One of the most important digital marketing tasks your company faces is establishing your brand identity. Strengthening your identity and getting it across to your current and potential clients is essential if you want them to think of you as the experts to reach out to. This identity is made up of images such as a logo, but we cannot underestimate the role that story telling plays in this process. As humans we are drawn by stories that relate to our experiences. Stories are points of entry, so to speak. This is precisely what social media is tapping into with their numerous features: our human capacity and need to connect to stories. Facebook Live now offers us this opportunity through live video broadcasting. Let’s look at some things we can do to capitalize on its benefits.
What is Facebook Live?
Facebook Live is a feature that lets users live-stream video for a maximum of 30 minutes through a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Other users who follow you can watch in real time. Once you end the broadcast, the video is saved on your timeline and can be accessed by yourself or others anytime. This is a great feature for companies and its uses can bring positive things to your business. For example, you can live-stream announcements, seminars, events, or even interviews, allowing your audience to have an inside look into your company.
Best Practices:
As with all good things, to be successful with live-streaming, we need to keep some best practices in mind.
- Increase your followers
Of course, you want to get your story across to as many people as possible. Work on getting more followers since they will be notified when you go live. - Plan ahead
Make several announcements to build anticipation by letting people know when you’ll be broadcasting live.Get a strong connectionBe sure to have a strong reliable connection. It would not be a positive experience for those tuning-in if they cannot get the whole story.Write a headlineWrite an inviting and exciting description about your video before going live in order to capture your followers’ attention and to make sure they understand what your broadcast is all about. - Engage your audience
Acknowledge your viewers by engaging with them, asking them questions or mentioning their names, for example. Turn your broadcast into a participatory experience that leaves your followers feeling like they have really connected. - Longer broadcasts
When your broadcast for a longer period of time, it is more likely for people to tune in and to invite their Facebook friends to watch the video. It is generally recommend that you go live for at least 10 minutes to allow for this. - Broadcast often
Experiment with different types of broadcasts and content and do it frequently. This will keep your audience engaged and looking forward to what is coming next.
Facebook Live Video is one creative way to engage that is readily available to all. Why not take advantage of this freely accessible feature to share your company’s story and identity and connect with your clients? We know that exploring new possibilities and becoming experts at using them to your benefit may pose a challenge. Facebook has compiled a list of ideas and tips that can help you with this feature: https://live.fb.com/about/ and, of course, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at SeeThrough Web. We are a dedicated digital marketing agency based in Toronto that can help you discover the benefits of including this engaging and innovative tool in your next social media and online marketing campaign.