1. Static video
Video content generates better response than any other on Facebook, and is growing on all social platforms, so it makes sense for all businesses to be considering how they can tap into video themselves.
But some have found a trick on Facebook, which gives them the reach advantage of video, without actually being video content.
This is a clip from the Facebook Page Lilyon Memes, which has over 500,000 Likes. As you can see, what Lilyon does is they post a static image, with very basic video elements overlaid, then post it as a video - giving them the reach benefits of both the meme itself and a video post.
Clever right?
Well, kind of. Facebook has already announced that they’re looking tocrack down on misuses of video, under which this type of content would likely fall, though their focus has been on static image Facebook Live content, not general video posts. Still, you’d think at some point this will come under Facebook’s microscope – and if it does, and you’re driving a significant amount of traffic from Facebook, that could be a big problem for your business.
2. Fake live videos
Speaking of Facebook’s crackdown, as noted, their main focus has been on this culprit – Pages posting live videos with static images, normally with Reactions polls, or videos they purport to be live, but which are actually pre-recorded content.
Part of the problem with the static image posts has been that they’ve proven popular – as we’ve reported previously, five of the top ten Facebook Live streams in 2016 were these type of static image posts.
But still, they’re not really what live-streaming was intended for, so Facebook rolled out a News Feed algorithm tweak in August which automatically detect and restrict the reach of static images posted as video content. So, probably not a good idea.
Posting pre-recorded videos and presenting them as live is a bit more clear-cut, and Facebook has started to take action, removing these false live posts as they come up (and are reported).
As Facebook continues to expand their push into video, you can expect them to take more action against such violations.