In 2003, Facebook started video ads, which have continued to gain steam, especially for businesses.“People are sharing and creating nearly three times more video on Facebook than they were a year ago…this presents a big opportunity for marketers,” said Facebook operating chief Sheryl Sandberg. With the rise of video content booming, both Twitter and Instagram recently announced their plans to introduce a series of changes to their platforms in the coming months.
Twitter is set to loosen up their 140-character post limit. No longer will usernames, photos, videos, polls or links count against their character limit. In addition to giving users the chance to write longer messages, their posts can now be more interactive. “One of the biggest priorities for this year is to refine our product and make it simpler. We’re focused on making Twitter a whole lot easier and faster. This is what Twitter is great at – what’s happening now, live conversation and the simplicity that we started the service with,” said Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter.
Instagram also supports the use of video content and has claimed that in the past six months, the time people have spent consuming videos on the app has gone up by 40 percent. Vying to get users attention, Instagram stated they would soon allow businesses to share up to five videos within the same ad.
Throughout the coming months, we will undoubtedly see a significant change in the way video is delivered, appears and how businesses use videos to initiate consumer engagement like never before. An article written by The Guardian states that by 2017, video will account for 69% of all consumer Internet traffic, according to Cisco. Video-on-demand traffic alone will have almost trebled.
Exciting times ahead…