Why You Should Start Using Facebook Live for Marketing
If you don’t already use Facebook Live to promote your brand or business, now’s the time.
Unlike a pre-recorded video, Facebook Live puts you in touch with your target audience in real-time, taking their relationship with your company to a new level. Viewers can leave comments and ask questions throughout the broadcast, helping you collect all kinds of information about your customers and how they feel about your products.
Facebook is also packed full of built-in marketing features to help you spread the word about your livestream broadcasts. Learn more about this exciting tool and how it can help your business.
Why Facebook Live?
Facebook wants its users to stay logged into the platform for as long as possible, and live video is a great way to keep users tuning in on a regular basis. If your page starts using Facebook Live, the algorithm will give your content a boost in the News feed. The platform wants to drive traffic to pages that broadcast regularly, especially if uses are tuning in for more than 3 minutes.
Facebook Live also helps you deepen the relationship between your brand and your customers. It creates more transparency as users get a sense of your or the speaker’s personality. You can also respond to comments and questions with your voice, instead of writing them back on social media.
Creating Content for Facebook Live:
If you decide to invest in Facebook Live, you’ll need to come up with a premise for your videos. Viewers will start tuning in if they know what to expect from your broadcasts, so come up with a serialized content strategy that appeals to your target audience.
Your content should also help you reach your business goals, such as boosting sales, educating your target audience, increasing brand awareness, or even attracting sponsorships and affiliate partnerships. If you can sustain an audience on Facebook Live, brands and other companies will start paying you to mention their products and services, so the sky’s the limit.
Here are some popular format ideas for Facebook Live:
- Tutorials and Product Demos
Show folks how to use your products to encourage more sales. Showing your products on video will help viewers visualize what it’s like to use and own these items. You can unveil new products, answer questions, and create different use-cases for your products.
- Interviews with Customers and Business Leaders
You can also interview influential staff members at your company or even some of your own customers. Your followers have lots of stories to share related to your products and services, so why not feature some of them on camera?
- Topic-Based Discussions and Roundtables
Try bringing on experienced names in your industry for topic-based discussions. You can ask viewers to chime in with questions, discuss the latest trends or breaking news, or dole out advice on a subject that’s related to your business.
Setting Up Your Facebook Live Studio
You’ll need quality audio and an HD webcam to get started. You don’t want to broadcast with poor-quality sound or video. If you have a new computer, the built-in microphone and webcam may work just fine, but consider upgrading to a professional broadcast microphone or an HD camera to create more depth in the frame.
You’ll also need a relatively quiet place to broadcast your videos and a reliable Internet connection. Position the speaker near a window or use additional lighting to help your videos look their best.
Promoting Your Live Feed
Facebook is there to help you promote your Live feeds. You can use all kinds of built-in marketing tools to get the word out.
- Create an event for your first broadcast to help build excitement. Invite your followers and anyone else that might be interested.
- Use messenger bots to send direct messages to your followers.
- Promote your live feeds on other social media channels, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.
Once you’ve finished your first broadcast, you’ll need to optimize it for later viewing. Add all the necessary meta information, including the episode name and number, a catchy description, hashtags and a custom thumbnail with name of your broadcast and episode information.
You can then use Facebook Ads to start promoting your live feeds, so you can reach even more users. You can also use the embed link to share these videos on other platforms, including your website, social media, and email newsletters.
Overall, Facebook Live is a valuable marketing tool for any business or aspiring influencer. Stay focused on the needs and wants of your target audience and cater to their interests to keep them coming back for more. These live feeds should always have value for the viewer, so avoid talking about your products and services too much unless you’re offering new or helpful information.
You might be nervous the first time around, but you’ll get the hang of it in no time. Good luck and happy broadcasting!
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