3 Steps to Formatting Your Videos to Entice Views on Facebook

Tim Schmoyer, whom you may remember from our post on how to feel more comfortable on camera, has been training creators to master the YouTube platform for since 2013 with his company, Video Creators. Last week, he took to Facebook to share some tips on how to structure your Facebook videos to get more views.

In his video below, which you can also find on Facebook, Tim outlines three steps for crafting the first 5-10 seconds of your video to entice people to click and watch as they scroll through their News Feed. In the News Feed, native Facebook video will auto-play without any sound, which Tim explains make “the first several seconds of your video act like a visual animated motion thumbnail for your video.”

How do you make the most of these first several seconds? Here’s what Tim recommends:

1. Clear visual hook – Start with some surprising, or use colorful text with motion to catch people’s attention as they scroll through their News Feed.
2. Click to listen – Let viewers know that there’s audio by showing, as he puts it, “something that indicates there’s audio and I’m missing it right now” (i.e. a person talking).
3. Strong hook – By this point, about 7 seconds in, people will have been drawn in and clicked to hear your audio. Now is the time to lay your hook to entice them to watch the rest of the video.

Are you using video on Facebook? If so, we’d love to see what you’re doing. Leave a comment below or reach out on our Facebook page. Want to learn more about Facebook video from Tim Schmoyer? Check out his video on why Facebook video beats YouTube.

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