Pull’s MD, Chris Bullick, was recently invited to lead a talk concerning the impact of reviews on your SEO strategy, and we thought it made perfect sense to stream this, live on Facebook.
While there had been plenty of noise around Facebook Live – yes, we’re talking about you, Chewbacca Mom – until this point we had never had the right opportunity to use it. And, as it is kind of hard to test it beforehand since you know, it goes live when you do, we thought we would wing it and hope for the best.
What kind of a strategy is that, we hear you cry. Well, it was actually part of the test. Just how easy is it for the average user or business with no content factory or production team behind them to pick up their phone and start a broadcast? Well, thankfully for us and the viewers who tuned in, it worked really well and is dead simple to use.
Nearly two million videos are broadcast live on Facebook each month
By now you must have seen a Facebook live video, if not, go follow some more Facebook accounts. [For those of you who have not seen any, follow accounts such as The Body Coach, BBC or even Ricky Gervais, who regularly use this feature.] Otherwise, go to your Facebook profile page and where you’d write a status you’ll see an option for ‘Live Video’.
Now, if you're reading this whilst in the bath, don't click the button. You will go live, and will drop your phone in the bath. However, if you're in a safe environment (and fully clothed), give it a go.
How does it work?
To make your video live, Facebook will ask what your broadcast’s about. It’s not essential that you write something, especially if it's a live video of you dancing in the living room to the latest Justin Bieber track (no one wants to see that), but if you’re broadcasting on behalf of your brand or business, it’s crucial that you give people a reason to tune in.
Once you’ve done that, hit start and off you go – it really is that easy!
How will people know when you’re live?
So how do you make sure people see your Live stream? Well, Facebook haven’t quite made their mind up yet. When it was launched, you got notified when pages you followed went live, then those default notifications got switched off, but for some users they’ve returned again recently. Either way, you need to alert your followers and fans that you’re live so to make sure your video is seen by someone other than your mum who has been waiting anxiously for the last hour hitting F5 #mummyslittlestar.
What happens when you’re live?
Once you’re live, you’ll see an eye icon which represents your current viewing numbers- this gets pretty exciting when you see the numbers increasing; not so much when you see them dropping. Awks. Maybe change up your video content to you dancing in the living room...
Viewers can react using all the usual Facebook reactions, and you’ll see these floating across the screen as you broadcast. Again, keep an eye these - too many angry faces and it might be best to go back to the drawing board.
Finished broadcasting, now what?
Although Facebook says the majority of views happen while the video is live, the real beauty of a Facebook broadcast is that once it ends you’re left with some original video content which you can then share and promote as much as you want
And that’s all there is to it, you’re ready to start your first broadcast!
If you’re still not feeling totally confident, feel free to get in touch with our Digital Marketing team who’ll be happy to help in any way they can.
Posted 10 November 2016 by Virginia Girtz