Facebook recently revealed that they’ve been overestimating view time on their videos for the past 2 years. If you’re curious how something like this could go undiscovered for so long, the answer may surprise you. In a world of walled gardens, many of the metrics reported by social networks are proprietary, hidden from external measurement and unique to each specific platform.
As a result, what counts as a view on one platform may not count at all on another. Here’s a quick breakdown of how all the major video sharing platforms count their views. You can also download a high-resolution version of the infographic by clicking here.
The video measurement issue is only going to get bigger. Platforms that were once primarily text and photo-based, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, are quickly being overtaken by video content. In fact, the Cisco Visual Networking Index predicts that video will account for 80% of all Internet traffic by 2019. Furthermore, the Content Marketing Institute estimates that 82% of business-to-consumer marketers are expected to use video content in 2016.
At Pressboard, we’ve always advocated for using qualified attention-based metrics as opposed to inflated or inaccurate vanity metrics. Understanding how different platforms count and qualify views is a great first step in ensuring that your brand is monitoring the right metrics and crafting your video strategy accordingly.
