Facebook recently announced the launch of a new live video tool, which makes it possible for brands, companies, businesses and individuals to transmit audiovisual content in real time on Facebook profiles and pages, fostering greater opportunities for interaction, diversification of content and engagement within the Facebook community. But how does it work? Below we offer some easy, practical ways digital marketers can integrate Facebook live video within a digital promotions to increase impact and reach.
How does Facebook Live Video work?
In order to stream and share video via Facebook all, select “Update status” and then the live video icon. From there, type a quick description and choose the audience with which you’d like to share the video. It will also be possible to see the number of people watching the video in real time, the names of friends who are tuning in, and their comments. After finalizing the broadcast, the video will be saved and keep published as a new post just like any other video. People will also be able to subscribe and receive a notification each time you broadcast a live video.
We suggest you read these tips for getting started with Facebook Live.
Ideas for Using Live Video Content with A Facebook Contest
This new feature makes it possible to boost the Facebook Pages of brands, businesses and public figures, providing new and diverse content. Here are a few simple, effective ideas to get started.
- “Moment in the Life” Broadcast of Public Figure
As well as giving glimpses into their day-to-day lives by posting photos and texts, celebrities and public figures can now supplement the content of their Facebook Pages with live videos of interesting moments that they want to share. This opens a whole world of options, since these videos can also serve as spaces for advertising. What if a soft drink were to feature in the live video of an actor? And what if online users watching the video had to see which drink appears and give an answer by leaving a comment with a specific hashtag? This type of action enables quick, transparent and varied sweepstakes to be created via using hashtags in comments.
- A Live Sports Broadcast
For cycling tours, races, trail running and so on, digital marketers can broadcast the climax of the event, asking users to interact with the live video by liking or commenting on it. For example, broadcast the end of a race and ask users to say who they think will win. As the live video is an regular Facebook post marketers can encourage their community to take part by offering them the chance to win a prize in a sweepstakes. Use a Facebook Timeline Sweepstakes tool to choose the winner – or winners – more efficiently and transparently.
- Up-to-Date Event Promotion
If a company or brand is holding an offline event, digital marketers can now promote this event online by doing more than simply uploading photos to Facebook or tweeting about it. Companies can now spread word about the event in real time via Facebook Page and loyalize its online community by offering followers up-to-date content. Ask Facebook users to interact with the post by demonstrating that they like it and reward those who follow the event online.
- Live Cooking
In the hospitality and food industries it is customary to create audiovisual content for online channels. With Facebook Live video, brands can diversify these content by broadcasting a cooking video from their Facebook Page. This will make it possible to increase community engagement, obtain more interaction with users, answer questions, collect suggestions from users, and more. Using Facebook will enable marketers to gather more participants spontaneously and organically as well as make announcements on the page in the hours or days prior. Use Facebook sweepstakes to reward viewing by offering an interesting prize in a sweepstakes to all those who like the live video.
- Webinars, training events and Q&As
Facebook is a great place to spread the word about training sessions, tips, etc., which can now use a live video to disseminate this content. Marketers can also reward followers by asking them to comment on the transmission and then entering them into a sweepstakes for the chance to win a product or service offered by the company or brand.
For media companies, Facebook Live is proving itself to be another useful channel for engaging communities of followers. For example, it makes it possible to improve the interactions between public figures, experts and politicians with their audiences. Before, it was common to use the chat feature or posts to give people the chance to pose questions to an expert in Facebook; now it is possible to stream a live video, giving the audience the opportunity to ask the guest questions in real time.
A similar version of this article was originally included on the Easypromos blog