We’ve all seen Facebook Live taking off in a big way. However, there’s more to it than streaming your cat attempting to fit into a shoe box for all of your friends to see. As entertaining as that is, this post is all about harnessing the immense amount of power Facebook Live gives you as a marketing tool.
I’m sure you’ve seen it. You’re sat on your phone and the little Facebook notification pops up: “So-and-so is Live”. What do you do? You click on it.
The idea of something happening right now and being able to see it at the same time is extremely tempting; we live in a world where being the first to know something is something to be proud of (even if your peers don’t actually care that you knew about the new Apple product 5 minutes before them!).
So take that idea and add it to your business. Say you have a new product, or an important announcement. Make your followers’ little notification pop up so that wherever they are, they hear it first. Trust me, they’ll want to.
We’ve done a series of webcasts recently where a client of ours interviewed industry experts within her field from around the globe. Setting up a simple Skype call, we streamed the interview out to her numerous Facebook campus pages for her students to watch and interact with live.
As well as over Skype, we’ve conducted many webcasts in a standard studio format where the guest is physically sat with the interviewer.
So, you’ve hit the ‘Go Live’ button, you’ve told your followers about your amazing new product and you’re bringing your spiel to an end. Your viewers are still there, and will continue to be there until the live video ends. If you have any existing promotional videos, run them at the end.
Think of it like this – you have ‘Elf’ sat at home on your DVD shelf – it’s been sat there since you watched it once at Christmas in 2003. It’s never been out of it’s box since. However, you have watched the film when it’s been on TV at Christmas for the past 13 years because it’s on.
If it’s on, right now, people will watch. Even if your promotional video was released 6 months ago, replaying it as part of a live stream will ensure you reach new audiences who have never seen it hiding on your Youtube channel, or will reinforce ideas presented within it to people who watched it once 6 months ago and have never seen it since.
Even if you don’t have a video, something as simple as an end slide with a call to action gets results.
Perhaps you hold a monthly conference or a yearly fundraiser. It’s inevitable that some people won’t be able to make it. Excuses.. excuses… it’s too far for them to go, they have to look after the kids that night, they hate wearing a suit – you’ve heard them all!
By streaming your event, you’re in no way giving people the opportunity to simply not turn up, but instead giving people who were never going to be there the opportunity to see what they’re missing.
When the first live sporting events starting being broadcast on TV, critics suggested that fans would no longer bother attending in person, but the truth was, you can never live the full experience through the small screen. The same idea lives on – people would far rather experience things in real life than watch it on a screen, but equally, you’re giving those who aren’t there a taste of what they could be doing.
Maybe next time, they’ll get in early with the babysitter booking.
All of the above is valid, but less so if the content isn’t great. Live streams and webcasts can be produced to an extremely professional level which should provide a great return on your investment.
Facebook live accepts inputs from professional video encoders, meaning that webcast and live stream producers can set up everything mentioned above with ease using their specialist equipment and software. In some cases they don’t even need to be on-site with you.
The camera on your phone may cut it some times, however to really build up an impressive portfolio of live streams, bringing in an external provider to supply a professional multi-camera set up with broadcast quality video and sound will certainly pay off.
We have been providing live streaming services and webcasts to clients in Leicestershire, London and the whole of the UK for 5 years. For more information about live streaming and webcasts, feel free to visit our live streaming page.
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