Sharing Videos to Facebook

This document offers strategies for promoting your videos and brand using Facebook and takes you step-by-step through the implementation of the Facebook sharing solution that is right for you.

Adopting a Facebook sharing strategy

Video Clouds viral sharing capabilities enable increased exposure of your videos and contribute to a wider awareness of your brand. Video Cloud supports options for how your videos behave when shared on Facebook, as well as options for how viewers share your content. You can set your content to play within a Facebook status, or back at your own site. Likewise, Video Cloud offers different ways for the social media community to share your videos, be it by pasting your video's URL to their Facebook wall or fan page, copying a link from the sharing menu, clicking aFacebook button, or Liking your video where it lives. Before you begin adding viral controls to your player, consider the possibilities and select a viral promotion strategy right for you.

• Sharing videos to play embedded within Facebook
• Driving viewing traffic of shared videos back to your site
• Allowing bloggers and other publishers to make your videos viral
• Adding a Facebook Like button to a Video Cloud Player
• Setting Videos not hosted on Brightcove to Play within Facebook
• Adding a Player to your Facebook Fan Page
  
• Creating a Live Stream Box for Community Watching

Sharing videos to play embedded within Facebook

You can set your players so that when a Facebook member shares a video from a Video Cloud player by clicking the Facebook button from the player's viral sharing menu, or by pasting the link from the copy link control, shared videos play within the Facebook interface so that friends can watch videos on the sharer's Facebook status, just as they watch shared YouTube videos.

After clicking the Facebook button from the Video Cloud player's viral sharing menu, shared Video Cloud videos can play on the sharer's timeline, a friend's timeline, in a group, or in a private message, depending on the selection of the Facebook member sharing the video.

Supported: Video Cloud supports sharing a video from a single player or from a playlist. A video plays inline as the status of the Facebook member in the player from where they were shared; multiple playlist players offer all the videos of the original player and feature the shared video. In addition, Video Cloud supports playing shared videos within the Facebook interface even when Facebook users have enabled secure browsing in their Facebook security settings.

If you host your videos on a Brightcove URL, embedding shared videos in the Facebook interface works without requiring any coding. If you host your videos on your own URL, you need to add Facebook Open Graph tags to the page hosting your player. See Setting Videos not hosted on Brightcove to Play within Facebook for more information. To verify where you host your videos check the hosting options for the player.

Not supported: You cannot share videos from a domain-restricted player to Facebook.

Creating a dedicated player for shared videos

While a dedicated viral player is not required for sharing videos on Facebook, assigning a viral player allows you to control the size and look of the inline player, so that it fits nicely in the Facebook interface. Also assigning a viral player makes it easier for reports to identify when videos are shared directly from your site and through subsequently shared locations.

1. Create a single-video player dedicated to all virally shared videos. While you might elect to share your videos from a player hosting multiple playlists, with multiple tabs, the social networking community shares videos one at a time, in a single video player. Size the player so that when it expands and plays, it fits nicely within the status page. Players 300 x 250 pixels generally fit without scrolling. For more on creating new players, see Creating a Player with the Publishing Module, and be sure to select a template that supports single video play.
2. Set viral controls for your dedicated viral player if you want to promote subsequent sharing from the shared video playing within Facebook.
3. Set this single-video player as your default viral player by editing the Default Viral Player setting within the Publishing Settings section of Account Settings. 

Adding viral sharing controls to your players

Video Cloud players support sharing menus accessible from the  control on chromed players, and at the top right of the player when the video ends. The viral sharing menu provides access to copy the video URL and paste it into the Facebook status, as well as a path to sharing menu which includes Facebook and Twitter buttons. 

To set the viral sharing controls and the Facebook button menu for a player in the Video Cloud Studio:

1. From the Publishing module, select the player from the All Players list and click Settings. 
2. From the edit player dialog, click the Video Player tab and check Share (Get Link and social sharing) from the Viral Promotion Tools. This adds the sharing icon to the controls in chromed players and to the top right of the video end screen. Clicking this icon displays the sharing menu with the Facebook button . 

3. If you would like the viral sharing menu which includes the Facebook button to display as the default menu at the the end of your video, also select Share (Get Link and social sharing) as the Video End Screen option.
4. For more video player options, see Editing Video Player Settings.

Set your shared link to show as a thumbnail

Its easy to create video thumbnails from stills by capturing still images from videos. If you have set a thumbnail image for your video, it will display as a click-to-play image beside the link on the Facebook wall. 

Note: Sending a viewer back to your location from where the video was originally shared requires adding a Facebook Open Graph Protocol meta tag to your page and setting the image tag to the URL of the thumbnail image. To get your video's thumbnail on a Facebook wall and set it as a link to a shared video that plays back at the original location, add this line of code to your <head> tag on the page hosting the video's player and edit the content value with your thumbnail's URL:

<meta property="og:image" content="Add-Thumbnail-URL"/>

See Getting the video thumbnail URL for how to set this value. 

FYI: When sharing directly though theFacebook button from the sharing menu in the player, the sharer has the option to hide thumbnails.

Playing shared videos back at your company's website

You can control the location where the viral sharing community watches your videos within the Facebook interface, or back at your companys site from where it was shared. 

To set your video to play back at your companys site:

1. From the Publishing module, select the player showing your videos and click Settings in the bottom toolbar. 
2. In the Hosting Options of the Global settings, select Host on your URL and enter the address for the page containing the player showing your shared videos.