In 2021, the Media Partnerships Team held several virtual programs for digital publishers seeking support for their video content business on Facebook, inclusive of workshops and office hours. In attendance were partners from Hometalk, VICE, Barstool Sports, Tastemade, Hive Media Group, CollegeHumor Media and more.

Partners shared their success stories and strategies. Breakout sessions helped participants translate these strategies into actionable steps. They also got to implement learnings on their content via real-time editing exercises, which were then screened to the larger group for feedback.

Here are the top tips that partners shared with their publishing cohort:

Partners suggest leveraging your existing, long-form library content and cutting videos down to 3 minutes. It’s a win-win: you get to maximize your assets and test out new formats that may pull in new viewers and increase retention (think recaps, highlight reel, “best of” and more).

At video camp, Kara Schwartz, Director of Video at Hometalk, shared that her team overhauled their video strategy a little while back. They now produce 3-minute roundups that are “short, snappy, entertaining” and comprise five to 15 clips of both new and archival content. “We developed an amazing network of DIY talent,” said Schwartz. “We commission long-form videos that these creators produce for our audience, and we use insights to come up with high-themed topics.”

Existing content can be digital–or linear. Oftentimes, taking advantage of a publisher’s broad catalogue opens up opportunities to connect with a wider audience. After taking in best practices at Video Camp, Jennifer Mercedes, Host and Producer at La Vida Baseball, said her team will focus on cutting down clips from ”Locker Room Talk,” their 30-minute show. “They don’t have to be long clips,” she added. “We’ll choose what will resonate with the audience.”

The first few seconds of every video are critical. Think of your own content consumption habits: As you scroll, what grabs your attention? Visually appealing imagery, fast paced clips and a quick intro into what you are about to watch. To that end, try clipping a 15-second trailer to add to the beginning of your video to capture viewers and increase retention. Moreover, 15-second trailers have shown to drive better engagement than five second trailers.

“You need to grab someone’s attention immediately, give them a clear idea of what your content is about, and optimize for mobile,” Andrew Bridgman, Chief Digital Officer at CollegeHumor Media, said at Video Camp. “That means cutting out redundant or unnecessary material and getting straight to the hook of your video, baking in a straightforward but interesting title and making sure captions are either baked into your video or a subtitles file [SRT] is uploaded.”

Frame your visual story and build for vertical format. People watch videos on mobile just inches from their face and often in vertical orientation, rather than turning their phone to landscape, which makes 4:5 the recommended aspect ratio for Facebook video.

“Make sure the video is at least 1:1 or 4:5 so that the post will take up all, or the majority, of a phone’s screen when scrolling,” said Bridgman of CollegeHumor Media. “If your content takes up the whole screen, the user is less likely to be distracted by seeing a hint of what’s next on the feed.”

Pro tip: Smart Crop is a tool within Creator Studio that will reframe and size the aspect ratios of your videos from 16:9 (horizontal) to either 1:1 (square) or 4:5 (vertical) for feed. It optimizes for the main subject in the content, keeping the main subjects centered and in-frame.

Keeping your video descriptions to one sentence can help increase your engagement, compared to longer descriptions of three sentences or more. People want to know what they’re getting into so be direct, explicit and descriptive.

Testing different versions of your video can help you optimize your performance, understand what kinds of content resonates with your audience and discover trends so you can make informed decisions about future posts.

Post Testing in Creator Studio (under “Content Library”) lets you test up to four variants of a post to see which one your audience likes best. You can test different edits of a video, different descriptions, headlines and thumbnails–both pre-determined and manually uploaded options.

During the test, the posts are circulated to a subset of your audience but are not posted to your Page. You choose how long you want the test to run for. When the test ends, the winning post is automatically published on your Page and distributed to your full audience. You also get to choose the metric that’ll determine the “winner” such as 1-minute views, comments, shares, reactions, people reached and link clicks. The “Post Testing” tab is your central hub for creating and managing tests, and reviewing insights.

At Video Camp, Maria Alexopoulos, Director of Video at Hive Media Group, described an A/B test that her team ran. They compared a video with a trailer against a video without, and set 1-min views as their choice metric to gauge retention. After a 30 minute test run, it was clear that the video with the trailer outperformed the one without.

Get your fans used to your posting cadence by announcing your schedule and urging them to come back for your next video. This can increase return viewers and retention.

In the days leading up to your next scheduled video, use Stories to build anticipation, go live to talk about what viewers can expect, use a countdown and follow-up soon after your video is published with a Q&A, bloopers or behind-the-scenes tidbits to delight your audience.

When people comment on your posts, they hope that you will actually see it. When you respond to these comments, it helps remind your audience that you are really there which can incentivize more people to comment. More comments can lead to more distribution and an active, thriving community.

While you’re at it, don’t stop at your own posts. Commenting on content from other accounts can lead to follower growth by getting your name in front of more people.

“Knowing your audience and what they’re coming to you for is key,” Mickey Leon, Digital Media Associate at The Curvy Fashionista, said at Video Camp. His team looks at insights in Creator Studio such as audience retention, “to get an idea of which parts of our videos the audience finds the most interesting and engaging. We also pose questions for our audience in our Facebook Group."

It’s also important to remember that while putting yourself in your audience’s shoes can be helpful directionally, it should not dictate the content you post. “Viewing habits as individuals do not define your audience,” added Leon. “Don’t edit for yourself.”

Not only do captions make your content more accessible, they can also grab the attention of people who watch video with sound turned off. Experiment with captions throughout your video to see if they drive retention. If you start your video off with a trailer, make sure there are captions then too.

Pro tip: While burned-in captions are recommended, Creator Studio can help you generate auto-captions in a pinch. In fact, it automatically generates captions when you upload your video, though you can choose to turn them off for all your videos or for individual videos. You can also turn on a setting that will require your review of auto-generated captions before they publish.

While it may be tempting to ask fans to Like, Comment and Share your videos, try instead to pose open-ended questions. You’ll learn more about your audience, including their likes and dislikes, when you ask them to open up. Similarly, you can join in and respond to keep conversations going in the comments.