to ensure you have the best visual placement of each frame.
More About the Video Space
Videos can be anywhere from 20-90 seconds in playtime length, and should be no smaller than 820 x 312 pixels in size according to the upload tip provided by Facebook. However, when working with your videographer make sure there is generous trim line in place for that important contextual placement.
If you’re using a video that is already stored in your Business Page video library, it will automatically be linked to the description and meta you previously input at the time of that upload. If your page visitors click on this video from the cover space they’ll be redirected to a full-view look at the video player.
This pop-up view provides a preview-ribbon of additional videos you may have uploaded to your video library, and which video is in queue to automatically start playing if they were to stay on this page. You’ll also see a hyperlinked video title right above the current video playing. This is the title you would have provided at the time of the video upload. And, when the reader clicks on this title they will again be redirected to more information about your video post.
In this view you continue to see the current video playing along with the video preview ribbon below, but you’ll also now see the video description (or post description) you may have provided at the time you uploaded the original video. If you haven’t added unique additional post content here we highly recommend you take the time to add information now.
Adding post content to your video makes the content more searchable and can provide you with added important brand messaging to the audience; helping to reinforce your brand story, strengths and benefits. This is a great space to add a brief description that either recaps the video story or enhances it with additional information. Add topical or trending tags, hashtags, hyperlinks to other pages or people on Facebook, other websites, or even tag products to this post.
To edit an existing video previously archived in your video library, just click on the three little navigation dots in the upper right corner of the video player. Then, from the drop down menu that appears, click on “Edit Post”.
From the Edit Video view you’ll see the current description, video title, and tags section, all of which you can update or add to right now. You’ll also see some additional tabbed sections: Captions and Advanced. The Captions section allow you to add video captions in multiple languages using individual SubRip files (.srt).
Closed captioning allows your video to be reached by consumers with hearing disabilities, but it also provides the ability for those who don’t have access to sound on the video play to understand what your video is about while playing. Those that need to be discreet in the work place, place of worship, library, or other public forum where using the volume would be disruptive and/or disrespectful.
The Advanced settings let you set embedding controls. Do you want this video to be able to be embed to another website page? Remember, if you select to disallow this ability, it will also prohibit you from also embedding the FB archived video to your own web pages. Of course you could directly upload the video to your website or embed from another resource if need-be.
On the bottom of the editor you’ll find the additional options to tag another person, add a location for the video, set a date and time for the video and add a product or service to the video. If you want to add a product that you hadn’t previously added to your Shop, you can use the quick add tool in this Add Product drop down. However, this doesn’t give you the editing control of the product you would have if you added it to your Shop from the start. Additionally, although you may see services here that you have in your page’s Service Showcase, you do not want to use the quick-add short cut in this drop down because it will add as a product and not a service. Again, best practice dictates you add the service to your Service Showcase tab first before trying to tag it here.
NOW! What if you don’t have any video uploaded to Facebook yet?
There are two different ways to do this.
- Upload your video to the Video Library where you can get all of your customizatio and editing done at once. Once you have your video uploaded here, then you can use the “Change Cover” button in the cover space to select from your uploaded videos.
- Or, upload your video directly through the Change Cover image tool in the cover section of the page and edit as you go.
Let’s look at uploading through the cover space.
Go ahead and click on the Change Cover button that appears when you float your mouse over the cover space.
Select the video from your computer’s hard drive. If there is an error in the length of the video or the physical size of the video you’ll be warned and prompted to edit the video again before trying to upload to this space.
If there is no problem with the size or length of your new cover image video you’ll immediately see a loading progress bar as the video begins to upload to your cover space.
Once the video uploading is completed you will see options to reposition the placement of the video in the cover space. When you’re ready, click “Next”.
In the next screen you’ll have the ability to select your thumbnail preview. Facebook automatically puts together a number of thumbnails from your video that you can scroll through and select from. When you’re ready, go ahead and “Publish”.
Remember, you want to add additional customization and descriptions to your video, so once your video is published to the cover space, go ahead and click on this cover and go to the editing tool to add your special touches as previously described in this article.
That’s it for now!
We’ll look at the additional video insights and marketing options in future publications, but for now enjoy showing off your new cover space to your consumers, vendors, social friends and more.
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