Videos perform poorly on facebook...why?

[Atomicx]

I have a facebook page with 42,000 Real fans. Images, screenshots, links, questions, etc all perform well.

But videos get 0 interaction. If I get 5 likes that is saying something. Why would facebook not send out my videos to people? Is there a way to increase them? It is very frustrating to post our youtube videos to get no response.

My fans are most 13-30 yr old gamers, so videos should be right up their alley.

[EricaMcGillivray]

Hi Noah,

There could be many reasons for your videos not being played. Unfortunately with Facebook engagement, it's somewhat of a Catch-22 in that the more engagement you get, the more people Facebook shows the post to get more engagement. This can be very frustrating. Your videos could not be showing because your past videos hadn't gotten any engagement. Facebook should show you how many people have seen your post and then how many have engaged with it.

One thing to know about it is that Facebook had some errors in its engagement numbers in June.

If your followers are seeing the posts, but not watching the videos, then it's likely for whatever reason your videos aren't resonating with your audience. Some things to consider:

• Who are your videos aimed at?
• Are they the right tone for that demographic?
• Are they too sales driven?
• Are the videos you sharing widely available elsewhere? Did they already see them in other places?
• Have you considered user-generated videos to engaged the audience with itself?

Hope this gives you a good start.

[Squee]

Videos are pretty new to Facebook.

We also know that Facebook does NOT show everything to all people, even if you engage and follow a page.

There is some sort of algo that hides posts and only shows to certain fans.

I would say that Facebook is deliberately throttling back on the videos more than regular posts.

This is an answer about Tumblr posts not showing up, and the answer might apply to Youtube as well.

http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/28208/tumblr-items-published-from-queue-do-not-show-in-facebook-timeline-only-those

Facebook wants to keep the "facebook content" and is hiding linked content.

[Atomicx]

That isn't helpful. I pretty much addressed all of that in my original post.

My demographics are fine. The respond well and have a high response rate to everything else that is posted. I am sure the videos would as well, but Facebook simply does not send it out to people. Of my 42,000 fans it only sends my videos out to maybe 200.

I already know what times of the day and days of the week are best for the page. I already have tested other forms of media and they work fine. I want to know why facebook is choosing not to send out my videos.

[Lumina]

Hi Noah,

When posting, you have to keep in mind that, though videos generally do well for most posters, this won't necessarily be true for all. What works and what doesn't depends more on your demographics and the trends thereof.

You should also keep in mind that there are many factors at play which determine a post's engagement - the accompanying text, the format, the time of day, etc.

My recommendation would be A/B testing. One example I can think of off the top of my head would be to post twice in 2 days - once with the video as you've been doing, and once as an image/link that directs to the video in some way. A/B testing can often help to define the reasons behind trends in your groups of fans.

I hope that's been helpful! Cheers!