Nearly 2 billion people have tuned into Facebook Live broadcasts. For businesses, this means there’s a huge audience out there that’s willing to engage with you over real time video. Whether you’re looking to answer questions, show off some behind the scenes shots from your office or showcase a live event, Facebook Live can be a useful platform. That’s why we compiled these Facebook Live tips for small businesses.
Facebook Live Tips
Make the most of your next broadcast with these Facebook Live tips.
Choose the Most Effective Time to Broadcast
The benefit of hosting a live broadcast comes from having viewers join you in real time. So you need to schedule it for a time when your audience is active. You can use your own knowledge about your target audience to do this, or try a more advanced tactic. In this freeCodeCamp post, Ofir Chakon of Coding Startups outlines a process you can use to analyze relevant groups on Facebook. You can also simply try broadcasting at a few different times and then analyze how each broadcast performs.
Outline a Specific Purpose
You shouldn’t host a Facebook Live just for the sake of doing so. You need to offer something that is of real value to your target audience. It should have a specific topic and an outline of tips or information that you can share with your audience.
Highlight Tips Before You Broadcast
If you want people to actually show up to your broadcast, you need to tell them about it beforehand. Instead of just posting the time and title of the event, tease followers with some of the information you’re actually going to share during the presentation. Give them enough to grab their attention but not so much that you give it all away.
Start with a Private Broadcast
A lot of things can go wrong with a broadcast — bad lighting, poor sound quality, a distracting background. But Facebook offers an option for broadcasting privately so you can test out all the minutiae before going live in front of your entire audience.
Prepare for a Lengthy Introduction
As soon as you start a public broadcast, your followers will be notified. But they probably won’t all join right away. The bulk of your viewers may take several minutes to actually begin viewing. So don’t pack all of your value into the first few minutes. Instead, take some time to welcome new viewers by name, introduce yourself or entertain people with some jokes or dance moves.
Re-Introduce Throughout the Broadcast
Since people can join throughout the broadcast, it can also be helpful for you to re-introduce yourself and the topic every once in awhile to keep everyone on the same page. Don’t spend tons of time on this, but just quickly recap some of the essential points.
Respond to Questions from Viewers
According to business coach Mark Harbert, Facebook Live videos receive ten times the amount of comments as recorded videos. Since those comments are coming in at real time, you need to also respond in real time. Have your own talking points prepared, but don’t just bury your head in a script. Remain flexible and pay attention to what people are saying so that you can provide answers or appropriately respond throughout.
End with a Call to Action
Even a great broadcast with tons of viewers is not going to do your business any good if you don’t get your viewers to act in some way. If you’re showcasing your expertise, let them know how they can hire you. If you’re introducing a new product, let them know how to purchase.
Promote on Other Social Channels
You can also increase the viewership of your videos across other platforms. Post it on your website, YouTube channel or other social media sites. This can give you some extra visibility and also let others know that you broadcast regularly on Facebook.
Keep an Eye on Analytics
There’s going to be a lot of trial and error involved in creating an effective Facebook Live strategy. You need to find out what type of content, what time of day and what other small aspects might impact your viewership and engagement. So play around with different things and monitor your Facebook analytics. And don’t worry about posting too much — unless your analytics tell you otherwise.
Mark Robinson of ReelSEO and Tubular Insights said in an interview, “Many popular publishers like BuzzFeed are publishing videos at a rate of 5 or more videos per day, per page. If you are concerned that this could cause post fatigue, or over-saturate your audience, pay close attention to the “negative feedback” analytics available within Facebook. If your audience is constantly hiding your video posts, or unfollowing your page, you can reduce the frequency with which you are uploading to test if that may be a cause.”
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