The live video trend continues to grow, with Facebook generating 8 billion video views on native and live video daily, according to Social Media Today. Many marketers know about it, but are scared to try it, mostly because so many things can go wrong on a live broadcast OR they simply don’t know what to talk about.
While the nature of unpredictability during live broadcasts can’t be completely controlled, if you make sure you have a good internet connection and solid tech (tripod, microphone, etc), most broadcasts go off without a hitch. What’s more, the good thing about live video is that the opportunities are endless for creating content for businesses. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Conferences and Trade-Shows
If your company attends specific conferences and trade-shows (or even holds their own), there are tons of opportunities for interesting live streams. Recording sessions (with the conference organizer’s permission) can give users an inside view as to what you’re learning at the event, and showing your booth at a trade show can help drive a sense of FOMO and pique user interest.
Product Demonstrations
If you have a product coming out, Facebook Live can be a perfect way to demonstrate its new features. Think of how popular a live stream from Apple’s Facebook page would be if they used it to live stream the unveiling of their latest iPad or Macbook. Same with auto manufacturers or even food companies.
If you have a new product rolling out, use live video to not only introduce it to your audience but to explain how it’s different from other products and what problems it solves. Make sure the product is easy to see in the camera view and don’t move it too fast without giving users a chance to take in all the information before moving it or talking about something else.
The comments during a live product demonstration from audience members could also be valuable product feedback that you may not have gotten otherwise.
Expert Interviews and Q&As
When I was executive editor at Search Engine Journal, we used regular Facebook Live streams to promote the SEJ Summit conference and our new SEO guide. We asked speakers and guide chapter authors to do a live stream answering questions from the community on their topic of expertise.
To promote the event, we created Facebook events, highlighting when the live stream would take place. Once the stream started, we would live tweet it, sharing the URL to the live video at the end of our tweets. Some of the videos got 10,000 views or more, and a case study I did about the project showed that it increased our Facebook engagement and website referral traffic.
Ask industry experts to “take over” your Facebook Live for 30 minutes or more. Send them questions to answer during the live stream in advance and also ask live viewers for questions as well, which will pop up on the expert’s screen as they are doing the live stream. This not only gives you a great way to stay in contact with influencers, it helps your business provide valuable industry advice your target audience may not find elsewhere.
Training Events
If you’ve experimented with webinars, learning sessions, or other types of training for your potential customers, why not try doing it on Facebook Live? Have someone monitoring the comments during the event and present in front of a large monitor or projector screen, just like you would be giving a presentation at a conference. This does require more of a technical set-up, as Facebook doesn’t allow screen sharing on live streams (as of press time), but this could be a great way to show off your expertise and grow audience interest in what you have to offer.
Thought Leadership With News
Another thing we experimented with at Search Engine Journal was a weekly news show, showcasing the biggest news items in the digital marketing industry. While we ended up canceling the show due to how much stress it put on our small team, having a weekly news recap live stream could be a great to showcase your company’s thought leadership without having to create an entire presentation or find experts to interview.
The SEJ News live stream also allowed us to promote our own events as well, like upcoming webinars or podcasts, which we would drop links to in the comments when the on-air host mentioned it.
The live event is often enticing enough for users, but Facebook also automatically saves the video and places it in your video library of your Facebook page so it can be rewatched at any time. A lot of businesses will republish this video to YouTube to hopefully get even more traction out of the same content. Experiment with live video on Facebook and see if it gets you more engagement, higher views, and better brand awareness.
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Kelsey Jones
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