Facebook Guide: Best Practices for Video Creators

Best practices
for video creators
Facebook company, 2020

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65
21
Go live
with advanced streaming
software on Facebook
Re-Post
your evergreen, timely
and topical content
Bulk upload
your back catalogue
using Creator Studio
Organize
your content using new
playlist and series tools
Create or join
a relevant challenge and
invite fans to participate
Highlight
your top stories around
speciﬁc themes
6 TIPS
for maintaining production and
maximizing your content library
As you adapt to new business challenges, here are some
ways to maintain or increase your video production:

Live is a great way for you to be authentic and build deeper, real-time
engagement with your fans, especially during these turbulent times.
Since we launched Live video on Facebook, people have made over 8.5 billion
broadcasts. We’re seeing a signiﬁcant increase in both Instagram Live and
Facebook Live usage as more people are turning to these channels to stay
connected with their communities. From February to March, the number of
Facebook Live viewers in the U.S. increased up to 50%.
When you go Live on Facebook, it immediately notiﬁes your fans and followers at
the top of their News Feeds, enabling quicker discovery and a shorter path to
tune-in and engagement. In addition to appearing on Pages and in News Feed,
live videos are also eligible for distribution in Facebook Watch, helping more
people to discover your videos.
1 Go live with advanced streaming software
Once you have your encoding software and camera installed, you’re ready to go live
using Live Producer, which is the new way to go live on Facebook using a customized
set-up and streaming software. Learn more about how to use Live Producer. We also
recommend checking out this advanced Facebook Live guide for planning shows or
larger virtual events using Live Producer.
To use more advanced features,
you can go live using a camera and
streaming software (also referred
to as encoding software or an
encoder). The encoder that's best
for you may depend on the type of
content you plan to stream. There
are several programs to choose
from, including free open-source
software. Learn more about
encoding software options and
going live with streaming software.

Bring new life to your older content by digging into your archive to ﬁnd
evergreen, timely and topical content that may be suitable to repost.
Be strategic and mindful about how often you repost content. Make sure you are
selecting relevant and retentive videos, posting content from your archives
instead of recent videos, and adding new titles and descriptions to keep it fresh.
Check your Performance Insights to ﬁnd videos that indicate high watch times
and retentive viewership, such as videos with high ‘Minutes Viewed’ counts. To
access these insights in Creator Studio, visit the insights tab, then click
‘performance’ and scroll down to the Top Videos table, where you can sort videos
by ‘Minutes Viewed’. You can create a new post using the same video in Creator
Studio.
2 Repost your evergreen, timely and topical content

If you’re interested in bringing your back catalogue to Facebook, Bulk
Uploader and Bulk Actions streamline video publishing by enabling
you to upload and manage content in bulk.
With these bulk features, you can efﬁciently add multiple new videos to series and playlists,
and with a single click, enable features like rights protection (you can apply for rights
manager here), ads and auto-captions.
The new Bulk Uploader makes uploading content more efﬁcient by allowing upload of up to
50 videos to one page in a single action. You can also choose to edit the title, description, add
tags, schedule posts and choose other settings in-line on the screen.
Starting in April, Bulk Actions will also be available for videos that have already been
published. These are smarter editing tools that will enable you to apply settings or ‘take
actions’ on videos in bulk. These actions will be available both at the time of upload and in the
content library. Learn more.
To bulk upload videos in Creator Studio:
✓ Click on the "Create Post" button in the  
top-left corner of the screen and select  
"Multiple Videos" from the dropdown menu.
✓ Select the video files you want to upload  
(you can upload up to 50 videos at one time).
✓ Choose the Page you want to upload the videos to.
✓ You can edit the titles, descriptions, tags, and other
metadata while the videos are uploading
✓ Select your desired publishing option for each video
(publish now, schedule, save as draft, premiere, or
backdate).
✓ Once the videos are processed, they'll be viewable in
the Content Library tab.
3 Bulk upload your back catalogue

We recently launched a new playlist feature to help you organize your
content.
Playlists are a simple, flexible way to organize both new and existing videos into (unserialized)
themes with accompanying distribution benefits.
Consider creating new playlists of favorite characters or fan favorite moments and other
themed topics using the full videos that already exist. If you have access to the original video
files, you can also edit the originals into cut-down versions and organize them in new playlists
made of clipped videos.
Similar to playlists, publishing to a series will allow viewers to
discover and watch your videos across Facebook Watch, Search and
News Feed.
Series allow you to organize your content into episodes, with the flexibility to show episodes
in chronological order (to support a narrative story arc across multiple episodes), as well as
add seasons, brand logos (showmarks), and trailers.
We've found that videos that are simply thematically-related perform best
in playlists, while groups of episodes perform best in series.
We offer full flexibility to represent your videos in the format that fits best. Your playlists and
series will perform best when the content you add to them is truly thematically related. For
example, a playlist of recipe videos will perform better than one covering a range of topics
without a coherent theme. Curating your content by theme provides the best viewer
experience, gives Facebook stronger signals about when to recommend your content, and
increases the likelihood that viewers will discover and watch videos from your playlist or
series. Learn more.
✓ Playlists increase your videos’
distribution through related content
recommendations, helping you reach and
and grow loyal audiences
✓ Viewers can click to open playlists from
posts in News Feed, when videos are
uploaded into a playlist
✓ Playlists are showcased prominently on
your Page
✓ When viewers open a playlist from your
Page or a News Feed post, it will playback
in the order you dictate
✓ Playlists have a unique URL you can
share with fans on or off Facebook
4 Organize your content with playlists and series

Participate in or create a challenge that spreads positivity
and awareness for an issue or cause that’s meaningful to you.
5 Create or join a challenge
Post a video about the challenge to Facebook
and Instagram, tag others to do the same,
and include relevant hashtags. It’s a great
way to get creative and encourage your
community to rally together. Explore other
trending challenges and hashtags and join in
to support a movement or major moment.
You can also prompt your fans to post photos
or videos around a certain theme or
challenge, offering them a chance to have
their content re-shared by you. This can work
well in Facebook or Instagram Stories where
fans can post to their stories and tag you for
a chance to be re-shared. Be sure to
celebrate top participants by tagging them in
the re-shared posts.
Preserve and organize your top stories content around speciﬁc
themes by adding them as highlights, even after they disappear.
Pull in stories content from your Instagram Archives to keep it accessible. Consider
making custom covers by posting the desired image in your stories and then to
highlights. Highlights appear below your proﬁle photo and remain visible as highlights
until you remove them.
6 Highlight your stories

43
65
21 Go live
with a friend or fan
Connect
in Facebook Groups
Host
a Watch Party
Add a poll
to your videos
Get active
in the comments
Use stickers
in your Stories
6 TIPS
for engaging fans and
building community
Expand your global fanbase and inspire fans to take
action in support of philanthropic and business goals.

There are 2 ways you can start a live broadcast with a friend or fan on
Instagram. You can invite a friend to join your live video or you can request
to join the live video of a friend.
• Keep in mind you can only invite
someone who is already viewing your live
video.
• If your friend accepts the invitation to
join, you'll see them appear in a split-
screen view. You'll also see if they've
chosen to decline.
• You can remove the person you invited to
join your live video at any time by
tapping x at the top right corner of their
split-screen.
• Consider screen recording your Live
With while you’re broadcasting if you
want to share it after to upload to Feed
(if less than 1 minute) or IGTV or
Facebook. Turn off notiﬁcations while
you screen record.
• You can also respond to a comment by
tapping the comment and pinning it so
viewers can see it more easily while you
reply.
• If you send a request to join the live video
of a friend, you’ll receive a notice that
you’re about to join the live video when
your request is accepted. Learn more.
If you’re using Live Producer on Facebook, you can bring guests
into your broadcast by using platforms like Be.Live, Stage Ten
and easylive.io. Find the partner that is right for you.
Video conferencing software providers such as Zoom and
BlueJeans also allow you to broadcast live to Facebook with
multiple participants. Learn more about broadcasting Live to
Facebook using Zoom and BlueJeans.
1 Go live with a friend or fan

Now more than ever, people are seeking
ways to come together virtually. Facebook
Groups are a powerful way to connect
people around similar interests and build
a deeper sense of community.
Participate in relevant Facebook Groups to
help you catch the attention of like-minded
people and connect to a wider audience.
Consider what interests, activities and topics
people who enjoy your content might have in
common. Explore the Groups that you’ve
joined and search for new ones (in the
lefthand menu) which includes popular and
suggested options.
You may also ﬁnd that super fans have
created one or more groups about you and
your content. Consider participating in the
comments or share exclusive posts, photos,
or a short hello video. Your fans will be
delighted to see your presence in their group.
You might also want to create your very own
Group as a dedicated space for fans to
connect authentically with you and each
other.
You can join a new Group as a proﬁle or Page.
Additionally, you can change whether you
post as yourself or your Page in your own
Group. Learn more.
✓ Build a safe and thriving space with
membership and post approvals
✓ Select people you trust to help moderate posts
✓ Use it as an incubator for new ideas and a
forum for feedback
✓ Reward fans with early access or exclusives,
such as teasers or new videos
✓ Invite fans to participate in creative challenges
and celebrate the results
✓ Go Live in the group and create weekly rituals
like a recurring question, quote or challenge
Tips for creating an active and
supportive community with Groups:
2 Connect in Facebook Groups

3 Host a watch party
Host a Watch Party where your fans can watch, discuss and react to a selection of your
videos together, in real-time. You can also encourage people associated with your Page
or relevant groups to host a Watch Party for your video content.
You can create a watch party from your News Feed or timeline, in a group, or on your Page. It’s
easy to select and add videos to your queue, add a co-host, invite people to join, and chat
together while the videos play.
If you want to include live commentary, tap the camera button after the watch party has
started and select your preferred mode such as video, audio, or animated.
Once your watch party ends, a recap will be saved on your timeline as a post, which will show
all videos watched during the party along with any comments that were made. Learn more.
You can also see insights about your watch party in
Creator Studio. Go to your Content Library and click
on the post to see standard post metrics including 2
insights speciﬁc to your watch parties: Minutes Viewed
(the total amount of watch time accrued in your watch
party) and Unique 60s Viewers (total number of unique
users that watched at least 60 seconds).
Remember to inspire authentic interactions and avoid
engagement bait when hosting a watch party. Nobody
likes clickbait including us, and we have ways to detect
and demote artiﬁcial attempts to boost the distribution
of videos. Avoid baiting viewers to vote, react, share,
tag someone, or comment in inauthentic ways. We also
have community standards and integrity policies that
are important to keep in mind; otherwise they may limit
distribution and monetization for your videos.

Polls are a fun way to interact with fans
by asking multiple-choice questions and
letting them share their thoughts, ideas
and opinions. You can create and post a
poll on your Page, in a group, in a story —
and in your VOD and live videos.
Add a poll to your VOD by uploading a video,
clicking “Polls” in the upload screen,
entering your question and 2 to 6 responses,
selecting the timestamp for it to appear, and
toggling whether or not results should be
visible to your fans. You can also add more
than one poll to your video as long as it
appears at a different time. Learn more.
You can also create a live poll using Live
Producer which will allow you to publish
your poll during the broadcast. Learn more.
Do: Don’t
✓ Keep polls short: Shorter poll questions tend to do
better because users can easily engage with the
poll and the video, without detracting too much
focus from the video.
✓ Be positive: Pose the question in a positive way.
For example, “Who was more…?”
✓ Get creative: Use poll questions that have two or
more meaningful answers, not just “Yes” or “No.”
✓ If you plan to use the Yes/No format, make the
language more engaging, e.g. “Yes, she will nail it!”
or “No way, not a chance.”
✓ Fit the content ﬂow: Fewer polls within a
broadcast make each reactive or prediction poll
more impactful.
✓ No more than 1 poll per 15 mins. For longer content,
4 - 6 polls per 2 hour period has worked best.
✓ Don't make polls trivia: Minimize ‘trivia’ questions
as these attract lower engagement.
✓ Don't poll too much: Be mindful of how often you
poll viewers.
✓ Don't engage in any form of “baiting” (like baiting
viewers to react, share, tag someone or comment
in inauthentic ways.)
Like baiting/react baiting: Asking people to react
to the post.
Comment baiting: Asking people to comment with
speciﬁc answers (hashtags, words, numbers,
phrases, or emojis).
Share baiting: Asking people to share the post
with their friends.
Tag baiting: Asking people to tag their friends.
Vote baiting: Asking people to vote using
reactions, comments, sharing, or other means of
representing a vote.
Have fun and learn more about your fans in the process. Ask questions in your videos that
keep them engaged in the story arc or narrative. And create opportunities for them to provide
input on what they like, want to see more of, etc.
4 Add a poll to your video

Replying to comments on your content will
make your fans feel heard. Writing
personalized responses will also make them
feel special as opposed to just liking the
comments or using canned replies. You can
also ask a question to kickstart a dialogue
in the comments between fellow fans.
Inspire engagement by giving fans an
opportunity to share more of their thoughts
and opinions about the kind of content they
want to see from you. Let their responses
inspire you to create content that’s more
targeted to your fans.
Take a look at your insights to understand
what times of day your fans are most active
and consider responding to comments
during that window of time. You can also
experiment with different times to see what
works best.
Invite top creators that you know to jump
into the comments on your posts, and
comment on content posted by their
accounts too. Even if it’s just letting the
person know you enjoyed their video, it’s a
nice way to add to the conversation and
potentially introduce more people to your
community.
5 Get active in the comments

6 Use story stickers
When sharing a photo or video to your story, consider using coronavirus
(COVID-19) response stickers such as Stay Home and Thanks Health
Heroes to help build solidarity. There are many other stickers you can
add to your stories to express yourself in fun and unique way:
• Add a donation sticker to allow people to donate
to a nonprofit that you care about.
• After you select the donation sticker, you can select
the nonprofit you want to raise money for and
customize the name of your fundraiser. When people
see your donation sticker, they can tap Donate to
donate to your selected nonprofit. Swipe up on your
story to see the total amount raised and donations
by username.
• Add a quiz sticker to write your own multiple-
choice question and customize the answers.
• People can respond by tapping an option you've
provided. Once published, your followers can vote
and learn whether they got it right. When you view
your story and swipe up, you can see how many
votes each option received and how each person
voted.
• Add a countdown sticker to count down to any
moment.
• Tap to customize the name, date and time, and color
(by tapping the color picker). When followers see
your countdown sticker in your story, they can tap
the arrow in the corner of the sticker to remind them
or share your countdown to their story. When the
countdown ends, you and everyone who turned on
reminders for your countdown will receive a
notification.
• Add a questions sticker so people can ask you a
question or send you a song.
• People can tap the sticker in your story, then type a
question to ask you or send you a song. When you
view your own story and swipe up, you can see who
responded. Tap a reply from someone to share it.
• Add a music sticker and search for a song.
• If lyrics are available for the song you select, you can
choose different fonts and designs for them, and you can
edit which part of the song you want to play. When
someone watches your story, they can tap the lyrics to
learn more about the artist or listen to more of the song.
• Add a poll sticker or emoji slider sticker to write
your own question and customize the answers.
• People can respond by tapping an option you've
provided or sliding the emoji you've chosen. Once
published, your followers can vote and see realtime
results. When you view your story and swipe up, you
can see how many votes each option received and
how each person voted.
• Add a location sticker by searching for or
selecting nearby options.
• When people see your story, they'll be able to tap
the sticker and view the page for that location.
• Add a hashtag sticker.
• When people see your story, they'll be able to tap
the sticker and view the page for the hashtag you
enter.
• Add a current time or weather sticker.
• Add a selfie sticker by tapping and taking a
photo.
• Pin stickers to a fixed spot in your video.
• After taking a video, add a sticker, then tap it and
hold. Use the slider bar at the bottom of the screen
to scroll through the video to find where you want to
pin the sticker. Move the sticker and tap Pin.

Facebook Guide: Best Practices for Video Creators

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Facebook Guide: Best Practices for Video Creators