Facebook hits 8 billion video views a day, double from April

In a call to investors last week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook has hit 8 billion video views a day, up from 4 billion in April.

I am experiencing this growth firsthand. I posted on Facebook earlier this week a brief video interview I did with Seattle University Law student, Miguel Willis (@MiguelElCapiTon), regarding the Social Justice Hackathon. The next day the video had been viewed over 1,100 times.

TechCrunch’s Josh Constine (@joshconstine) reporting on Zuckerberg’s call says to expect video on Facebook only to grow.

The company aims to connect users and help them share what they care about. Video is becoming the top way to share. That’s in part because the vivid format is aided by the proliferation of mobile phones with powerful video cameras, expansion of storage on these phones and computers, and faster mobile networks to upload and watch these videos. Facebook thrived by embracing photos back around 2005, and now it wants to ride the video wave.

We’re not talking childish videos. COO Sheryl Sandberg, per Constine, said that 1.5 million small and medium-sized businesses shared videos in September.

Over the last year, I’ve been conducting brief video interviews at legal events around the country which I post to Facebook. LegalTech Show, ABA TechShow, Texas Bar Association Annual Meeting, law school programs, Clio Cloud Conference and the Legal Marketing Association Annual Conference to name some of them.

I pull out my iPhone 6s, select an interesting person my followers may like to hear from and do a two- to three-minute interview. I begin asking who they are, what they do and why they are at the conference. Depending on the responses, that may be enough to get a full interview.

I feel a little silly playing junior journalist, but the HD camera on my phone is outstanding and so is the sound from the built-in microphone. Uploading the video, with accompanying text a paragraph or two long, is as easy as posting a picture to Facebook.

Before Facebook and video with my iPhone, I never used video. What video camera would I use? What editing software would I use? How would I upload the video to YouTube? Too much time and I didn’t need the hassle.

With Facebook videos from my iPhone, I do no editing. No intro’s, no snappy audio to begin and end, just shoot and upload. The video is running on Facebook within minutes.

Rather than worrying about how people are going to see the video, my social network on Facebook—as well as the social network of others—gets the video in the News Feed of people who may have an interest in the video.

As with with other posts to Facebook, likes, comments and shares drive engagement among those you know and those you’d like to get to know. As with other content posted online, it’s not always the copy or video itself that’s most important, it’s the engagement which ensues which drives word of mouth and relationships.

We’re seeing an explosion of video online. Facebook, because of its ease of use, built-in audience and distribution channel is going to be an obvious choice for millions of people and businesses.

Lawyers and law firms would be well-advised to learn how to build a social network on Facebook—and then how to use video to build relationships and a reputation.