Advanced Television

Social media: More video attracts more followers

November 1, 2017

Video creation platform Wochit has published its Q3 social index providing insight from its analysis of over 10,000 Facebook videos, created by more than 200 publishers. These videos were published on 300+ Facebook pages between June 2017 and August 2017. One of the most notable trends found is that increasing the number of videos shared yields disproportionate gains in views and engagement, On average, publishers that increased their video production saw their video views triple.

The report includes comparisons with Q1 and Q2 findings of 2017,  illustrating emerging trends in the industry. Some of the big findings of Q3 include:

Publishers already making video create nearly 50 per cent more in Q3

  • Pages with more video attract more followers
  • Engagement shifts to Reactions over Likes
  • Square videos prove massively more engaging than horizontal
  • Midroll, high engagement lift popularity of longer videos
  • The 1 per cent continues to get nearly half of all views, over half of all shares
  • Latin American audiences are by far the most engaged
  • Publishers Committed to Social Video Doubled Down in Q3

Publishers who created videos in both Q2 and Q3 had an average production increase of 48.5 per cent in Q3.

These publishers also saw significant increases in engagement, averaging a 52.3 per cent lift in views, 65 per cent growth in Likes and a 62.3 per cent rise in the number of Shares.

For publishers who increased production in Q3, Wochit found a disproportionate impact on view counts. These publishers doubled their video production, on average, yielding a 3x more video views.

More Videos Means More Followers

There is a strong connection between the number of videos posted to a publisher’s Facebook page and the number of followers for that page. In fact, eight out of the 10 most followed publisher’s Facebook pages in Q3 published at least five videos a day.

In Q3, publishers posted an average of 40.3 per cent more videos per page than during Q2. At the same time, the average number of followers increased by 33K to 870K (compared to 837K in Q2).

Reactions Rise while “Likes” Slide

In a previous study of viral videos, Wochit observed that 80.9 per cent of those reaching the one-million-view landmark elicit strong emotions. So, it’s not surprising to see that the number of Reactions on videos continue to increase, moving up 66.9 per cent in Q3. The traditional “Like”, however, is decreasing, down 21.2 per cent  from Q2. Wochit sees this audience behaviour simply as an indication that the videos on which they are interacting are drawing out deeper feelings than a simple thumbs up reflects.

It’s Hip to Be Square (Video)

The share of horizontal vs. square is stabilising towards a 60-40 split. However, performance is a completely different story, likely as a result of mobile viewing where square format provides a better viewing experience.

Square video massively outperforms horizontal across all engagement metrics, receiving over 3x the views, 7x as many comments and 8x the shares.

The majority of videos posted to Facebook are still in 16:9 (Horizontal) format, but stark difference in performance means that publishers seeking engagement should be making the switch.

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, OTT, Research, Social Media, UGC