Facebook Live is becoming increasingly more popular among individual users. Now that regular Facebook users are on board for the newer feature, it is time for businesses and brands to follow suit. If you are nervous about going live it is time to buck up because data released by Facebook shows that people comment 10x more on Facebook Live videos than they do on regular video posts.
Facebook has released 8 tips on how to have a successful Facebook Live video post:
- Tell fans when you’re broadcasting ahead of time.
- Go live when you have a strong connection.
- Write a catchy description before going live.
- Ask viewers to subscribe to Live notifications.
- Say hello to commenters by name; respond to their comments live.
- Broadcast for longer periods of time to reach more people.
- Use a closing line to signal the end of the broadcast.
- Be creative and go live often
This is a good list of general principles to abide by. Remember, if you were posting a live-stream on your own website you could have different strategies, but when using someone else’s platform always stick to their vision for the user experience.
Facebook Live is a really great channel to answer questions, host an interview, showcase a performance, do a demo, introduce a product, or show off a good internal company culture. The key here is that while a 15 minute video might be appropriate on your own website, on Facebook you are going to want to keep it between 1-5 minutes to make sure viewers see all of the content before they decide to keep scrolling.
Here are some brands that are doing it right on Facebook Live:
Benefit
Benefit Cosmetics has a series called Tipsy Tricks that posts live updates every week that include education on various products and tutorials. These kinds of videos are incredibly popular in the industry already and Benefit is using Facebook Live to extend this trend in a fluid way.
Buzzfeed
Buzzfeed is always taking advantage of all things new and digital. So it is no surprise to see this post from March of employees competing in a high stakes dance contest. This video showcases the companies sense of humor, youth, and general company culture.
The Met
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has used Facebook Live to give informal tours of various exhibits, sneak peaks before exhibit openings and even showcasing live openings.
While these are all great examples there is a lot of room for different types of brands to engage with Facebook users who don’t know anything about the brands all the way to mega fans. Keep Facebook’s tips in mind, be brave, and go live!
Bridget Sivewright 
Up until now Facebook Live has just been an annoying notification I clear when I open the app. This is probably because I’m not currently following any brands “doing it right”, haha! I may need to check out some different channels now and see what they have to offer. Great article and thanks for posting it to the Google+ community!
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I’ve always gotten Facebook Live notifications for celebrities that my middle school self “liked” back in the day. While these are notifications that I always appreciate, they still do a great job catching my attention. I agree, companies can definitely most advertising through Facebook Live. I absolutely love Buzzfeed, and I think this is a great way for them to get their newest material out to fans. After watching a live video, or even before the live feed is over, it’s a great way to bring consumers and target audiences to their Facebook page for new users to explore more of what their company has to offer.
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I think this is a great topic! I have only seen Facebook Live used by my friends who use it to be funny, but I think there is so much potential for businesses to use this feature. BuzzFeed is a great example. They utilize Facebook Live quite often and have seen much success with it. It is really a smart way to engage target audiences and create more shares and conversions. I am very interested to see how more and more businesses use Facebook Live to market themselves.
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Live streaming outlets such as Facebook and Periscope seem to be a great new way to engage audiences. It’s a really interesting topic. With the unfortunate things that have recently garnered a lot of attention to the live streaming platforms, hopefully it will bring more publicity to live streaming as a viable outlet for communicating and engaging with consumers and audiences.
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