The Face on Facebook is Moving
There are now 8 million video views per day on Facebook. In just six months last year it doubled, and it is eight times what it was one year ago. 
The numbers show impressive growth but what has brought it on is Facebook’s auto-play feature. It is Facebook’s effort to shift to a “video first” format. And, it will allow it to compete with YouTube.
Facebook says: “We know that video viewing is exploding around the world and much of this growth is being powered by mobile device. More than 65 percent of Facebook’s video views are happening on mobile.”
If you put a business related video on Facebook, make sure that in the first seven seconds you have a strong graphic element to lure in viewers. Although there is an auto-play feature, sound is not activated unless you touch on the screen in the first seven seconds. 
Here are some other key elements of digital video:
- Short is better. Ideal lengths of digital video is 0 to 120 seconds.
- Use graphics in the front end and back end of video timelines.
- Be specific in shots and convey new information with each image cluster.
- Keep emotion level high. That’s why you use a video, it’s great for demonstrating, but it is even better at communicating emotion.
- Match content to the medium. A TV ad is not a good Facebook ad and vice versa.
- Front-load the good stuff. People may not wait to see your bang-up shot at the end.
- Audio-video linkage. What you say in the script and what you show need to match. If they don’t, you really don’t understand video communications: try shaking your head yes, but say no. It just doesn’t work.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.