Last week, we told you about Facebook Live, a new live streaming function on the popular social network. This week, we’d like to delve a little deeper and talk about using Facebook Live as part of your company’s marketing efforts. After all, it’s a powerful and free tool for all Facebook users. All you need is some creativity and a smartphone. However, as with any other aspect of marketing and promotions, you don’t just want to turn on Facebook Live and see what happens. Here are seven tips for making the most of Facebook Live.
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Announce your broadcast.
While one of the fun aspects of Live is its spontaneity, it’s still wise for marketers to let their followers know that they’ll be going live. You can announce it on Facebook and Twitter the same day, or you can plan ahead and let followers know a few days ahead of time. If you really plan in advance, include a note about it in your email newsletter.
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Check your connections.
Facebook Live works best with a good wifi signal. If there’s no wifi, a strong 4G LTE signal should work just fine. It’s important to check your connections in advance, though, as a slow wifi or poor cellular connection will cause your live video to hitch or, even worse, drop out entirely.
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Anticipate your content.
Planning ahead, even a little, will result in a better Live experience for you and a better Live video for your viewers. Figure out what you’ll be broadcasting; it could be an event, a live Q&A session, or just a member of your company speaking with followers or conducting a live interview with a customer or professional. Whatever you choose, it’s best to have a topic and a reason in mind before you go Live.
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Do some pre-Live prep.
Before you go Live, take a few minutes to write a good, brief description of your Live video. This is important because as viewers scroll by and discover your video, they’ll wonder what’s going on. Here’s your chance to quickly bring them up to speed on what you’re doing.
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Go long.
Figure on doing Live feeds of at least four or five minutes, especially when you first start out. This helps you pick up more viewers as they scroll by — it makes your feed more discoverable because there’s a bigger window of time for people to find it. Also, when you’re Live for a while, your viewers can share as it’s happening.
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Encourage viewers to subscribe.
When your followers subscribe to your Live feeds, they’ll get a notification each time you go Live, and you’ll probably improve your viewership for upcoming broadcasts. There’s a small subscribe button in the top right corner of each Live video, and you’ll want to ask your viewers to click on that.
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Share later.
While Live broadcasts can be exciting, the unfortunate reality is that not everyone who wants to see it will see it when it’s Live. Fortunately, Facebook Live broadcasts can be saved and shared the next day, the next week, or whenever. To reach as many followers as possible, consider Tweeting a link to a past Live broadcast, embedding it in a blog post, or including it in a future email communication.
Start Going Live!
The necessary equipment is minimal, but the possibilities are endless. What are you waiting for? Don’t wait much longer to try a Live broadcast to your followers!