The way Facebook does videos is like that of an outdoor billboard. As you walk down the street, you look at its direction and you might get influenced by it. But you weren’t looking for what that billboard had to offer, nor did you really have an intent on acting on it. It just happened to cross your field of view.
This is not a bad thing, per see, because that billboard did the job of creating exposure, and we know that exposure is one of the many important elements of branding. But it’s still just exposure.
YouTube views, on the other hand, are more like when you walk into a restaurant and you look at the menu. You see 25 different things you can buy, and you finally decide that you are going to try the number 4 sandwich. In this case, the level of exposure for each item is much lower, but for that one item you picked, the value is many times higher.
Facebook is wonderful for many things, but it’s designed around that one behavior that I call the break. YouTube creators are designed more around the behaviors I call the story, the passion and the recline.
Thomas Baekdal
Very interesting article, a must-read in the middle of accusations that Facebook is lying and stealing their way to online video domination. It’s certainly amusing to see Facebook being accused of copyright infringement seeing that YouTube started much the same way. It’s too early to tell how this will play out, but I don’t think YouTube’s long-form creators will be threatened by Facebook video in the long run. With it’s massive selection, YouTube is the new television, while Facebook is the commercial break.
Theft, Lies, and Facebook Video
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