The Pocket Guide to Social Video
The landscape of social media is constantly shifting. And so is the role and impact of video within it.
Video remains, by far, the most valuable and engaging content across social platforms. One third of time spent online is spent watching video! But each platform draws different audiences with different desires and expectations, and each uses different algorithms to decide what gets seen.
Let’s take a look at some hard statistics about the power of video on the major social networks.
Facebook remains at the top for video
Facebook remains at the top of the social ladder. And with a years-long push behind video content, it has become the center of the social video universe. Publishers and brands of every kind turn to the platform as the foundation of their video strategies.
- Facebook has 2 billion monthly users.
- Average daily video views on Facebook are over 8 billion.
- Views of branded content on Facebook have risen 258% since 2016.
- Square video makes up 50% of Wochit-made Facebook videos.
- Square videos get 275% more views, 482% more shares, 523% more comments, and 349% more reactions than the average.
- Only 1.2% of videos go viral on Facebook.
- Viral videos command 38.7% of total views and 58.3% of total shares.
- Longer videos do better: videos 90 seconds and longer receive 52.1% more shares and 48.2% more views than the average of all videos.
- Videos are getting longer: by the end of 2017, nearly a quarter of all Wochit-produced Facebook videos (22.1%) were over 90 seconds.
- 85% of users will at some point watch video with the sound off
Instagram continues to grow
Instagram has seen significant growth on the back of Instagram Stories. Beyond this Snapchat-cloned feature, the platform has continued to gain users and continues to push video.
- Instagram has 500 million daily users and 800 million monthly users..
- Instagram Stories has over 250 million daily users (easily trumping Snapchat’s 178 million).
- Video consumption is up more than 80%
- Instagram is the only platform where photos still get more engagement.
Twitter is not to be ignored
Twitter hasn’t seen the same meteoric rise in users as Facebook and Instagram. But like Facebook and Instagram, Twitter has leaned heavily into video, pushing live broadcasts and all kinds of video content.
- Twitter enjoys 330 million monthly users.
- 82% of Twitter users watch video on the platform.
- 90% of Twitter video views happen on a mobile device.
- Tweet with video are 6x more likely to be retweeted.
YouTube remains an essential video pillar
In thinking about social video, the original home of video has to be taken into account. While Facebook boasts more daily views, YouTube is still an essential hub for online and social video.
- YouTube has over 5 billion video views per day.
- Watch time has risen 60% year-to-year.
- 20% of viewers leave videos after the first 10 seconds.
- Views of branded content have risen a 99% since 2016.
- More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
A few final, across-the-board stats
On every major social networks, video remains the star of the show. Social audiences crave it, consume it, and share it in record numbers – and they are showing no signs of slowing down. For brands and publishers looking to expand their impact on social, there are few final things to know, regardless of where you’re posting.
- Videos under 90 seconds see an average retention rate of 53%
- Overall, videos retain 37% of viewers all the way to the end
- 43% of people want to see more video content from marketers
- By 2020, 75% of all mobile data traffic worldwide will be video. by 2020.
- The 4 most common video types: explainers, product demos, how-tos, testimonials
