It has been well know for awhile that Facebook likes live video. What we didn’t know until yesterday was exactly how infatuated Facebook has become. Yesterday’s announcement contained a number of new features that essentially leverage the power of the Facebook network to create a preferred viewing environment. Videos can be shared with specific Friends (so that family members can watch a birthday party) or with Groups or Event attendees. Marketing Land ran through a listing of the new features.
The WSJ brought readers up to date on the recent history of Facebook Live, Meerkat and Periscope as live video became a hot topic in 2015 (YouTube Connect is expected to join the field soon). Social Media Today wrote about the poor signal to noise ratio of the live platforms so far. Only 3% of Periscope users create videos, 97% just watch.
Facebook obviously hopes that its discovery tools will help and it announced a new video search engine this morning. Just to be sure they are also providing “financial incentives” to quality video publishers. To help regular brands get involved the blog AllBusiness compiled “12 Unique Ways to Incorporate the Latest Video Platforms”into marketing efforts so that everyone can get on the map in this live video gold rush.
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