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If you have been on Facebook for any time at all, you are probably aware of Facebook Live. In the off chance that you aren’t aware, Facebook Live is Facebook’s live streaming service they offer, for free, to their members. Great, now that we have established what Facebook live is, let’s discuss how it can benefit you.

You may be thinking, “Why would I use Facebook Live over any other kind of post?”

Well, as it turns out, Facebook Live is a powerful digital marketing tool that carries some benefits that other Facebook posts do not. For starters, Facebook has its own agenda to be the top platform for live videos. Because of this, you are more likely to increase your organic reach.

Along with the increase in organic reach, you also get the addition of a push notification to all your followers! “What’s a push notification?” you ask. Just a magical little message that goes out to every one of your followers, informing them that you are doing a live video. And, did I mention it’s free? That’s right! Without spending a penny, Facebook just alerted all your followers that you are addressing them.

Also, as far as engagement rates go, video generally out-performs other types of posts on Facebook. People are having an increasingly smaller attention span and if you can put some movement in front of them, it disrupts their scrolling pattern. Now, live videos take it one step farther.

If you post a prerecorded video to Facebook, and someone sees that video and likes it, you have just gained 1 engagement; however, when you are doing a live video, the like button is in front of the viewer the entire time that you are live. That means the viewer can hit the like button as many times as they want, and yes each of those likes counts as an engagement.  Side note, if your viewers do hit the like button, Facebook will ask them if they want to share the live video with their friends. That sounds like free advertisement to me.

Now that we have established why you would want to utilize Facebook Live, let’s talk about how and, more specifically, recommendations on preparing to go live and what to do once the camera is rolling, because going live is the easy part. You just go to where you would normally create a post, click the little red button that says go live, then hit the blue go live button and you are live… Then what?

Here are our recommendations for using Facebook Live:

  1. Create a series. This will not only give your viewer a reason to come back, and it will help you improve by having content ahead of time and practicing over several videos.
  2. Create an agenda. Write out everything you want to say and put it somewhere you can reference during the live video. It is easy to panic and draw a blank once you are live, and because you are live, there are no take-backs, no editing later. What happened in front of the camera is what the viewers see. What we like to do at Spry is have the agenda on a whiteboard behind the camera. That way, we aren’t looking away from the camera trying to figure out what’s next.
  3. Engage with your viewers. When you are live, we recommend if you use a phone or a laptop. Make sure that the screen is facing you so you can see when people tune in to watch you. This allows you to interact with them. Remember it is live; your viewers are tuning in to see you in the moment so say hi to them. If they drop questions in the comments, answer the questions. Your viewers will love the real-time engagement.
  4. Do some follow-through. If you mention a piece of content in the live and say you will link it in the comments, don’t forget to go back and link it. You don’t want your viewers to go looking for it and it not be there. Also, go through the comments from the video and respond to anyone who left a comment, even if you replied to them verbally. This will improve your engagement.
  5. Don’t let the fear win! Chances are, your first few live videos will be awkward and messy. Know that it was that way for everyone who has ever done live videos. The key is to keep at it. At the end of the live video, if you don’t like what you did, you have the option to just delete it. This means the only people that will see it are the ones that saw it live, and for your first few, it will probably not be that many. When you do one that you like, then share it. There is very little risk involved with doing live videos.
  6. Lastly, when you do a live video that you really like, boost it. Remember that these live videos are still a post and you have the option to boost them with advertising dollars just like all other posts.

Now it is time! Be brave and go live on Facebook! We’re here to cheer you on!

Additionally, if you liked this information and would love to learn more, join us in our Facebook group for anybody and everybody wanting to learn more about social media.