How To Use Facebook Live For Business

 
It's here! Facebook live is available for Business Pages and Groups.  When this feature first rolled out, it was only available for verified pages of celebrities and well known figures. Now, anyone who has a page or group can use it! Actually, I will qualify that a bit, from what I'm hearing anyone in the US can use it. I've had reports from people I know in the UK that it is not available there yet. 

If you are located in an area that has this feature here are some reasons why to use it and some tips to get you started.

Advantages of Using Facebook Live

If you are looking to expand your reach and engage with your audience, video is where it's at.

Yes, I know it's hard. It's easier to share a post in your slippers before you've taken a shower but you also don't have to be dressed to the nines to do a video.  What I like about live video apps like Facebook Live and Periscope is that very few people have gone into hair and make-up before putting their video up. It's doesn't mean that you don't need to be presentable, you just don't have to be perfect.

Facebook also seems to be rewarding posts that have natively uploaded video with greater reach.  That means that a video made with Facebook live or uploaded as a file may be seen to a larger audience than one shared from YouTube or vimeo.

It's time to try and remember if you don't like it, you can always delete!

Getting Started

The best part is that you don't need any equipment except your iphone or android phone,  although you may find a selfie stick helpful especially one that has a tripod base.  You won't find the icon to do a live video on your desktop and there is no app to install.  Also, you won't find the icon in Pages Manager.

To get started,
>> Open the Facebook App on your phone
>> Go to the page or group you want to broadcast live in
>> Click on the post link
>> Click on the icon of a head with 2 half circles around it at the bottom of the post

Pointers As You Record

You choose when you actually start to record. When you start recording, you will get a 3,2,1 kind of countdown button. When the recording starts, remember to look into the camera and not in the middle of your phone. Also, you can toggle back and forth to use both the front and rear camera. A friend of mine had a great idea to practice doing this with friends if you are part of a private Facebook group.  They can give you feedback and you can get the jitters out of the way a bit.

Editing the Still Photo Posted for Facebook Live Posts

I have figured out how to change the image associated with the still or "to-be-played" version of a live video. After the replay has posted to your page, go back to your page, go under "videos" on the left and click the button for the video library. If you hover over the name of your video a drop down screen will appear, click on that and in the top right hand corner of the video is a camera icon that says "custom" click on that and you can upload your own photo. For the post below, I took a screenshot of myself from the video and added text in canva. If any of these things are things are things you don't know how to do, I'm happy to set up a screenshare appointment to demonstrate how.

I'll be adding more tips here as I work more with the platform myself.

Click to see and hear an example of a Facebook live video I made recently.

If you have any additional tips for using Facebook Live, please share by clicking on the comment link!