Short answer
Only for a while. Video and live video drew extra engagement in 2016, but the premium had faded by 2019 and 2020, even though parties kept posting video.
What the evidence shows
- Links fell from about two thirds of party posts in 2010 to 2014 to a quarter in 2020, while video uploaded to Facebook rose from 4% of posts in 2014 to 29% in 2019, and live video to about 5%.
- In 2016, comparing posts by the same page, video drew about 47% more interactions than photos and live video about 94% more.
- In 2019 and 2020 video drew about 19% and 13% fewer interactions than photos, and live video no more. Links drew fewer than photos from 2018.
- Pages that posted more video in 2016 did not see larger gains in engagement from 2015 to 2019.
Caveats
Part of the shift from links to photos in 2015 coincides with an abrupt change in how posts were classified in May 2015, which the paper documents.