Facebook Video Offers Embedding Options and uStudio Joins In
Facebook announced an early holiday gift for brand marketers today, as it released improvements to its video embedding tools. While Facebook video debuted embedding back in March of this year, today the social network added an API for its embedded video player.
The API brings ease and customization to embedding Facebook video. Sites can control autoplay (with the starting volume on or off) and video volume. They can create embed playlists of videos and customize the controls that viewers see. They can even create custom buttons that match their site's interface, and set the thumbnail image.
The cloud-based video management company uStudio is all-in with the Facebook improvements, as its HTML5 interactive player framework is the first authoring platform that lets brands add custom features to native Facebook videos. These features will stay in place even when the videos are embedded on other sites. Options include polls and surveys, e-commerce links, and video annotations. All of these features can improve viewer engagement and create value for brands, uStudio notes.
To see these improvements in action, look to this page for Selena Gomez, CES, and Disney music videos created by uStudio. The Gomez video uses a chromeless player with links for ticket-buying, social network sharing, and signing up for an email list. The CES player uses overlays that let viewers register for the show and book a hotel room. The Disney player takes viewers to multiple shopping pages.
uStudio customers can also now publish their videos directly to Facebook's native player. That makes Facebook sharing easier, and lets brands take advantage of Faceook ad-targeting options.
Facebook video's second announcement makes use of oEmbed, an open format used to embed content from one website onto another page. Developers can now add Facebook oEmbed support to their content management systems (CMS) so that users can easily embed Facebook videos and posts to their pages. See Facebook's oEmbed documentation to get started.
Troy Dreier's article first appeared on OnlineVideo.net