Uploading a Video to Facebook Vs Posting a Video

If yous haven't figured out by now, Facebook and Google (Google owns YouTube) are not best friends. So, when you create an amazing video, upload information technology to YouTube, and are gear up to share it with the network you've painstakingly built on Facebook… be prepared for a lackluster response. No, it'due south not because Facebook limits who sees your newsfeed now (although they do, kind of), it's because of the way YouTube videos are displayed on Facebook.

Update: It'due south not just YouTube videos, information technology'south pretty much any content hosted outside of Facebook and shared (tumblr, your website, other video platforms, news sites, etc).

YouTube videos on Facebook

Permit'south take a wait at an example of a video uploaded directly to Facebook and shared versus a YouTube video link shared.

Completely ignore the content of these two videos and wait at them from an aesthetic point of view only. 99 out of 100 human beings would absolutely click the big video thumbnail on the left way earlier the tiny thumbnail on the right. If you're scrolling through your newsfeed, yous'd see the large thumbnail way before the smaller one. For the tape, the Facebook thumbnail is about half-dozen times larger than the thumbnail provided for YouTube. And allow's not even go started on the fact that half the time Facebook doesn't fifty-fifty want to show a thumbnail for a YouTube video birthday.

(Thanks for the case Sean!)

So, apparently Facebook wants to brandish content uploaded to their platform in a more attractive way. But what's even worse, is this comparison:

You're looking at 2 items in the Facebook Newsfeed. The item on the left is a visitor I don't currently "Similar" (nothing against 20Jeans), and is a "Sponsored" post that Facebook placed in my Newsfeed. On the right is a YouTube video my friend Sam shared. Honestly, Sam's mail service looks more than like an advertisement than the actual advertisement does! The thumbnail is about 2.5 larger in the advertising and the white infinite around the thumbnail makes it stand out a flake more than in the Newsfeed. *Merely FYI, whether it's a personal contour or a business page, a shared YouTube video formats the aforementioned way in the Newsfeed.

What's interesting to me is that most other media platforms (magazine, radio, Telly, etc) typically make the content look ameliorate and give space for advertisers.

Kind of like what Facebook does in the right cavalcade with standard Facebook ads. However, it's blatantly obvious that Facebook wants you to see their ads and doesn't want you lot to run across YouTube videos. Another thing to annotation, where's the play push on the YouTube video? In the Newsfeed Facebook strips the play push button from the thumbnail, just on your page they leave it. Odd.

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How to make your YouTube videos look better on Facebook

What tin yous do near making your YouTube videos really go viewed on Facebook? Well, also pressing the dreaded "Boost" (or is information technology "Promote") push on all of your posts, you lot can use interesting screenshots for you YouTube videos with a link in the condition clarification. Here's an example:

The inherent design of Facebook is geared towards the sharing of photos. Just wait at the screenshot in a higher place comparing the same exact content shared every bit a photo with a link and only the YouTube video itself. Non merely is the photograph about eight times bigger, you tin can show a lot more visual information which will hopefully concenter people to watch.

What's the worst thing that happens by only posting the photo? Someone clicks on it and realizes it's not an actual video. Hopefully if they've invested a click and are interested they click to the link you've included in the photograph post description. Some other bonus to sharing the photo is you get to option what photo you share! With merely sharing the YouTube link, your but thumbnail pick is whatever comes with the video through YouTube. Y'all tin make the photo whatever you want and hope to attract more eyeballs and interaction.

*As another point of comparing: In the 60 minutes the above photo was posted it "reached" 365 people. The YouTube video but "reached" 654 people in 24 hours. There could be a lot of factors that go into this (like timing of the post, description, etc), but that'south plenty for me to almost e'er want to post a photograph with a link to the YouTube video.

As Brian Solis mentions in this article:

Facebook has it's own SEO game, just like Google does. You need interaction and engagement for more of your posts to be seen past your friends/fans on Facebook.

In my mind, captivating and interesting photos with well written descriptions are the mode to do that. Unless it's of extreme importance, I wouldn't waste money on the Boost/Promote push button. Aye, you can pay for more people to run across that post, just if the post isn't any good, it's not going to help your cause.

And because I mentioned SEO, you might exist asking "Should I upload my videos to Facebook instead of YouTube?" My respond is no.

You aren't going to get organic traffic to your video if it's uploaded to Facebook. This goes dorsum to the Facebook vs Google battle. Google has no interest in showing Facebook videos in its search results. A well titled, tagged, and description on a YouTube video has much improve SEO implications.

Food for thought the next time you desire to share a YouTube video on Facebook.

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Source: https://wanderingaimfully.com/why-posting-youtube-videos-on-facebook-sucks/

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