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5 Reasons Why You Need To Live Stream In 2017 

24 April 2017  
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Live streaming has never been so simple and effective. If you’ve never live streamed before or have only played it casual, it’s time to get serious.

1. It’s an amazing opportunity to connect with your audience

Live streaming provides you with the opportunity for real-time interaction with your audience. Brand names and logos don’t usually create a personal connection between business and consumer. But putting a friendly face beside them does, especially if that person is live. It conveys a sense of openness and relatability – and allows viewers to get access to you.

As your audience learns about you, you can learn so much more about them. You can answer questions, recognise their concerns and plan ahead with their feedback. For example, you can ask your customers what they’d like you to cover in your next live stream.  BBC News stated that the quality of the comments they receive during live broadcasts is exceptionally high. Source: Newswhip

Here are some great examples of businesses getting in front of their audiences using Facebook Live.

  • The Happy Pear is a fruit and veg store and café owned by Irish twins, Stephen and David Flynn. These guys are killing it on social media here in Ireland and all over the world with online videos and recipes. They recently started live streaming Q&As and the response has been massive. This particular live stream gained over 57k views.

    Q&A with Dave and Steve

    Posted by The Happy Pear on Monday, 23 January 2017

  • Arnotts department store create some hype for their products when they announce and sample them live on Facebook. Here is one from November 2016, as they launched a new line of boots. In February they enjoyed considerable success with makeup demonstrations for Mac make up as well as style sessions hosted in store.

    We're here live in the Shoe Garden with Courtney Smith as she talks us through her new boot collection with Buffalo now available in store at Arnotts! #COxLAB

    Posted by Arnotts Department Store on Thursday, 10 November 2016

  • (Had to mention this as it’s the Oreo cookies example of FB live!) – BuzzFeed drew massive worldwide engagement when it live streamed two employees putting rubber bands on a watermelon until it exploded. Odd, yes. Waste of time? Definitely not. The live stream attracted over 800,000 live viewers and scored 315,000 comments. It was Facebook’s most watched live stream ever, until Chewbacca Mom of course…

    Watch us explode this watermelon one rubber band at a time!

    Posted by BuzzFeed on Friday, 8 April 2016

2. Facebook live creates a sense of immediacy

People will be more likely to listen to what you have to say if they catch you live, rather than scroll past your pre-recorded video and ‘watch it later’. So use this tool to announce promotions or new products. The live aspect of your video gives it authenticity and urgency.

Imagine you’re hosting an event – you take out your phone and start recording a video, interviewing guests and showing off your products. Then you have to stop recording, maybe look over the footage, upload it to Facebook, write a description and hope some people see it and come down to your event.

Or you could live stream it. Take out your phone, start streaming in 3 three clicks after writing a short description, your fans will be notified and now all you do is just talk and show off what you got. People see this on their news feed and they see that something is happening without them and it looks fun! The sense of immediacy and FOMO kicks in. That’s when they head down to your event, or make sure not miss the next one. For an all-day event, this would work very well.

Remember, uploading a pre-recorded video tells people what happened. Live streaming tells people what is happening.

3. It’s cheap video content!

Facebook Live offers you the cheapest way to make interesting, engaging videos that will reach further and perform better – all for nothing! You have no excuse not to be producing video content now that Live is here.  If you have a smart phone and WiFi, the only costs are your time and data usage.  And while the initial live video is great for engagement, it also becomes content on your Page as Facebook adds the live video to your page feed content.

4. Content amplification

Your live videos are watched as you broadcast them, and depending on your audience size, the amount of live viewers (if any!) can vary. If it’s just your Mum watching, don’t worry. Once you’ve clicked ‘end live broadcast’ your video will be uploaded to your Facebook Page (or YouTube) and will remain there as a normal video.

Even when people watch your live video after it has ended, that sense of connection and urgency is still there. If you were successful in encouraging viewers to interact with you during the live stream, post-live viewers will feel like they missed out and may be more likely to watch your next one when it is actually live!

Here’s how we distribute our live videos after they have ended:

Download the live video after it has been saved to your Facebook Page.

Edit it down for sharing across the different social media platforms that you are active on:

  • 15 seconds for Instagram
  • 60 seconds for Twitter
  • 3 minute highlight reel for YouTube!

That’s four juicy pieces of content (if you include the live video itself) that you are getting out over four different platforms, all from the one live stream!

5. Facebook loves Live – they give it that extra push!

Facebook favours videos. We know this.  Even Zuckerberg said it himself: “People are creating and sharing more video, and we think it’s pretty clear that video is only going to become more important. So that’s why we’re prioritising putting video first across our family of apps.”

But Facebook really favours live videos and whether we like it or not, Facebook’s algorithm decides where our content ends up, who sees it and when. It’s a microcosmic moment we are living in right now, friends. If you don’t avail of this opportunity to get Facebook to promote out your stuff in people’s newsfeeds for free, you’ll be kicking yourself in years to come with it gets all algorithmed, paid and expensive!

So what are you waiting for? Now is the time! Take advantage and be glad you did in 2017. It’s the best opportunity out there.

Have you tried live streaming yet?

Maybe you’d like some help getting started with Facebook Live.

You can either get in touch with us here, and have a conversation about what you need. It’s got a whole module on live and shows you how to get started step by step.  Either way, we’ll have you reaching your audience live in no time.

Contact us today.

We’ll always get back to you within one business day.

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