During the trip, I posted updates on the website HemingwayWithAGoPro.com and uploaded GoPro videos to the Hemingway With A GoPro Facebook page and Instagram account.
I wanted to test out Facebook video, see how it compared with YouTube, and become more familiar with a different platform and workflow. Twitter is too new to the game with video, so the test was really to compare YouTube with Facebook video.
Facebook Video versus YouTube
- View Counts. A view is counted at 3 seconds on Facebook (and Instagram) versus around 30 seconds for a YouTube view. Because of this, there tend to be higher view counts on Facebook (duh), but a YouTube view is arguably more valuable since a viewer needs to stay with the video longer to achieve a "view".
- Autoplay. Facebook videos autoplay in a user's newsfeed (without audio), and Youtube's videos are user-initiated by default. This can have some creative implications (ie: add subtitles to the start of a Facebook video). It can also result in more Facebook views when compared with YouTube.
- Analytics. Youtube's are more robust. Facebook's video analytics are still pretty good, but don't seem to go as in-depth as they might have the potential to go (taking into account the amount of first-party data on users Facebook has access to). Also, sometimes clicking the "Insights" button on Facebook just didn't work.
- Embedding/Integration. Since Facebook video is newer, it doesn't work seamlessly with all platforms. For example, I wasn't able to use the Facebook embed code on this blogger site, so that's why the video embedded below is from YouTube instead of Facebook.
- Promotion. I didn't spend any $ to promote my videos (it was just a fun way to document a trip), but Facebook seemed to make it easy to promote or "boost" my videos if I chose to do so. They also posted a few "sponsored" advertisements on my personal Facebook feed trying to get me to promote the HemingwayWithAGoPro Facebook page by paying with the click of a button.
