Snapchat Vs Facebook Vs YouTube: Which View Counts Most for your Start-up Each brags of nearly 10 billion daily views – but which ones are actually helping your business?
By Rustam Singh
Opinions expressed by BIZ Experiences contributors are their own.
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As a business, BIZ Experiences, social media celebrity or even an individual who likes to mark their online activity with passion, the struggle to keep you active on all different social media platforms is real. Primarily so because there are so many of them out there – and if you miss even of the more famous ones, you're not only missing a potential client and decreasing your visibility but also losing possible revenue source from monetization.
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to jack up your Facebook views of some video as compared to the ones on YouTube? The ascending order of difficulty getting newer users to view your content inarguably is Facebook – YouTube – Snapchat. But what exactly does a "view" count in the first place?
Snapchat
Snapchat videos are by its setting limited to 10 seconds at maximum. Of course, users and companies can and do add multiple videos, one after another and more snippets at regular intervals to keep users engaged but this narrow time frame means that Snapchat counts anyone viewing the video as even a second as a countable "view". This means a majority of your views are literally users unaware they can turn off the automatically view all stories feature or auto-load all stories in the latest version of the app, or accidental finger slips to click your video!
Facebook counts any video viewed for more than three seconds as a view, with or without the audio turned off. Add this to the most annoying feature of all time, auto play, and you've got inflated views right there. Even scrolling through your homepage will count as a view.
YouTube
Good old YouTube counts a view only if the video is viewed for a minimum of thirty seconds. However, this number is also variable depending upon the length of the video. It really depends on the video to video basis on what counts.
But at the bottom of it is a major problem none of us want to discuss. Where is all this virtual publicity taking you or your business? Snapchat and Facebook videos literally lead to nowhere – they do absolutely nothing at all. In fact, pushing your video on front will charge you. Snapchat on the other hand, is addictively engaging but currently offers no scope of monetization. Sure, you can use both these platforms for promotions, temporary deals, shootouts, getting paid to affiliate and other subliminal advertising, but being paid directly is not yet an option. Both snapchat and Facebook are literally making money off your own content.
Your wisest bet would be to constantly upload your videos on YouTube and share their links across Facebook and use Snapchat to promote your YouTube, because it will actually pay you for your views. Those hundreds of thousands of views will convert into real, actual money.
Which video sharing platform do you prioritize yours or your start-up's videos first? Let us know in the comments on our official Facebook page BIZ Experiences India
