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They are also blaming it on Facebook: > “In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so [CollegeHumor] pivoted to FB,” former Colle

by jannes 7y ago

They are also blaming it on Facebook: > “In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so [CollegeHumor] pivoted to FB,” former CollegeHumor writer Adam Conover presciently tweeted last October. “So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated."

ASalazarMX 7y ago
I don't understand this. Did they abandon Youtube for Facebook? They could have easily managed their followers in Facebook while continuing to upload to Youtube as usual.
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  It's not the uploading that's the problem, it's the budget you spend on getting new Facebook likes or YouTube channel subscriptions. Buying Facebook likes looked like a wildly better investment, but that was an illusion.
  - dudus 7y ago
    Since both platform forbid straight up buying likes and subscribers that would be a hard line to argue against any of them.
    - ceejayoz 7y ago
      Uh, what? "About Page likes ads": https://www.facebook.com/business/help/209213872548401 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/209213872548401 > Page likes ads help you reach people who may like your Page. If your goal is to increase awareness of your business, these ads are a way to promote your Page to people who are interested in your content or businesses like yours. "Advertising your channel": https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/ad-promotion https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/ad-promotion > To help drive more views and subscribers to your channel, you can pay to run an ad campaign for your videos on YouTube through Google Ads. You can create an ad that appears before a video starts, or alongside a video on its watch page on YouTube. Both ban purchasing fake followers, but they'll happily take money to put your page/channel in front of potential genuine subscribers.
    - corobo 7y ago
      You're thinking dodgy likes. I think the parent comment is referring to ads https://i.imgsir.com/Bv2k.png https://i.imgsir.com/Bv2k.png
- irjustin 7y ago
  A large problem is content stealers. They'll post the entire video without attribution. Also Facebook for a very long time didn't do anything to prevent content stealing even with takedown notices there were too many. FB didn't have an automated system. College humour was basically forced to put their entire video just to retain views.
  - blackearl 7y ago
    Comedy Central nearly gave fatjew a show and he only steals
  - blackearl 7y ago
    Not sure why I was flagged, @fatjewish was popular on twitter/ig/etc. and was nearly given a comedy central show until comedians complained that he stole jokes.
- chc 7y ago
  To my understanding, what Facebook tried to present to online producers was that publishing native video directly on Facebook was insanely lucrative, not just that they should have a Facebook page.
- amyjess 7y ago
  Before they started posting native video on Facebook, their Facebook page consisted of links to stuff posted on the CollegeHumor website. Fans would share CollegeHumor posts to their own timeline, and their friends would click on the links and go to CollegeHumor's site and partake in the community, and if they liked it enough, they'd bookmark the website and just go there. But with native video, you don't get that. What happens on Facebook stays on Facebook. People who watch a video on Facebook might like the video or even leave a comment, but they won't follow through and go to CollegeHumor's website. When they're done with the video, they'll just continue scrolling through their feed.
  - milesvp 7y ago
    What’s interesting is there’ve been a couple threads recently on HN talking about this with medium. Bloggers who’ve lost a significant amount of self referral traffic by relying on medium for it’s traffic spikes. Seems to be a common pattern unintentionally trading your long tail for initial spike traffic. I’d be surprised if this is ever sustainable.
- metamet 7y ago
  Robert Evans (from Behind the Bastards podcast) mentioned in one of his episodes what happened at Cracked when FB's falsified lure led to a strong content pivot to FB. This, obviously, didn't pan out according to what was advertised. The way I understand it, management trusted FB more than they should've, overhauling the way they approached content, which resulted in all the eggs being in one dropped basket.
- smooveCriminal 7y ago
  I believe it's because Facebook seemed more lucrative because they faked viewership numbers: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-10/hiltzik-facebooks-bogus-video-claims-40-million https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-10/hiltzik-fa...
sulkie 7y ago
Would there be significant disadvantages in using both platforms at the same time? Or does "pivoted to FB" also imply that the content was adjusted to FB audience?
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  Using, no, but at some point there will have been meetings about where to use the marketing budget. "We can buy Facebook likes, or YouTube subscribers." "Engagement's so much better on Facebook, let's buy likes." Facebook's incorrect (dramatically so - as high as 900% inflated) stats made buying a like look way more cost effective, so that's where the budgets went.
- michaelt 7y ago
  I think "pivoted to FB" means "Instead of putting the videos on our site and posting links to our site on FB, we posted native videos on FB"
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

by jannes 7y ago

ASalazarMX 7y ago

I don't understand this. Did they abandon Youtube for Facebook? They could have easily managed their followers in Facebook while continuing to upload to Youtube as usual.

ceejayoz 7y ago
It's not the uploading that's the problem, it's the budget you spend on getting new Facebook likes or YouTube channel subscriptions. Buying Facebook likes looked like a wildly better investment, but that was an illusion.
- dudus 7y ago
  Since both platform forbid straight up buying likes and subscribers that would be a hard line to argue against any of them.
  - ceejayoz 7y ago
    Uh, what? "About Page likes ads": https://www.facebook.com/business/help/209213872548401 https://www.facebook.com/business/help/209213872548401 > Page likes ads help you reach people who may like your Page. If your goal is to increase awareness of your business, these ads are a way to promote your Page to people who are interested in your content or businesses like yours. "Advertising your channel": https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/ad-promotion https://creatoracademy.youtube.com/page/lesson/ad-promotion > To help drive more views and subscribers to your channel, you can pay to run an ad campaign for your videos on YouTube through Google Ads. You can create an ad that appears before a video starts, or alongside a video on its watch page on YouTube. Both ban purchasing fake followers, but they'll happily take money to put your page/channel in front of potential genuine subscribers.
  - corobo 7y ago
    You're thinking dodgy likes. I think the parent comment is referring to ads https://i.imgsir.com/Bv2k.png https://i.imgsir.com/Bv2k.png
irjustin 7y ago
A large problem is content stealers. They'll post the entire video without attribution. Also Facebook for a very long time didn't do anything to prevent content stealing even with takedown notices there were too many. FB didn't have an automated system. College humour was basically forced to put their entire video just to retain views.
- blackearl 7y ago
  Comedy Central nearly gave fatjew a show and he only steals
- blackearl 7y ago
  Not sure why I was flagged, @fatjewish was popular on twitter/ig/etc. and was nearly given a comedy central show until comedians complained that he stole jokes.
chc 7y ago
To my understanding, what Facebook tried to present to online producers was that publishing native video directly on Facebook was insanely lucrative, not just that they should have a Facebook page.
amyjess 7y ago
Before they started posting native video on Facebook, their Facebook page consisted of links to stuff posted on the CollegeHumor website. Fans would share CollegeHumor posts to their own timeline, and their friends would click on the links and go to CollegeHumor's site and partake in the community, and if they liked it enough, they'd bookmark the website and just go there. But with native video, you don't get that. What happens on Facebook stays on Facebook. People who watch a video on Facebook might like the video or even leave a comment, but they won't follow through and go to CollegeHumor's website. When they're done with the video, they'll just continue scrolling through their feed.
- milesvp 7y ago
  What’s interesting is there’ve been a couple threads recently on HN talking about this with medium. Bloggers who’ve lost a significant amount of self referral traffic by relying on medium for it’s traffic spikes. Seems to be a common pattern unintentionally trading your long tail for initial spike traffic. I’d be surprised if this is ever sustainable.
metamet 7y ago
Robert Evans (from Behind the Bastards podcast) mentioned in one of his episodes what happened at Cracked when FB's falsified lure led to a strong content pivot to FB. This, obviously, didn't pan out according to what was advertised. The way I understand it, management trusted FB more than they should've, overhauling the way they approached content, which resulted in all the eggs being in one dropped basket.
smooveCriminal 7y ago
I believe it's because Facebook seemed more lucrative because they faked viewership numbers: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-10/hiltzik-facebooks-bogus-video-claims-40-million https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-10-10/hiltzik-fa...

sulkie 7y ago

Would there be significant disadvantages in using both platforms at the same time? Or does "pivoted to FB" also imply that the content was adjusted to FB audience?

ceejayoz 7y ago
Using, no, but at some point there will have been meetings about where to use the marketing budget. "We can buy Facebook likes, or YouTube subscribers." "Engagement's so much better on Facebook, let's buy likes." Facebook's incorrect (dramatically so - as high as 900% inflated) stats made buying a like look way more cost effective, so that's where the budgets went.
michaelt 7y ago
I think "pivoted to FB" means "Instead of putting the videos on our site and posting links to our site on FB, we posted native videos on FB"

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]