It appears as though the days of content writing services producing the easiest to view content are numbered.  The UK’s biggest social media network Facebook are taking steps towards rolling out auto play video adverts on their social media platform.

Device Power

The main reason that Facebook is now able to offer auto play advertising content is due to the power of the devices that it is viewed on.  As smartphones get more and more powerful, it has become less of a problem to simply view a video in amongst other content.  Older devices would need to dedicate the majority of their processing power to playing video at the expense of other tasks.  Now a Smartphone can play a video which a user can scroll past without even bothering to stop it, with their experience of Facebook unaffected by the running video.

Competitors (and subsidiaries)

As a result, a number of other social media sites with apps on mobile have autoplay videos.  Instagram video will launch with a tap within the newsfeed, as will videos on Twitters new dedicated video service, Vine.  These services play user generated content automatically however, rather than adverts.

Issues

Facebook does not want to just plant commercials seen on UK television in the middle of a user’s newsfeed however.  They want advertisers to create content especially for their site, just like how content writing services tailor their content to the audience.  Facebook believes TV adverts will be ineffective, and wants to see companies invest in content that Facebook users will actually appreciate.

Entertaining

A good example would be the recent LG Ultra HD promotional video which has gone viral.  In an effort to promote how realistic their television screens are, LG produced a short clip which made it appear that the world was coming to an end to an unsuspecting interviewee.

The window had been replaced with a television showing an incoming meteorite and its subsequent destruction of the world, and each interviewee in the video was convinced it was real.  A cruel joke perhaps to make people believe their demise was near, but an entertaining piece of footage which achieved its objective.

Content writing services also have a similar mandate.  With their content they write pieces which are of interest to the reader,and relevant to their UK location, rather than simply a piece of copy urging them to buy a product.

Quiet

Facebook’s other insistence is that the videos begin playing without sound.  The user would then be able to click on sound should they be sufficiently interested in the content.  Facebook wants to monetise the service as much as possible but not if it compromises the user experience.  At $1 million (minimum) per video advert, TV companies will want to invest sufficiently in creating the best possible content to make it worthwhile.

Content Writing Services Part of a Greater Content Strategy

Of course content writing services are normally part of a wider content strategy that includes video.  Written content will continue to have a key advantage over video in its placement in Google search results where the main Google UK search page still mostly points to written web content.  Perhaps though, this may be a different type of internet where content writing services are used to create scripts for videos which make up the majority of internet content.