Facebook Live has developed into a popular and trendy form of content. As an entrepreneur, coach, marketer, or influencer, you must leverage live streaming. It’s the best way to engage your audience and get your message across in an efficient way.
Live streaming is popular for obvious reasons: people love to consume video content.
People spend 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video than a traditional video. Live videos are more interesting than those that are no longer live.
But going live on a platform can be a scary experience, especially when you’re not prepared. This guide will help you understand:
What Is A Facebook Live?
What is Facebook Live anyway?
Launched in April 2016, Facebook Live is a video streaming service that allows individual users and businesses to broadcast videos, allowing followers to watch live content and respond.
It’s two-way communication between the host and the viewer.
Facebook Live is a free feature available to pages and profiles on Facebook. It’s an incredible opportunity for you to share live content with your clients, friends, and followers.
Facebook Live comes with exciting features such as filters, masks, lenses, live reactions, and the option to write or invite friends.
With Facebook Live Map, people can easily find local and relevant content.
Viewers can use Live Reactions using 6 emojis which ultimately helps businesses measure customer reactions to a certain piece of content.
All you have to do is use the camera on your mobile device or computer to broadcast real-time video to Facebook users. You have the freedom to decide who can see your videos.
Let’s say you’re a business coach or mentor conducting a coaching session.
Facebook Live can dramatically expand your reach - you can get seen by thousands of people across the globe.
It’s a great way for entrepreneurs and influencers to share events, gatherings, performances, and product promotions with Facebook followers.
Your audience can watch you from a desktop, hand-held devices, or connected TV.
Why Use Facebook Live?
This question is especially important for businesses.
Video marketing is producing great results for brands. But Facebook Live can produce even better results.
Whether you want to educate your audience or get more leads, Facebook Live is a tool you must be using frequently.
Before we move on to explaining how to go live on Facebook from a mobile and a desktop, let’s discuss why you should use Facebook Live:
1. To Build Relationships With Your Ideal Audience
People spend hours watching interesting videos on Facebook.
While sharing images and text-based posts on Facebook is an evergreen practice to drive engagement, Facebook Live enables you to offer content in a completely different way.
If your regular posts aren’t generating engagement, it’s time to experiment new things like going live on the platform and speak directly to your audience.
It could enable you to attract new audiences and help strengthen your current relationships.
Static content shows a robotic and generic side of your business.
Facebook Live, on the other hand, shows the human side of your business.
Professionals like mentors, coaches, and influencers must use Facebook Live as a platform to broadcast your message without spending a single penny.
2. To Build Your Personal Brand
⭐Related Post: What Is Personal Branding?
Live streaming is probably the best option you can get if you want to build your personal brand. Going live with your audience is an ideal way to demonstrate your authority on a subject.
Going live on Facebook gives you the opportunity to share your story, personality, company culture, beliefs, products, services so that you keep people consistently coming back for more.
Since the inception of live Facebook streaming in 2016, brands have been using this channel to build reach and awareness.
Today, we see live streaming content has become an effective way to attract more viewers and expand existing communities of followers.
When speaking directly to your audience through live streaming, you send trust signals, personally solve problems, and most importantly, humanize your brand.
Here is how to get the most out of Facebook Live to bolster your brand:
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Make your videos personal
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Don’t try to script your videos
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Consistently provide fast delivery on your ideas
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Use a device good enough to live-stream on the fly
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Don’t be serious or funny without purpose
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Reflect your true character to maintain authenticity
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Promote your stream
3. To Serve Your Audience
Wondering how to serve your audience better during a live streaming session?
Well, there are so many things you can do to offer valuable content. Some of them include:
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Live Q&A: If you don’t have anything new to share with your audience, you can simply conduct a live Q&A session, allowing your audience to ask questions in real-time.
Listening to your audience and responding to their queries is a proven strategy to drive engagement on social media. You can talk about something and then let your audience ask questions on the given subject.
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Offer Tips/tricks/how-tos: Regardless of your industry or the nature of your business, you can always delight your audience with amazing hacks, tips, and tricks.
For example, how-to live videos are likely to attract your audience because you’re solving their problems rather than selling things.
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Broadcast Events: Facebook Live is a great place to broadcast events, especially during a pandemic when so many of your prospects or clients are unable to attend the event in person.
As long as you have a device and a stable internet connection, you should go live and showcase events to your audience on Facebook.
When you share compelling content like tips, tricks, hacks, how-tos, or events, you give your audience the content they need to go a step further with you, whether that is building a stronger relationship with them or showing them why they need your product or service.
How To Go Live On Facebook From A Desktop
Running a Facebook live stream is easier than ever before, courtesy of recent updates that enable business pages to broadcast the way personal profiles do.
You can broadcast from your desktop computer even if you run a Facebook page.
This isn’t as effective as broadcasting from a mobile device, but this could be a great way to feature more static broadcasts.
Follow these steps to go live on Facebook:
Step 1:
To go live from a Facebook page on your desktop computer, click “Live” from the top of your timeline or news feed.
And remember before you go live to cover the basics.
Make sure you have good lighting and sound so your viewers can hear and see you. It is also good to have a pretty basic background that isn't distracting.
Whatever setup you choose make sure to keep your viewer in mind and how it will affect them!
Check out my favorite tools that I love to use that can help boost your performance on social media:
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Logitech C922x Pro Stream Webcam – Full 1080p HD Camera
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Audio-Technica BPHS1 Broadcast Stereo Headset with Dynamic Cardioid Boom Mic
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Inkeltech Ring Light - 18 inches 60 W Dimmable LED Ring Light Kit with Stand
Step#2:
Write a description to tell your audience what you are going to offer in the video.
It will appear on your page’s News Feed and Timeline. Write an enticing description to draw viewers in.
Here is an example of a description I used when I went live on Facebook to my online community of entrepreneurs.
Step#3:
Allow Facebook to use your computer’s camera and microphone.
You don’t have to repeat this step every time you go live on Facebook.
Step#4:
Press “Go Live Now” to start the broadcast.
You’ll see a countdown before you finally go live.
Step#5:
Click on the “Finish” button when you want to end the live broadcast.
Now that you have created a Facebook live, do you know what to do with it? Do you want millions of viewers and streams?
How To Go Live On Facebook From Mobile
Step#1:
Open your Facebook mobile app to visit your news feed.
Spot the Live icon at the right of the search bar and open it.
Step#2:
Let Facebook access your mobile’s camera and microphone.
Step#3:
Add a description to your video.
Step#4:
Go live by clicking on “Start Live Video”.
And that's it! It's so simple.
7 Facebook Live Tips For Better Videos
⭐Related Post: How To Get More Views On Facebook
1. Post Videos When Your Audience Is Active
When should I go live on Facebook? A lot of people ask this question.
Timing is everything when it comes to publishing content on social media.
You have to create the right message, show it to the right people and at the right time. We call it the #3RMAT method which can dramatically improve the impact of your marketing efforts.
It might be hard to determine the right timing especially when your audience is all around the planet.
However, if you want to target a local audience you can watch their patterns and follow your competitors to see when it's best to post your videos to social media.
2. Promote Every Facebook Live
Live streaming is more like an event. So, promote before you broadcast and once it's over.
Let your audience know about the event and generate their interest.
Create some sort of outline to better organize your live video or just wing it - whatever best suits your style! You just want to be fully prepared for your live video.
It would be a good idea to outline your talking points or examples you want to include. The point is to have an idea of what you would be saying.
Every piece of content you share with the world should be created with intent and a goal.
For example, maybe you are going live on Facebook to tell everyone about your new program or because you found this really cool new spot to work at for the day. Whatever the goal, make sure you spend money optimizing that video to reach your goals.
Facebook lives are a great way to build stronger relationships with people online and to help make you more personable to your followers.
⭐Related Post: Why You Should Use Facebook Ads In Your Business
3. Pin Videos To The Top Of Your Newsfeed
When you pin a video to the top of your news feed, it stays at the top of your timeline for 7 days unless you unpin it.
To pin something on Facebook, click on the edit pencil icon in the upper-right corner of a status update.
Choose “Pin to Top” from the drop-down menu.
4. Engage With Your Viewers
A great way to do this is to callout people by name during live streaming or you could ask questions.
The best thing about Facebook Live is that it gives you a chance to share your experience in real-time.
It’s ok to get personal with the viewers in a sensible way. It will connect you with your potential clients on a more personal level.
5. Go Live Consistently
It takes consistent and well-directed efforts to build a following on Facebook or on any other social media platform.
You commit time, strategic thinking, and resource to your campaigns when you stay consistent in your content marketing efforts.
As a result, it allows you to develop a process that will be improved and proven over time.
Dwayne Johnson says,
“Success isn’t all about greatness, It’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success. Greatness will come.”
6. Cross-Promote Across Other Social Media Platforms
Don’t be afraid to use other platforms to cross-promote your Facebook content.
However, you only want to promote your content on the social media channels where your audience is active.
I am sure you’ve heard the phrase: content is king but promotion is queen.
You can partner up with like-minded influencers or entrepreneurs to cross-promote your Facebook live streams on different channels such as blogs, emails, or other social media networks.
7. Encourage Viewers To Interact
Content with more comments, likes, views, or shares is prioritized on the news feed.
Facebook algorithms are good at recognizing popular content. If your content is getting popular, you probably don’t need to spend extra on advertising.
Interaction on your live videos can boost your content and encourage new viewers to join in.
Ask your audience exciting questions, reply to their comments, or even you can run a contest asking them to comment enter a free giveaway.
Final Thoughts
Don’t miss the boat. Facebook Live is another great opportunity to create vibrant visual content for your audience in real time.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, coach, DIY marketer, or influencer, make sure to use Facebook Live to build a strong personal brand.
Everyone can use Facebook Live. But the key to success is delivering interactive, valuable content.
Use this brief guide to get yourself on the right path to Facebook Live success and if you want someone to do all of the work for you make sure to get in touch with our team!
