It’s very difficult to predict with any great accuracy the next move of any company let alone the largest social network in the world, but we’re going to give it a crack!

For a while now, here at The Practice we have been debating amongst ourselves exactly what, if anything Facebook is lacking. We seemed to agree that native video streaming capability for both social and business user was in order.

Although we know that there are some apps out there, such as ustream and livestream that to an extent target this niche, the problem is they don’t go the whole way, nor is it encouraged/accommodated by Facebook themselves. There is huge potential, particularly from a marketing point of view for such a service. For businesses to be able to stream video adverts on their Facebook page would allow brands to keep their videos or a “brand channel” all in one place and away from Facebook’s competitor YouTube. Surely this opportunity would be invaluable?

Not only will users and brands/marketers gain from this new feature, but Facebook would gain another revenue stream. With many users accessing the site with mute on (those noisy pop-ups at work are ever so embarrassing), brands would find new and inventive ways to create silent clips that have as much an impact as their audible cousins on YouTube and TV.

As we mentioned, we don’t think this new feature would be solely used by businesses, an average social user could have load of fun too. However, it would be entirely up to Facebook to whom gains access. To an extent, the introduction of a cover photo to the timeline is a progression towards this, but a designated video area carries with it much more potential. Nevertheless, just as Instagram has brought with it a rise in creative photography, so too we feel a ‘cover video’ would accommodate a creative cinematography surge. Different from YouTube, the ‘cover video’ could be used as an expression of both the individual and the business.

Certainly, the introduction of such a service is not without its potential problems. For starters, Facebook’s 800 million users come from all walks of life some obviously still don’t have superfast broadband to cope with a constant stream of video. Furthermore, many mobile devices still don’t (and possibly never will) support flash and even if they could, often don’t have the mobile data connection to stream it (at least in the UK). That being said, I’m sure the clever people in Facebook’s headquarters in California could come up with a solution to many of those problems.

As headlines question why Facebook is becoming less cool, we believe its only a matter of time before the social giant gets its groove back and a video streaming/TV channel feature could quite possibly be its hand hold.

What do you think? Have we lost our minds or are we onto to something here? We would love to hear your thoughts :-)