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10 Simple (But Important) Things To Remember About Facebook Live

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Facebook Live is a great way to reach people on your Facebook Page and they are wildly popular in the Facebook Newsfeed. If you've been afraid to get started, I hope that this will help you come up with ideas and set your personal best practices for streaming on Facebook Live.

Video is going to continue to be an area of focus for Facebook.

“I see video as a megatrend,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors during its fourth-quarter earnings Feb. “That's why I'm going to keep putting video first across our family of apps.”

[clickToTweet tweet=”“I see video as a megatrend.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg” quote=”“I see video as a megatrend.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg ” theme=”style1″]

According to Facebook, users watch Facebook Live videos 3x longer than videos that aren’t live. In fact, Facebook made a “small update to News Feed so that Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in News Feed when those videos are actually live, compared to after they are no longer live.”

Live video is more interesting and exciting when watched live vs. a replay.

From SalesForce [infographic below]:

  • “Facebook has 1.1 billion daily active users. Facebook also shared in a blog post that people “spend more than three times more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live.” With live video, you reach a larger audience.
  • Facebook’s algorithm gives priority to live videos in the News Feed, making your video more likely to be seen by your friends and family (and other followers) than a regular status post or photograph.”

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links which means that I may make money from your purchases, but it doesn't cost anything extra for you.

To go live:
  1. Click Live Video at the top of your News Feed
  2. Write something about your live video
  3. Titles must have fewer than 255 characters, or the stream will fail
  4. Add emoji to add some color to your title
  5. Click Go Live

You can also use your smartphone in these apps: Facebook Pages, Facebook, and Facebook Mentions.

After you go live on Facebook, the video will publish as a post on your Facebook Page. You can download the video and repurpose it as well.

The time limit for a Facebook Live video is four hours.

You can also use Facebook Live in Groups! Facebook allows you to create a group from your Facebook Page.

2. Embed Live Stream on your Blog

You can embed your live stream in a website. Click in the upper right-hand corner of the video and click embed to get an HTML code that you can copy and paste to your website.
The video below is an embedded Facebook Live video.

3. Create a Plan for your Livestream

It's imperative to have a plan and a topic for your Livestream. I host a Q&A each week, and I have a few questions ready, and I have a tip or tool to share. I outline my Livestream, so I stay on track and on topic. Rambling to yourself live is a great way to get people to unlike your Facebook Page.

Start with an introduction and say who you are with the topic of your Live video. Write out a detailed plan for your Facebook Live and practice what you're going to say in front of a mirror if you're nervous.

4. Invite a Guest

They're adding the ability to pull someone in the Livestream on Facebook Live with you, but a great way to do this now is with BeLive which is a third-party program for Facebook Live. I've had it since it was in Beta, and they've recently opened it up with some exciting features.

You can add your logo and customize your colors, as well as add a lower third with your name. I also love that you can schedule Facebook Live with BeLive. It sends you an email and a Facebook message with the link to go live at your scheduled time.

Their lowest plan starts at just $12 per month. If you're going to plan to use Facebook Live, it's well worth the money. I'm not a partner with BeLive; I just love how easy it is to use.

Belive for Facebook Live

5. Easy-to-Use Tools for a Great Facebook Live

You don't have to purchase fancy equipment for Facebook Live. You can go live anywhere with just your phone if you want to!

These are the items that I use for my live video setup when I'm in my office.

  • Diva Light Ring – great lighting matters!
  • RetiCAM Tabletop Tripod – I like to put my iPhone on the tripod to read questions and comments on the Livestream.

  • Logitech camera – My Macbook's camera isn't good enough for professional Livestreaming so I use this Logitech.
  • Mevo Live Event Camera – Great if you have someone to help with your video. They can direct the action from an iPad or iPhone.
  • Washi Tape – to mark spots for your tripod and lights

This video was filmed with the Mevo Camera, the Diva Light Ring, and someone directing the action. The video above was from my Logitech camera on my desktop.

Try using your smartphone or desktop to start and gradually build up your tech equipment over time.

6. Live Video Can Help Build your Brand

Humans love to connect with other humans. When people scroll through their Facebook feed, they'll get a notification that you've started a Facebook Live and have the opportunity to join. Or they might see you on the video on their phone!

Make sure to greet your viewers and say hello to fans you know in the Livestream. Ask questions and encourage people to leave comments or share your Livestream.

Using strong calls-to-action guides the Livestream and creates an environment where people feel comfortable commenting and engaging.

7. Ask viewers to subscribe to your live videos

You're putting in a lot of work to plan and prep for your live videos – make sure to invite people to hit the subscribe button. I need to add this to my live checklist since I forget this!

8. Host a Variety of Live Videos

There are many different ways that you could go with your planning for Facebook Live. Here are a few ideas that I had for a variety of shows:

  1. Q&A
  2. Show and tell
  3. Product launches
  4. How to use products
  5. Behind-the-scenes
  6. Host an interview
  7. Go live at an event
  8. Breaking news

9. Create a Weekly Show

Set a schedule for your Facebook Live videos so people can count on your content and look forward to seeing your show each week.

Being consistent will help build your viewership each week.

Posting on a regular basis is imperative for Facebook pages. You must stay in front of your audience to be put into the newsfeed. Check your Facebook page insights to see what times and days are most popular for your page. A great tool for checking your Facebook page is Likealyzer. It will give you suggestions for the best time to post, how many posts you share per day, and much more.

Learn more about how to be consistent on Facebook here.

10. Get More Views by Promoting After the Live Video

You can reshare your video as a new post to your page later and get more views. Or embed them into your blog posts.

Create a Post with This Video

Other ways to get more views:

  1. Tweet the link to your Facebook Live
  2. Share it on Linkedin
  3. Send out an email with a highlight and invite people to watch it
  4. You can download your video and edit it into bite-sized pieces to share on Instagram or upload natively to Facebook.

I hope this article inspires you to create your own Facebook Live and maybe even start a weekly show! Let me know how Facebook Live has worked for you and how you share with your audience.

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9 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this article. I use facebook live to record all of my podcast now because I want my audience to be apart of the recording process. Have a great week, Peg

    1. Hello Cheval,

      Awesome! Jeff Sieh and I do that for our Small Business Social podcast too.

      Thanks for reading and commenting.

      Peg

  2. Hello
    Peg,
    Always feel good to read your post. Earlier, I have read your post on smart rules for using pinterest vs instagram that was so nice. This time another amazing post.

    Really, Facebook live is a great way to reach peole on facebook page. I agree live video is more interesting and exciting when it’s watched live vs replay.

    Here you share 10 points in which I have learned many new thing.

    Thanks for sharing with us! Keep writing

    Best wishes,
    Praveen verma

  3. Hello Peg,

    Great informative post over here 🙂

    Facebook live has been into trends since this year.

    Many of the people like to make the world see, rather than pictures they go for making them see the video thing. Thats something
    more attractive.

    These tips let me to know some new features about the Facebook live.

    Thanks for the share.

    Shantanu

  4. Very helpful and informative. I’ll definitely incorporate these hints into a course I am developing. I admire your writing ability.
    Thanks to Guy for sharing this on LinkedIn.

  5. Great post Peg! Facebook Live is able to provide completely new and unique content to their viewers. It can be used for many special events, but not all of them. One event in particular where we see success from Facebook Live for business is with hyping product releases. Brands also use FB Live for a quick Q&A session without all the big production behind the content.

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