In a recent article, we talked about the growing importance for marketers to have a Facebook video strategy. A couple of new reports further emphasize that importance.

Do you have a Facebook video plan? What do you see some doing wrong with their Facebook videos? Discuss.

SocialBakers released some research looking at three trends that dominated social video in 2015. The trends were: native video dominated Facebook and Twitter, new technology means deeper brand building, and GIFs and cinemagraphs were big.

“In 2015, we definitively found that you should be posting native social media videos. But the real takeaway – truly the lesson for 2016 – is that as social video becomes even more complex and well-mined territory, you can’t let the tech define your message,” writes SocialBakers social media analyst Phillip Ross. “Instead, brands need to find how their message can be enhanced by novel content forms.”

According to the firm, the take-home message needs to be at the beginning of your native video.

“By July 2015, the world’s top brands consistently posted between 2500-3000 native Facebook videos every month,” writes Ross. “Their audiences were already accustomed to seeing so many excellent native videos – celebrity pages had been posting at that rate since March. But brands caught up to those pages, mostly. For instance, celebrity pages posted 60% more native Facebook videos than the top brand pages did in November 2014. One year later, the top brands actually posted native videos 8% more often than their celebrity counterparts, and those native posts made up almost all of the brands’ video interactions.”

Regarding technology for deeper brand building, SocialBakers is talking about the new 360-degree virtual reality video option, which creates some interesting new opportunities for marketers.

As far as cinemagraph and GIFs, they suggest using them to deliver actions shots of your product, but warn not to stretch your message just to use the format.

“In the past year, Facebook has unveiled several new video tools for Pages to give publishers more control and customization for their videos,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews. “As a publisher, reaching the right audience at the right time is a key to success.”

Facebook recently offered ten tips for videos, including: schedule videos to automate your content calendar; set expiration dates for videos; add captions to tell your story with and without sound; edit and manage all your videos with your Video Library; embed your videos elsewhere; utilize secret videos; manage video distribution settings with your Video Library; explore your “Top Videos”; monitor your retention graph; and track engagement metrics.

More on all of this here.

In recent months, there have been rumors that Facebook is considering launching a standalone video app, which would make a great deal of sense considering it’s competing more and more directly with YouTube. During the company’s recent earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg noted that Facebook has been testing new experiences to help people discover more videos they might be interested in, including suggested videos. He also noted that they’re “exploring ways” to give users a dedicated place to watch Facebook videos.

He didn’t come right out and say they’re working on a standalone video app, but two things Facebook has been all about over the past year or two have been video and standalone apps. It’s only a matter of time. In fact, The Wall Street Journal has even reported in the past that Facebook is developing on, though this hasn’t been officially confirmed.

Last week, Facebook announced that live video streaming was rolling out to all U.S. iPhone users and that it plans to launch the feature to everyone else in the coming weeks. This means a lot more video on Facebook and even more need for a standalone app.

Marketing Land points to data from iSpot.tv indicating that Facebook has surpassed YouTube in Super Bowl commercial video views. Matt McGee reports:

In data sent to Marketing Land counting video views through Tuesday (February 2), the company says there have been 75 million Super Bowl ad video views on Facebook, compared to 74.9 million on YouTube. Last year at this time, iSpot.tv says YouTube had a big lead in video views — 87.6 million to 45.5 million.

Last year we talked to marketing consultant Brian Honigman, who had written a great piece called “Facebook Video vs. YouTube: Maximizing Results in the Evolving Video Landscape.” He shared some additional thoughts on the subject with us.

“While Facebook can be counted on for viral lift, if your video doesn’t ‘pop’ on Facebook it will vanish pretty quickly, whereas slow and steady evergreen content can pay dividends for a long time on YouTube,” he said.

It’s a good point, but that was also well before talk of a standalone Facebook video app. Is YouTube in trouble?

What do you think? Does Facebook pose a threat to YouTube in video? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Image via Facebook