Up-level your videos
Facebook is a place where people from anywhere can gather around a topic or shared interest. Audiences are looking for
relevant and real connections with the content they watch.
For creators on Watch, it's a platform to create and share something as authentic as they are by telling a story and building communities. However, community doesn't happen overnight! It requires time and attention to grow and become robust.
So, how does one approach “up-leveling" their videos? Let's take a look.
Grab & hold Attention
“Only short videos work on Facebook.”
Heard or thought that before?
In reality, Facebook values and prioritizes videos that tell a story. The focus is not on short, viral content but content that has more to say and keeps fans coming back for more. Building a community of engaged, loyal viewers requires a little more investment and purpose.
The goal here is to generate return viewership. It means authentic and solid storytelling. It means content that begets enthusiastic fan shares, comments, and interaction.
Watch is a different surface than News Feed on Facebook. In Watch, content is longer, episodic in nature, has a consistent narrative, and creates that “What's going to happen next?” moment that brings fans back each week.
If you are eligible for in-stream ads — as you think about possible video length, consider that your videos must be at least three minutes long to be able to insert an in-stream ad for monetization. Strategically placed in-stream ads can also act as a “cliffhanger” to hold your audience's attention. Outside of that, the length of your videos should be optimized around the type of content and what will resonate with your fans. We've seen that videos both short and long can inspire strong retentive behavior among viewers if the content is compelling.
Craft your narrative: storyboarding
Before picking up a camera, pick up a pencil. Prior to filming, mapping out your video — shot by shot — into a storyboard, will help you flesh out the vision for your video. Storyboarding gives you a roadmap for production so you won't waste time and money figuring it out as you film.
Each video will be unique in its content, but the structure of it can follow a common framework. Here's an example storyboard timeline to consider:
Storyboarding best practices
As you build out your storyboards, consider applying some of these best practices to make your videos more engaging and seamless:
Building tension: Add some sort of 'stakes' to your videos. For example, at the beginning of your video, explain what you're doing, and how you're feeling about it (what could go wrong or what you're worried or excited about). More specifically, try building tension right before you insert an ad to keep the audience on their toes.
Foreshadowing: Opening each video with a teaser of what's coming up is a quick way to draw your audience in, and early. Similarly, you can also close out the video with what's happening next week. Everyone loves a cliffhanger, right?
Keep it simple: Focus on one thing you're doing per video, have a clear title, and a simple purpose each and every time.
Editing
Myth: You want to keep as much footage as you can.
Truth: Making longer videos to keep fans coming back is important, but trim the fat. Editing helps make your story into what it's truly meant to be — an engaging experience for your audience.
To arrive at the right length, put aside sufficient time, break out the scissors, and make some edits to your videos.
You're crafting and creating a story for an audience. So it's important to remember that the videos you produce and launch should include the aspects that they enjoy and resonate with — not just the content or footage you like most.
Editing can be a daunting task, but it certainly doesn't need to be! When it comes to which content to include, keep it simple. Here are some best practices around the editing process:
And... action!
Facebook Watch gives you a stage to tell your story to the world, and that story deserves to be heard and seen. As you think about your message and its reach, these practices can help frame your video creation process. Happy creating!
