Facebook is mixing things up and exploring avenues to make businesses and publishers pages more interactive, with the addition of moving cover images.
Well, first of all, I am just glad I am not writing a blog on the topic of Facebook copying Snapchat. Although this isn’t the most exciting feature Facebook has announced in the past month, at least it’s something different.
The social media colossus has gone on record via an email to Social Pro Daily, covered in an Adweek article announcing the changes:
“We’re always looking for ways to help businesses create more engaging experiences and drive more rich experiences for their audiences. To do this, we’re testing the ability for pages to upload a cover video as the page cover.”
Absolutely WOW! @Geoffdx @gcsimos have you seen that?! Video Cover on Facebook already on! cc @PlanableApp pic.twitter.com/FdIwRovdCc
— Vlad Calus (@vladcalus) April 25, 2017
Apart from being eye-catching and potentially more draining on users mobile data, how can this new feature be used by brands?
The obvious answer is to use this space to advertise product launches and offers similar to what Netflix have done with Narcos above. A Facebook banner is the first thing people look at due to its enormous size; this will give brands the chance to make a big opening statement to its visitors.
Although the maximum video length you will be able to use is not known at the moment, we can assume it will be short form, similar to the profile picture update (so no feature length films!)
Similarly, we don’t know when this feature will be made available to the wider public, but based on the previous feature launches it can’t be too far away. So, if you are planning a new marketing campaign this may be something you want to factor into your social arsenal.
But before you go ahead and try retrofitting a short form video originally made for an ad, consider creating something fit for purpose that compliments your campaign (if you have the budget).
Remember people come to pages to view content, not to be sold to, so be subtle and cautious when using the banner to sell as it might be detrimental to the performance of your page.
