Expert: What Facebook’s side-by-side video feature means

Facebook recently changed how video rolls on the social network with a side-by-side feature. While consumers have shown interest in the new feature, it may not be such a great option for businesses. Here’s why.

Kristina: Facebook recently expanded the watch-and-scroll feature for video – what is the reasoning behind this move?

Julie Ginches, CMO, ViralGains: Facebook’s goal is to drive up view time and to equate those times to engagement, but engagement is more complex, especially when users don’t realize they’re watching a video. Additionally, videos appear in the left margin of the user feed, which can distract and annoy users (as well as rack up advertiser charges without any meaningful user engagement). The other consideration is just how much attention the user actually pays to Facebook videos versus their true interest in what their friends are posting. At best, these videos receive continuous partial attention (the term coined by Linda Stone to describe the process of paying simultaneous attention to a number of sources of incoming information, but at a superficial level). By definition, these ads should have an inherently low conversion rate because the user’s attention is splintered between the advertiser videos and all of the content posted by friends, news sources, and groups the user chose to follow.

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