Video is the future (and present, for that matter) on the internet. Most people will opt to watch a short, snappy video than read a page of text, which makes video incredibly useful on sites like Facebook where it is preferred over text anyway.

It’s obviously good to have video on your page, but what’s even better is being able to have a featured video. Featured videos are displayed prominently on your page at the top of the video window on both your timeline and in the video section. Exactly how prominently it is displayed on your page depends on the template you’re using for your page and how you have your tabs etc. arranged.

You can use a Featured Video for an introductory video to your brand, which stays as the Featured Video permanently or you can make a new video the featured one each day or week if you have different videos you want to promote. No matter how you do it, your Featured Video will always be the one that is displayed most prominently.

Let’s get started.

How to Pick the Format for Your Facebook Video

First, a look at what formats Facebook allows. Facebook recommends MP4 or MOV video formats, but it also supports the following formats:

• 3g2 (Mobile Video)
• 3gp (Mobile Video)
• 3gpp (Mobile Video)
• asf (Windows Media Video)
• avi (AVI Video)
• dat (MPEG Video)
• divx (DIVX Video)
• dv (DV Video)
• f4v (Flash Video)
• flv (Flash Video)
• m2ts (M2TS Video)
• m4v (MPEG-4 Video)
• mkv (Matroska Format)
• mod (MOD Video)
• mpe (MPEG Video)
• mpeg (MPEG Video)
• mpeg4 (MPEG-4 Video)
• mpg (MPEG Video)
• mts (AVCHD Video)
• nsv (Nullsoft Video)
• ogm (Ogg Media Format)
• ogv (Ogg Video Format)
• qt (QuickTime Movie)
• tod (TOD Video)
• ts (MPEG Transport Stream)
• vob (DVD Video)
• wmv (Windows Media Video)

So … pretty much any format.

How to Upload Your Featured Video

Uploading a Featured Video is actually the same as uploading a regular video (it doesn’t become featured until you designate it as such).

To do that, you simply:

1. Click on the Photo/Video icon at the top of your timeline.

2. This will cause a drop down menu to appear in some kind of manner with “Upload Photos/Video” at the top.

3. Click on “Upload Photos/Video” and a finder window will appear. Simply navigate to your video and choose it.

4. Click “Post.” Your video will not appear right away. It needs to be processed by Facebook. Once that is complete, you will be notified by Facebook that your video is up on your page.

How to Make an Existing Video a Featured Video

To make any of your videos the Feature Video, you simply:

1. Navigate to your video page by clicking on the videos tab on your page. (Where exactly that is will again depend on how you have your page set up.)

2. Click on the “Choose Video” button in the “Feature One of Your Videos” box.

3. Choose which video to feature in the pop up window and once you’ve chosen which video you want to feature, click the Add Featured Video Button in the bottom right corner of the window.

4. Your featured video will now be displayed prominently at the top of your video page and at the top of your video section on your timeline.

Facebook also allows you to create video playlists so you can group videos together that are all about the same subject or theme. When you create a playlist, you can name it, add a description, choose up to 100 videos for it and then arrange the videos in whatever order you want.

Speaking of videos, if you want to really take your business to the next level, you should absolutely get a top-notch explainer video created (and feature it on your Facebook page). To make an appointment to do that, click right here.