The Marketing Strategy Behind Facebook Live
Social media is all about leveraging networks and communities, so Facebook Live videos should be no different. Create content that has your audience’s questions and pain points in mind, then be sure to provide solutions. Solicit feedback in each video and apply it to the next. The more your audience is served, the more they’ll be willing to share and engage with your content.
Similarly, utilize existing networks to your advantage. Invite community partners as guests in your videos. They will be likely to share on their own channels, thereby allowing you to reach the guest’s audience. Even if a video is created exclusively by your staff or volunteers, tag relevant organizations, businesses, or influencers, asking them to share to their own pages or otherwise engage by posting relevant resources or other comments in reaction to your video.
Live broadcasts are great for behind-the-scenes teasers or events. In this example, Chef Amanda Freitag hopped on Live to quickly promote a live Chopped session on The Food Network’s page. She’s leveraging her personal followers to enhance the main network’s video viewership.
While Facebook gives priority to video in the news feed over photos or plain text, live video ranks even higher. By improving your reach, you can share your relevant messages more widely.
Facebook Live Tips and Tactics
While each video will have its own specifications, there are some universal tactics that can be applied to each live session. Ultimately, your Facebook Live videos need to serve your audience and broader community, so keep that goal in mind with all content planning and outreach.
Before You Broadcast
Before developing a topic, decide what you want to accomplish. Are you looking for event sign-ups, donors/sales, publicity, email subscribers, or page likes? Your end goal (besides sharing useful information with your audience) will determine your call to action. Decide where to send people in the video description and verbally at the end of the video. Common next steps include a landing page on a website, a Facebook event page, or a relevant piece of content.
Pre-promote your video. If people don’t know you’re planning to go live, there’s a much smaller chance they’ll tune in when you do broadcast. Be sure to write a few promotional posts in the days and hours leading up to the live video that tease the content and list the specific day and time followers should be come online to partake. Ask followers to opt-in to getting notifications when you go live and/or try the “schedule a Facebook live video” feature, which allows followers to get a notification.
Follow posting best practices for all promotion. This means tagging relevant participants, always including an image or video with each post, and making the message clear and succinct. (Click here for some examples of posting guides I’ve made for small businesses.)
To maximize your visibility, you can “pin” a promotional post to the top of your Facebook page so that visitors will see that first, even if you’ve posted other content since the original post.
Going Live
Choose to go live at a day and time you know your audience is online—even if this is not the most convenient time for your staff. Facebook Analytics will tell you when your users are active. Capitalize on these moments to share your live video content.
Make sure your internet bandwidth is at full capacity before going live. A spotty connection will deter engagement and lower viewership.
In the Moment
Actively encourage engagements during your live video. Open and close with a question, and even pose questions throughout. Especially as you build up a regular following, consider special giveaways for people who like the video or leave a comment. The Tone It Up ladies are known for their authenticity and encouragement, which is amplified during live sessions.
Capture viewers’ attention in the first three seconds. This is the length of the auto-play feature in a person’s news feed.
Be sure to greet viewers by name at the beginning of the broadcast. Then, respond to commenters by name throughout the video (as appropriate), or at the end before signing off.
While there are differing opinions, Facebook recommends broadcasting live for a minimum of 10 minutes. Their reasoning: the longer you stay live, the more time people have to catch it in the moment. So for the Facebook Team, the longer, the better.
Post-Production
To build a base of viewers, or for special videos, consider boosting the live video recording to a targeted audience. When you do, be sure to write a compelling video title and description that will capture viewers’ attention and help them understand what your video is about. Include a simple call to action and link to follow. Add topical, keyword video tags. These tags aren’t displayed to the public, but do make your video more discoverable when people search on Facebook for similar topics.
Part of Your Marketing Toolbox
It’s true that Facebook Live can be a valuable asset for audience engagement. But at the end of the day, it’s just another option in your marketing toolbox. Facebook Live may be a useful addition to your social media plan, which should be part of a broader marketing and content plan. The goal with any marketing or outreach should be to please your audience. Give them what they want through the mediums they prefer.
Seth Godin boiled down marketing efforts to this: There is no “mass” media on the internet—the internet is only good for micro-media. Aim to reach a particular someone, not everyone. Identify the smallest viable group, then delight them. Once you do, they will tell their friends and it won’t be spam, but a culture. (Read more marketing tips I got from the Digital Summit.)
Let me know if you’ve ever done a Facebook Live session and if so, how it went!
