Facebook live for your business

Want to create fun, real insights into your brand or company culture? Try doing a Facebook live video.

Facebook Live, which launched in April 2016, has had a huge influence on how people share and consume content. Within a year of launch, popularity rose 330%.* Facebook Live videos are also viewed 3 times longer than videos that aren’t live. That’s huge!

As a company or brand, you have an incredible opportunity to tap into the Facebook market through live video. And the ideas are endless. Maybe you are a beauty blogger, you can do live makeup tutorials showcasing a product. I have seen churches live stream their Sunday sermons to reach a larger audience. Large companies can do a Q&A session with their team to help answer common issues.

So, now you might want to know some guidelines for hitting that live icon on your phone.

Here are five tips for using Facebook live:

  1. Have a steady hand or buy a tripod. Seriously. Using a tripod, or a camera mount, will help steady your shot and make you seem more polished.
  2. Have a topic. Don’t just go live for the sake of going live. I am not saying be scripted, but knowing what you are going to talk about before you hit the live button is a good idea.
  3. Keep it short! Short snippets work best; 10-15 minutes should be enough to get your story across to your audience. Of course, there are always exceptions to these rules, especially if you are streaming a long speech or sermon that your audience is tuning in specifically to view.
  4. Keep it informative. People will keep tuning in if you are offering a tip or trick. If you are a beauty blogger, you might review a product or demo a new product. Let’s say you are a realtor, you might use the live feature to give a live tour of your latest property or how to stage a room properly. Give your audience something they can use in their real life.
  5. Have fun. This is not supposed to be serious… allow your personalities to come through. The beauty of live video, is that anything can happen. Your dogs could start barking, the kids might decide that is the perfect time to talk to you, your camera might even fall off the tripod! Use those moments to show you are a real person.

One of the best things about Facebook live is that it will live on your Facebook wall forever, s o if you have people that can’t catch it on the livestream, they can go in and watch it later!

*According to MediaKix.