How Will Facebook's New Video-Ranking Affect Your Small Business?

Written by Claire Archer-Davis | May 16, 2019 3:33:40 PM

Facebook has a reputation for constantly tweaking the way advertising content gets ranked, so it comes as no surprise that many small business owners are now becoming concerned over how the latest video-ranking updates will affect their social media marketing efforts.
What the latest tweaks to the News Feed algorithm mean is that Facebook is now coming out in favour of video content creators that make videos that last longer than the average watch times and providing more information.
Another thing that Facebook is doing is to highlight those videos that are generating more repeat views. Popular videos are obviously an effective way to attract and keep people on the Facebook platform, so of course, they are going to more heavily feature popular videos.
From a small business owners viewpoint, it would be worth looking back through your video collection to see which ones were the most viewed and work out what the hook was that kept people coming back to re-watch your video.
If you can work out what attracts most views then see if you can recreate a similar theme with your follow-up videos. The downside of the Facebook video tweak

Now for the negative bit…..

Facebook is also closely watching out for video content posted on pages they consider to be unoriginal or is actually repurposed content used for something other than it’s original aim.
Pages found displaying such video will be penalized by Facebook by limiting access and visibility to the page and also even limiting the monetisation options for the page owner. Obviously, not great for a small business page!

Facebook actually did issue an announcement about their video-ranking plans and then followed up with this notification:

“Last year we announced that we would limit distribution for unoriginal or repurposed content from other sources with limited or immaterial added value — as well as demote video content from Pages that are involved in sharing schemes. We will more strongly limit distribution and monetization for this kind of content.”

So what does all this mean?

Basically, if you are a small business operating a Facebook page properly, there is little to worry about. Good pages will be rewarded for actively building ongoing loyalty, posting unique and original video content and attracting consistent views.
If you are worried about your business page then there are steps you can take to help to comply with the new Facebook video-ranking tweaks and also give your page a great boost of fresh energy at the same time!

Building loyalty

First and foremost, Facebook wants to see pages showing video content that attracts repeat viewers. They like loyalty and seeing people coming back to pages to pick up more fresh information.
This means that Facebook will be prioritising video content that users are seeking out via search or by visiting a video creators page. This also applies to the ‘More Videos’ recommendation as well as the News Feed and Facebook Watch functions.How do I keep my followers coming back?

There are things you can do to help keep up your audience engagement and hungry to come back for more videos. Here are a few effective ways to do this:

Maintain your consistency: Make sure you post regularly and stick to a schedule. If your followers expect a weekly video from you, do not disappoint – make sure you deliver it. This will help build up trust with your audience.
Optimize your video content for search engines: Use appropriate keywords and key-phrases that your viewers will be searching with – include these in your video title and description.
Share valuable content: Keep them coming back with valuable informations such as ‘how-to’ video content or positive, inspirational content that helps them to feel better about themselves.

Make longer videos

Your video duration is an important factor with Facebook’s new video-ranking tweak. Facebook commented that it will, “add more weight in ranking to videos that keep people engaged, especially on videos that are at least three minutes long.”
Ideally, you will want to aim for longer engagement with your video viewers but it is also useful to know that Facebook will reward content that keeps the viewer watching for at least one whole minute.
If you think you will struggle to make a high-quality three-minute long video, then work on producing one that packs a lot of useful information into the first minute. This at least will help to boost your video-rankings much higher than someone doing a shorter video lasting under a minute.
Another great tip is to optimise your video for playing without sound. As 85% of viewers actually watch videos on Facebook with the sound off, you could look at making more visually informative videos using text and graphics displays.

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