If you spend any time at all on social media, you’ll very likely have seen a ‘Facebook Live’ session, either while it’s in action or once it’s finished. Facebook Lives are a way for people to record video and broadcast it live through Facebook, and then save it to a page once the broadcast has finished for people to watch at a later date.
There are plenty of uses for Facebook Lives; cook-alongs, crafting and make-up tutorials are just a few of the things we’ve seen them used for by ‘regular’ folk, but they can also be useful for business, too.
Here are five reasons that you should get over your fear of Facebook Lives for the sake of your business:
Get your personality across
So many businesses are a faceless, personality-less entity which doesn’t really offer customers much in the way of insight into what the company stands for. Using Facebook Lives can inject a bit of personality into your brand, whether you use them to offer tips, advertise a service, or even just share a cup of tea and a chat with your customers…which leads us onto our next point.
Interact with your followers
The great thing about Facebook Lives is that viewers can react to what you’re saying by hitting one of the ‘reaction’ buttons, and even ask questions while you’re recording, allowing you a real-time opportunity to connect with your audience. It’s a great way to get question and answer sessions going and to give people the chance to make enquiries about what you do. It also allows you to adjust the tone of what you’re talking about while you’re recording, because you have feedback from viewers.
Don’t spend any money!
The beauty of Facebook Lives is that no-one expects them to be over-produced or in 4K quality – most people use a webcam or even a smartphone to record them and they can be filmed basically anywhere that you have a decent internet connection. This means that it costs very little to produce, but the value to your business can still be high.
Creating a buzz around your brand
Using Facebook Lives can be a brilliant way to create a lot of buzz around new product launches without needing to spend huge amounts of your budget on advertising. A well-timed “join us at 2pm for an exciting announcement” post is sure to whet the appetites of people who are interested in your brand and will give you the opportunity to make your announcement to lots of people at once.
Be unique!
When you use Facebook Live, you can be absolutely certain that the content you’re producing is totally unique to your business. The fact that Lives are instant and real-time means that, unless you’ve memorised a script or are working from prompts, everything you say and do will be off the cuff, and will give your video a natural feel. Facebook has become somewhat over-saturated with regular adverts in recent years, but a Facebook Live still has the ability to stand out.
