Before the arrival of mobile live-streaming - and Facebook Live in particular - video was often considered out of reach for many digital marketers. As a B2B marketer, I was all too familiar with having to source three quotes to get video company record our events, which meant that we often just didn't do it.
Facebook Live provided a whole new consideration when it was launched back in 2015. With Facebook Live, all I have to do is set it up on a stand, make sure my mobile phone is plugged in and "go live". Of course, to ensure maximum response, I also need to do some pre-marketing and sharing, but it simplifies the video broadcasting process, making it easier to connect with fans and produce interactive, engaging content.
To help get you thinking about how you can also utilize Facebook Live, here are five ideas of how to use the option, and some examples of those that are already seeing success.
1. Share Your Brand Experience
If you're a well-established brand looking to amplify your storefront, sharing the experience with your fans is a simple, and effective, way to use Facebook Live. But if you don't have a physical store, you could consider creating a Live feed to share more about your brand and what you do, giving viewers a window into your world.
You can share more insight into your business and your vision, what you set out to achieve, your products and their benefits. And this is the best part - you can also answer audience queries in real-time
I absolutely love this because it provides "moment of truths" for the viewers tuning in, enabling them to get immediate responses and build better associations with your company.
Here's a great example of this in practice:
I attended the 'Legal for non-legal workshop' hosted by Asia Law Network and Singapore Corporate Counsel Association last week, and they were great at utilizing Facebook Live to stream their workshop. Not only were they able to field questions from attendees, the lawyers and host also answered questions from viewers tuning in.
2. Host Webinars and Announcements
In addition to sharing your brand experience, Facebook Live is also great for streaming webinars and information sessions. Mark Zuckerberg does this in his Q&A meet-ups, and you can share your stream for as short as 4 seconds, or up to 4 hours, giving you plenty of time to deliver your key messages.
One of my favorite examples of this was former U.S. President Barack Obama, who regularly used Facebook Live to broadcast announcements and discussions.
3. Offer Courses, Teasers and Other Educational Material
Live-streaming also offers a simple, effective way to deliver content to a targeted audience - which makes it perfectly suited to delivering courses and education material to a wider range of students, enabling wider access to to your resources.
Obviously, there are considerations to take into account when providing such content online, but it can be a great way to deliver relevant information, and show real world examples, giving more students access, more of the time - while also enabling them to ask questions, just as they could if they were in the room.
4. Breaking News
This is something media outlets are taking advantage of - live-streaming has quickly become an essential element of breaking news, with various news outlets utilizing live, and Facebook's massive reach, to share the latest updates and developments quickly.
But even if you're not a media outlet, you can still use Live to broadcast your own forms of breaking news. You can share product launches, stream live when someone from your company is invited to be a speaker at an event, share developmental milestones to your fans and user base. There are endless possibilities to using Live as a channel to distribute relevant news.
5. Personal Branding
Live-streaming is great for personal branding, as it enables you to present a raw, real perspective on who you are and what you do. This is as close as people can get to you outside of meeting you in real life - when you go Live, it's you, nothing edited, just real human connection.
If you're a business owner, you can use this to brand yourself and create affinity between your customers and other associated parties.
But what if, like a lot of people, you're camera-shy?
Here's my tip - get on Facebook Live, turn it on, set the settings to 'only you' and go wild. The more you play around with it - listening to your own voice, watching your expression - the better prepared you'll be when you actually do "go Live". Try it.
I hope this helps shape your perspective of using Facebook Live as part of your digital strategy. Don't shy away - remember, this is Facebook's own tool. They put more emphasis on live content, showing it to more eyeballs than other forms of content.
Create your own guidelines as to how to use it as appropriately for your company's requirements, but be sure to give it a try, either way. Get on it before the whole world does.