Facebook probably about to show advertising videos in newsfeed

Facebook recently changed its newsfeed algorithm in order to better understand which users watch videos and which users do not.

The tweak includes a new video ranking system which takes into account whether people are actually watching each video — and for how long — before deciding who else will see that video in their feed. Previously, metrics like Likes and comments were key indicators of a video's popularity, but the new measurement aims to determine exactly how captivating the video content is.

The move was likely driven by two motives. Facebook often seeks ways to surface the content people are most likely to engage with, and if users like more videos, then Facebook can provide the goods.

The other motive is Facebook's bottom line. The company is rolling out video ads to users, and the News Feed tweak will give the company a better idea of which users are most receptive to video ads. The more Facebook knows about your video watching habits, the more successful its new ad format will be. The more Facebook knows about your video watching habits, the more successful its new ad format will be.

Source: http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2014/06/news-feed-fyi-showing-better-videos/

Facebook’s answer to Google+ : Watch the video!!

One week after Google+ Facebook teams up with Skype to add video conferencing (allows upto 10 callers in on video conference) to its website…FB has now officially hit 750 million users while Skype now has more than 300 million video calls users.

According to Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran “While integrating video calling will have little impact on marketers now, in the long term, it will mean Facebook, already the No. 1 place for online word-of-mouth, will be a crucial platform for marketers to engage customers, whether it's through video chat with fans or through new partnerships they form with Facebook on their own." With 4 billion things being shared on FB every single day, marketers certainly have enough eyes, ears and mouths to attract. But it also means that they have to work harder and harder to stand out and exploit the emerging social media sharing economy.

You can certainly envision a form of link up emerging from FB between video marketing, entertainment and consumer information. Social apps will be created to deliver personalised marketing content in video format directly to the consumer. As paid features are added to the FB ecosystem a lucrative money flow can be created. One idea proposed by Diane Mermigas, an editor at Media Post, “Facebook could use its super-powered distribution platform to create a new dynamic for charging, discounting and providing credits for friends who are sharing marketing and entertainment videos.” If FB is able to create such a monetary system it will change the dynamics of the online video industry – even Youtube, its major rival in video terms, doesn’t have a user paid revenue stream. Interestingly, Amazon is the only on demand video provider that has successfully used its social infrastructure to earn hefty revenues from its online video business (and that is one company that has the knowhow on how to capture consumer habits and exploit them to generate money.)

Add Netflix to the mix and the story gets even more interesting. Its aim is to develop social apps to increase its sales through use of social video sharing where people share and suggest movies to watch. And they are pretty serious about getting in first - The CEO of the Netflix was recently appointed to the FB board!!

With Skype in the process of being purchased by Microsoft for $8.5billion one thing we can be sure of is a Microsoft+FB vs. Google battle galore!!!

Source: Facebook Adds Video Calling, Group Chat

Is online streaming killing television?

It is that time of year again--moving season in New York. A time of year when young people across the City reevaluate the conditions in which they have been living and determine whether or not it is worth it to stick it out another year or plot a move and take a chance on craigslist or a broker while running around the city with piles of paperwork hoping to be the first person to arrive at a listing.

I have opted to stick it out in my current lease, but the season has made me reflect about different set of conditions, namely Time Warner cable. This is the first time in my life that I have seriously considered forgoing my cable TV, and I think I am finally ready to take the plunge. I realized how rarely I watched any live television anymore. Everything I wanted to watch was on my DVR, and everything on my DVR can be found online. A good internet connection and maybe a Netflix account could finally free me from years of price gauging.

From an advertiser’s perspective, should this be cause for alarm? Not necessarily. An Affective facial tracking study found that online video ads received 18.3% more viewer attention than those found on TV. Not only do you pay more attention to these in-stream video ads, they are also impossible to skip through fast-forwarding. Since the online ads appear at short and infrequent intervals in comparison to TV ads, viewers are less likely to build to step away from their computers, knowing they are likely to miss the content they have been viewing if they do. All of these factors combine to make video ads significantly more effective that than their TV counterparts.