If Facebook Were a Crystal Ball, Here’s What It’d Say About the Future

It’s difficult, if not seemingly impossible, to keep up with all of today’s rapidly changing social media marketing opportunities.

And while knowing and leveraging whichever platform(s) delivers(s) to your target audience best, it’s also important for small business marketers to keep an eye on what’s coming next.

Since Facebook is still by far the largest and arguably the most influential social network, with 2.1 billion monthly active users projected by year-end, it’s worthwhile to watch and learn from where the company is focusing on for their biggest new features pushes.

In the beginning of 2017, Facebook’s favoring of long-form video uploaded to its native player (versus sharing a YouTube link) became obvious, supporting assertions by the company’s higher ups (including Mark Zuckerberg) that it would morph into an all-video platform within five years. This directly correlates with the rise of video ads, which tend to work particularly well on Facebook (assuming you have solid creative).

Then in early spring, Facebook Live became all the marketing rage. Making use of the new feature became one of the most effective ways to bust the platform’s tough algorithm and score preferential feed placement.

For the last few months, Facebook has been testing video for cover images, and slowly but surely, this newest feature is beginning to crop-up in several U.S. markets, foreshadowing a full roll-out in the coming months.

And you may have also heard about how Facebook is experimenting with original video programming, touting the significant added bonus that community is already deeply baked into the platform.

While all of these shiny new objects may catch your eye, don’t feel like you have to take the bait to dive in just yet…

…that is unless you are still avoiding creating video as a means of promoting your brand, product or services.

You won’t be an early adopter if you just start playing with uploading a video to the native player or put out your first Facebook Live stream now.

But you are still early enough on the video bandwagon, as you see the value of customized content based on Facebook’s features and opportunities.

Knowing about all of the brand new and up-and-coming shiny new options may start as a twinkle in your eye, but build to a spark of inspiration for video marketing on Facebook or whichever platform delivers the best audience for your business.