Live video is quickly becoming one of the hottest trends in the world of social media. As a result, Facebook live is now an important part of marketing strategy of any business, no matter large or small.
With new changes in Facebook algorithm that favor video posts more than other types of updates, it’s better to start creating live videos sooner than later.
But how can you do it effectively? What are the best practices to keep in mind every time you capture and share a video with Facebook Live?
Let’s take a look at some useful suggestions that will help you make a lasting impact on your prospects.
Don’t Keep The Viewers Guessing
The moment you go live, it’s important that you introduce what the video is about without any delay. Your audience is giving you attention from their limited, precious, and busy time – time that they could have spent on something else.
So it’s your responsibility to respect that time and make it worth their while. As soon as the broadcast begins, you should make clear what the video will be about.
Introduce Yourself
Once you’ve shared what you’ll talk about in the video, you should immediately give a brief description of who you are, what you do and why they should listen to you.
This is also a great time to give a brief pitch about your product and service, and who are the people it is meant for. For example, look at how Martha Stewart (a leading brand in cooking and craft), has streamed various tutorial videos.
She starts with introducing herself and any other speaker who’s on the video. And then she gives an idea on what the video is about.
Use Simple, Conversational Language
Even if you’re an expert at something, that doesn’t mean you should use complicated words or phrases to impress the viewers. You’re more likely to alienate them than otherwise.
When you make it easy for viewers to understand the content of the video and how exactly it is relevant to them, their interest level will go up and they’ll watch the video longer.
Practice Relaxation
If you’re someone who is not really comfortable in front of the camera, practice and learn to relax during the shoot.
The concept of live video is pretty new, and it’s completely natural to feel some amount of anxiety when trying for the first few times. But don’t let that scare you. The more you’ll do it, the easier it’ll get.
Don’t worry about coming across as scripted, polished or perfectly prepared. It’s supposed to be a little raw.
Be Authentic
As I mentioned in the previous point, live video isn’t meant to be perfect. One of the perks of live video is it lets the audience see what you’re sharing in real time. They want to see your human side. Not the business side.
In fact, consider just behaving as you would naturally do if the camera was not recording. If your business phone rings in the middle of the video, go ahead and answer it. Let the audience see how you handle customer queries.
If you’re recording and suddenly feel thirsty, get ahead and drink some water. The idea is to just be your authentic self.
Maintain Eye Contact
It’s better to look eye to eye in the camera when speaking to viewers. When you fail to do so, the viewers feel like they are being talked at. Instead, make them feel that you’re having a friendly conversation with them.
Before you go live, make sure you know exactly where the camera is located on your phone or tablet, and remind yourself to look straight towards the camera as if you’re speaking to a real person.
If you’re having trouble doing that, a great trick is to pretend like you’re actually talking to one person, like someone you are familiar with and feel comfortable talking to. This helps reduce anxiety and lets you express yourself more naturally.
Share Useful Information
As an expert in your niche, you may have a tendency to think that what you know is commonplace knowledge. But the information that you have is often new and useful for others.
So when you show up for a Facebook live video, sharing vital insights from your expertise that can help your audience is the best way to build a connection. Other than that, it also increases your authority and credibility in the minds of prospects.
A great example of this what Kohls did at the start of this year. That’s the time when most people are serious about their new year resolutions, especially about getting in shape.
Kohl’s showed an understanding of that struggle and came up with a live video idea to help their audience. Kohls partnered with ‘Tone it Up’ for a live workout video.
Keep Up The Energy
Whether you’re an excited, smiling person or not, you must practice being more energetic in front of the camera. This is because a smile makes the audience feel more comfortable and safe when you you’re speaking to them.
You don’t have to keep it plastered on your face all the time, but just enough to prevent your video from looking like a cold, formal presentation.
Encourage Engagement
Don’t make the mistake of not acknowledging that you’re talking to a live audience. Once you have some live viewers, ask questions and try to interact with them. Encourage them to post comments with their thoughts.
Gestures such as thanking the viewers for joining you on the broadcast, taking names and replying to people who comment, and more go a long way in making your broadcast successful and even more engaging.
Acknowledge Video Availability
Even after the live broadcast is over, the video stays available in your page feed, unless you choose to remove it.
So when you’re about to finish the recording, make sure that your audience is aware of this fact. Also consider if you want to say something to the people who’ll watch the video later.
For example, you can say something like, “If you watch this video later on my Facebook page and have any queries, please reach me here…”
To finish the broadcast, all you need to do is to press the red button that says Finish. It takes a few minutes, and your live video gets available on your page for later viewing.
End With A CTA
As you’re about to end the video, give your audience a clear direction as to what they can do next. This will let you to build a stronger connection and put prospects in the next stage of your marketing funnel.
Too many opportunities to engage the audience even more and turn them into leads are missed just because the broadcaster didn’t think a little ahead.
Here are a few ideas of calls to action you can include in your Facebook live video.
· Ask viewers to like your Facebook page in order to stay updated on more interesting content and live videos.
· Create a Facebook group and invite prospects to join you there for ongoing discussions, queries and inspiration. Make sure the link to join the group is easy to find.
· Offer a coupon code in the end. This way, only the people who watched your video broadcast and stuck until the end will get to have it. They can then use the code to get a good deal on your product or service.
· Built anticipation about your next Facebook live session by telling the audience when it’ll air and what it’s going to be about.
· Ask viewers to subscribe to your email newsletter if they want even more peeks behind the scene and insights which can help them.
Stay In Touch
If you have done the CTA part right, hopefully your Facebook live videos will let you build an email list of subscribers or a huge following on social media.
So you can stay in touch with them with more useful content and great deals. This way, you’ll always stay fresh in their mind and build trust and familiarity for when they are interested in buying a product or service in your niche.
Even if you didn’t build an email list or fan base, the beauty of Facebook Live videos, or any other videos you share on Facebook, is that you can retarget people who watched your videos.
This is done with the Facebook advertising platform. So it’s easy to stay in touch with your prospects even after the broadcast ends.
Conclusion
Whether you’re trying Facebook Live for the very first time, or you have already been creating video content and sharing Facebook, I hope this post gave you some practical insights which you can use to get even better results.
As I said, the more you do it, the easier it will get and the better business returns you’ll start getting out of Facebook Live video.
