The one bright spot shining in Silicon Valley at the moment is Facebook. The social media giant ambushed Wall Street last week by announcing a tripling of first quarter profits to $1.51 billion compared to the same time last year. The drive behind that increase was Facebook’s focus on live video, which attracted new advertisers.
But also Facebook increased the number of people using it: that grew from 1.44 billion to 1.65 billion. The growth has doubled, doubled and then doubled again. Now Facebook is in the position where that is impossible to do – because there simply aren’t enough people with internet access on the planet.
The reason Facebook is the darling of Wall Street when all around other tech companies are staring tough times in the face is Facebook embraced its users. It acknowledged that its users don’t sit at their desktops posting social updates; its users are on their phones.
Facebook bought Instagram, WhatsApp and Oculus. Once owning the competition it could take the time to get mobile right. The average user now spends 50 minutes a day across social networks. There’s a conscious push with algorithms to keep users on the site rather than clicking away. Whether it’s a targeted ad or an article, the information is coming from Facebook’s own servers. And the same with video, as Facebook pushes its own video product ahead of links to competitors such as YouTube and Vimeo.
Facebook has perfectly executed two really simple things to keep ahead of the competition and make $1.51 billion. The first was to understand its audience. They were on their phones; and so Facebook not only joined them there, but observed all their habits, understood their needs and then created something that matched and exceeded everything their audience could possibly want.
Facebook and Video
The second was to put emphasis on live video. The social media user of today embraces video like no other group; it recognizes the power and appeal of the medium.
Following Facebook’s rules would help your corporate video. The key word there is video – the best medium there is for getting a message across. It’s really time to embrace it.
Then it’s about your audience – who are they and most importantly, where are they going to watch your video? A video demonstrating a product might be right for the desktop if that product is a piece of software, but if it’s fitting a new piece of equipment to a car, it’s far more like the video will be viewed on a mobile device – and should be created with that in mind.
And finally Facebook itself. If it’s got 1.65 billion users, shouldn’t you be on it?