Do you do this when you host a facebook live?

Well week 2 completed and a couple of things have flagged up for me. I’ve been good and dabbled with the video for facebook and instagram but haven’t yet hosted a live on my facebook business page. Are facebook lives part of your social media strategy? I’m committing to doing one this week - there, I’ve said it! So which day shall I choose? And what’s the best time?

These are some of the most common questions people ask and it really depends on your audience. If your audience or ideal consumer is a young mum with a baby at home, maybe mid-morning is for you, perhaps you’re targeting people in a 9-5 job, who may get a chance to watch you in their lunch break or perhaps and evening one works best for you when the business day is over and your audience can relax? Have a think about the audience you are aiming at and if all else fails, why not ask them? You have the polling features in stories - give them a few options (that suit you too!) and see which is the most popular time - it’s all about building that interaction.

Facebook live content

So you’ve decided your time, what are you going to talk about? What do you do in your business that your audience would benefit from hearing about? What may drive them to your website to find out more about you? Or are you simply in the building community stage of your business? Whatever you are choosing, make it relevant and part of your overall marketing strategy.

Are you going to just show up and hope your audience shows up? Yes, facebook and instagram will notify your followers when you go live, however you’d need to be on your phone or laptop at the time to see the notification and of course some people turn off their notifications to save being bombarded all day. Have you tried promoting your “live” as an event? Yes that helpful event feature I highlighted in last week’s blog! In the “ticket” section you can say it’s a facebook live rather than send them to a url ticket booking page. And if you’re doing a facebook live with a guest, remember to use the co-host option. 

Create a top title for your live

Hop onto your facebook business page to go live from (not your personal page) and give it a description before you do, so that your audience knows what to expect from it. You may also like to tag specific people into it - who do you know will be receptive to seeing it? And add a location too - all these aspects will help with reach and views on your post. If you’re new to going live, you can practice by choosing to broadcast to “only me” - don’t be too critical though, it is supposed to be spontaneous and not perfect!

Be patient while your audience comes online

At the beginning of your live, remember it takes a while for your audience to start hopping on so keep introducing yourself and chatting at the beginning so that people know who they are watching and what they’re about to see. If you can interact with your audience when they comment, this can increase your standing in the algorithms as social media rewards you for engagement.

Try to make your lives a regular occurrence so at the end of your live, you can let your audience know when your next broadcast will be and once you have said your goodbyes and ended your live, be sure to save the video to your camera roll so that you can re-use your content.

Make your one piece of content work for you again and again

Once your live has ended, that is not the end of it! Unless you felt it was too terrible to keep (in which case you can delete it!) you now have some fresh content to use. You can share your post in groups or on other social media platforms. Instagram’s live feature can be used in the same way as facebook but we haven’t got the events feature yet - though you could just as easily have a facebook event set up for an instagram live…..and if you’re wondering about going live on both simultaneously?? It can be done but you need a separate device for each platform. That means you’re going to have to keep changing which camera you’re looking at which may be a little disconcerting for the viewer. I have seen this done really successfully though, where the “live” on instagram has been used as an introduction to say “hey we’re live over on facebook, if you want to see more, jump on over there” and then you end the instagram live shortly after - another little tip for driving traffic to your page.

The beauty of saving your live video to your camera roll is that you can repurpose it. So you may like to edit little snippets for shorter posts throughout the week with a call to action to go back and watch the whole video, which will help with your “watch” metrics. 

Let facebook insights be your marketing friend 

Even if you do not get many views of your video on the live, you’ll be surprised at how much traction you can get on the replays. Do you ever look at your insights to see how many views your posts and videos get? There are some really in depth insights available if you’re keen to know how well certain videos or topics have been received. This is another great way of planning your content going forward and reflecting on what has or hasn’t worked well.

And not forgetting our friend the facebook group. If you’re an established member of a group, it may be possible to post a live in that group - always ask permission first - but I’m sure if you’ve been contributing valuable content regularly, you’re more likely to be invited to present a live to their audience - remember complementary groups can be so valuable to you.

Do check out last week’s blog if you missed it as the Discussion feature in the events section can really help with promoting your “lives” too.

If you’ve got any top tips you’d like to add, pop them in the comments below - and wish me luck with my first Moss Social facebook live this week! 

If you’d like to read more like this, sign up for my 10 top tips to make your social media more effective here.