What is native content?
Native content is content you post directly into a social media network, instead of simply posting a link. When users click on a link, they are automatically taken to a different website (say, your business website or YouTube) and most of them don’t come back. Not that day, anyway. They get distracted by the other site and stay there. With native content, users don’t have to go anywhere.
Facebook would like its users to stay on their platform and not go zipping off to some other site, especially not YouTube, which is one of Facebook’s competitors. This also goes for any other social media service, many of which have algorithms that assign greater value to native content. That’s right; post a link, and fewer people will see your post. It’s not Facebook’s job to promote YouTube, after all.
If you start posting native content, not links, you will instantly see your views go up.
A study from Quintly analyzed over 6 million posts on Facebook and found that native videos performed better, averaging nearly 110% more interactions and 478% more shares than YouTube. Throughout December 2016, native videos received a 1,055.41% higher share rate than videos linked to YouTube. This is not a subtle difference.
When you post native content on social media, you get more views—and your message gets through just as clearly as if you had directed users to your blog or your YouTube channel. It’s still your name and your unique voice getting out there. That’s a win for you and for Facebook.
There are many details like this for social media that will dramatically improve your success in content marketing. Knowing these details can play a major role in the success of your company.