While we’re all waiting for the smoke to clear around Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement a few weeks ago regarding the BIG CHANGES taking place in the Facebook Newsfeed and how that will hit your marketing, one thing is pretty clear…

Video remains HUGE, and Live Video (Facebook Live, for this article…) is going to become something that all businesses are going to have to come up with a plan for.  This ties in directly with many things that Zuckerberg mentioned in his announcement (emphasis mine):

• “…recently we’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content — posts from businesses, brands and media — is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other.”
• “We started making changes in this direction last year, but it will take months for this new focus to make its way through all our products. The first changes you’ll see will be in News Feed, where you can expect to see more from your friends, family and groups.  As we roll this out, you’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard — it should encourage meaningful interactions between people.“
• “The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being. We can feel more connected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term measures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos — even if they’re entertaining or informative — may not be as good. Based on this, we’re making a major change to how we build Facebook. I’m changing the goal I give our product teams from focusing on helping you find relevant content to helping you have more meaningful social interactions.”
• You can read his entire post here.

There is still a LOT of speculation around what this means for brands and businesses. I’ve tried to glean a bit of what could happen for the small businesses and entrepreneurs in an earlier article. One thing that seems to be coming up in marketing discussions is that, while video isn’t going away, live video is going to become much more important.

Facebook claims to be trying to encourage greater engagement and involvement in the interactions with content online, and especially between users. A LIKE or a HEART, or even a short comment like “I Love IT!” won’t cut it anymore for businesses. However, if you look at a Facebook Live event, you’ll see a conversation taking place between the members of the audience and including the host / presenter / actor. According to one study, users comment of Facebook Live videos at 10X the rate or regular videos! Although there hasn’t been any explicit announcement around a greater focus on live video, observations by sharp eyes and minds across the digital marketing Illuminati agree that, given the overwhelming accent on video and greater, more vital interaction online, it makes a lot of sense. Conclusion – not only do you need video in your plan, but you need to look very hard at Live Video. There are different kinds of planning and preparation needed to pull these off effectively. Story-boarding, pre- and post-production work, kinds of events and topics that just work better live rather than “canned”, and even the kinds of equipment you need to do this well are all considerations.

As a result, I’m declaring this month “Live Video Month” regarding the articles you will see here! I will focus on the small business and entrepreneur angles of:

• Strategy and Planning
• Process and How-To
• Examples