It’s been on the cards for a while and has been available to select users in the US since August 2017, but today Facebook Watch finally became available everywhere, giving people around the world a new way to discover great videos and interact with friends and other fans. Videos that can be viewed range from mini documentaries to live sporting events.

This new video-on-demand service offers personalised recommendations for videos to watch, as well as categories of combined video content, such as ‘Most Talked About’, ‘What’s Making People Laugh’ and ‘Shows Your Friends Are Watching’. Facebook Watch is aimed at allowing creators and publishers to stream short-form and high-end originals to a more tailored audience, using advertising breaks to monetise videos.

It’s been portrayed as a rival to YouTube, but it also competes for attention against traditional TV channels as well as online outlets including Netflix, BBC iPlayer and Instagram TV.

With the service comes the ‘community feel’ that Facebook loves, and users can add comments and connect with friends and other viewers while watching, or even participate in a dedicated Facebook Group for the show they’re watching – this sounds pretty cool right?!

How do I access Facebook Watch?

To access the new service, simply click on the icon at the bottom of your feed – the one that looks like a TV with a play button on it, this will then launch Facebook Watch for you and will take you to your Watchlist.

What makes Facebook Watch different from other streaming services?

Facebook has had to find a way to make Watch stand out from all the other services available and here is how they’ve done it:

1. Original video content, which can be viewed through a new tab called “Watch”, is exclusive to Facebook Watch and can’t be seen anywhere else.

2. Facebook Watch is totally free for the viewing audience. All you need to do is be logged into your Facebook account.

3. Finally, Facebook Watch is hyper-personalised in a way no streaming platform has been before. This means it uses data in a more advanced way, taking advantage of everything users already love about the platform – it’s personal and it’s social.

Like Netflix and other streaming services, Facebook Watch is available on mobile, on desktop and laptop, and in Facebook’s TV apps.

It also doesn’t matter about which platform you use to watch it, the Watchlist feature will ensure you never miss out on the latest episodes of your favourite shows.

Having Facebook Watch available is very interesting news for marketers as Facebook users will be able to embrace video not only as bite-sized segments, but also as long form Livestreams and original content. Also, the fact that advertising is available through Watch means that if people adopt this new platform, audience targeting will become very valuable.

What future do you see for Facebook Watch? How will this impact your social media strategy? We’d love to hear your thoughts so why not drop us a message? Alternatively, if you would like to know more about how Facebook Watch could benefit your business, why not get in touch and let Social Soda help you? You can contact us at hello@socialsoda.co.uk