Author: Christina Newberry / Source: Hootsuite Social Media Management With more than a billion video views on Facebook every day, it’s c
With more than a billion video views on Facebook every day, it’s clear that Facebook video is a key part of daily life for social media users. If you’re creating videos to help promote your brand, there’s one key strategy you need to keep in mind: scripting for silence.
Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite.
Why silent video rules on Facebook
For a while, videos in the mobile Facebook News Feed played with the sound turned off by default, and users had to tap the silent video clips to get sound—but no more. In February, Facebook decided that videos would automatically play with sound on mobile devices, as long as the volume on the device is turned on. This change has been rolling out gradually since the announcement was made.
When silent autoplay was the default, 85 percent of videos were watched with the sound off. It’s not clear yet how the change to autoplay with sound will impact that figure, but it is clear that you can’t assume the new policy means users will hear your audio track.
Users have the choice to turn autoplay sound off for all videos within their Facebook settings. And with publications well outside the social media space—think the Telegraph newspaper, Time magazine, and even Cosmopolitan—publishing articles on how to turn autoplay sound off, you can bet plenty of people will be choosing to continue their News Feed browsing in sweet, sweet silence.
For the record, if you want your own Facebook feed to remain sound-free, just go to Settings and toggle Videos in News Feed Start With Sound to off. Or just put your phone in silent mode: anyone whose phone is set to silent will also see silent video clips by default.
Facebook’s own data highlights why you might not want to overdo it in the audio department: 80 percent of people will actually have a negative reaction to a mobile ad that plays loud sound when they’re not expecting it—and the last thing you want is to spend money on advertising only to have people think less of your brand.
Creating videos that work with or without sound gives users choice about how they interact with your videos, so your message can speak volumes to all those who view it, whether they actually hear it or not.
Silent video ideas to optimize social video
Here are some key strategies to help you craft great Facebook videos for the silent environment.
Plan ahead and tweak your script
Rather than shoot on the fly, you’ll need to plan ahead when shooting videos that work without sound. Think about exactly what story you want to tell, and distill your key message down to its most visual elements.
If you need to incorporate some language to get your point across, think about how best to do so in a video without sound. Will you use captions? Short snippets of text onscreen? Make sure you allow visual room in your shots so you can include this text without competing with your visual imagery.
On that note…
Think about adding text
Whether it’s captions, text overlay, subtitles, or some other creative way of including language, incorporating text lets you use words even without using speech. Keep in mind that Facebook’s internal testing showed that captioned video ads were watched an average of 12 percent longer than un-captioned ads.
Focus on engaging visuals
In video without sound, you’ve got to capture attention using only what’s seen onscreen—and keep in mind that screen might be very…
COMMENTS