I’m now going to do my impression of your marketing office.  “Man, we should probably post more videos on Facebook.”

Your instincts are correct.

Many brands remain frozen with indecision, fear, uncertainty, confusion, a lack of resources, a lack of employees with the right skillsets…all kinds of reasons their posts continue to consist mainly of text, links, and still images.  So just how important is it that video be included as a part of your social posting mix?  Vitrue’s latest white paper, “Branded Video Posts: Multimedia to Increase Engagement” sought to drill down into the numbers to show the degree to which Pages are posting video, how that video is being received, and to what degree it helps a social strategy.

Consider first of all that nearly every demographic currently consuming social was raised on television and video.  Even someone who’s 60 years old watched “Gunsmoke,” “Lassie” and “Meet the Press.”  It’s how we’re all accustomed to taking in our entertainment and information.  Reading?  That’s something they made you do in school.

That affinity with watching video has very much carried over into online activity.  Video views are on the rise.  And despite our world-famous short attention spans, ComScore shows that in the US, even longer videos are being embraced, with an average video length of 6.1 minutes (up from 5.8 minutes in December).  84.4% of the US Internet audience watched online video in January 2012.  You may now pause and look out your window while you contemplate just how large 84.4% is.

The online audience is used to seeing video, and used to it being available for them to watch.  YouTube says that 48 hours of video is uploaded per minute.  Do the math, and you’ll see that’s 8 years worth of content uploaded per day!  Have you produced videos and made them readily available to watch?  Or are you missing amidst all this video watching that’s going on?

Take the online video viewership numbers, and cross that with the fact that Facebook accounts for 14.6% of all time spent online, and you will soon get a clear picture of what a sweet spot posting videos on Facebook is.  And while you can’t cram a whole white paper into a blog, our findings reveal some interesting behaviors it might behoove you to know as you venture forward into the world of video production and posting.

• In terms of what brands are posting, video is currently the 4th most popular type of post, making up 7% of all branded posts.  Doesn’t sound like the cameras are rolling.
• Despite the low 7% production number coming from brands, 78% of fans engaging with video posts are “Liking” them, while 22% either comment or share.
• When it comes to non-organic sources like paid ads, video posts are more likely to achieve visibility.
• There’s a huge disconnect between when brands are posting videos and when fans are most inclined to watch them.  Get the white paper to find out what brands are getting wrong.
• There are things some brands are doing in the accompanying text of their video posts that are potential viewership killers.  How can something so simple be so harmful?
• You run less of a risk of negative feedback with videos than with any other kind of post.

Your audience is out there.  And they’re waiting.  Your video content, while it does have to be credible, relevant, and either useful or genuinely entertaining, does not have to equal the production quality of “Avatar.”  Know your audience, keep their wants and need foremost in your mind as you craft ideas for videos, and you will be able to capitalize on the desire for video fans have been clearly exhibiting.