Facebook Live is the hottest new thing since the last hot thing, but how can brands use it to engage with their audiences?
What is Facebook Live?
It’s a live-streaming service that is in the process of being rolled out to all Facebook users and community owners.
How do you use Facebook Live?
It’s ridiculously easy.
1. Log into the Facebook iOS app or Facebook Android app.
2. Tap at the top of your Timeline, News Feed or Page.
3. Tap the ‘what are you up to dialogue box’ and select the broadcast button.
4. Write a description for your broadcast.
5. Tap Go Live to begin your broadcast.
6. When you’re ready to end, tap finish. There’s a maximum of 30 minutes.
Why use Facebook versus Meerkat or Periscope?
Primarily scale, there are 1.6 billion users on Facebook that will be able to access your live stream feed. You can broadcast into a page, group or personal profile. A day in the life of Buzzfeed’s social media editors attracted 100,000 viewers this week.
Can you access a replay?
Unlike Periscope the stream will remain for replay once a stream ends, although it can be deleted.
What’s Facebook Livemap?
Facebook Livemap is a wonderful window into live broadcasts taking place around the world, from Las Vegas to Lahore.
Can viewers engage with a livestream?
Yes this is likely to become one of the primary reasons for using Facebook Live. It displays the number of viewers tuning in and comments.
Whose using it?
Media publishers have got into the service early.
Journalists from the New York Times have jumped on the platform for Q&As and to share background to their stories. Otherwise it’s currently a huge playground as individuals tinker with the service.
How can you use it for brands?
There will inevitably be lots of brands starting to livestream for the sake of it; it’s the latest shiny new thing.
Think about how you can use the platform to help meet your organizational objectives.
Facebook Live is likely to find applications in crisis, customer service, events, stakeholder engagement and storytelling (click to tweet).
Here are 10 possible brand applications for Facebook Live:
1. Demonstrations: show off your products, or services. Think car test drives, cookery demonstrations, house viewings, and auctions.
2. Gigs: share content from a cultural or musical event, reaching a potential audience as large as the internet itself. High school plays, red carpets and rock concerts will never be the same again.
3. News Events: this is another tool in the armory of bloggers and journalists. Video from an announcement can be shared immediately. Media owners are already jumping on the service.
4. Interviews: video streaming will inevitably catch out a politician saying something daft during the forthcoming UK & US elections. It’s a powerful tool for live interviews and discussions.
5. Conferences: open up an event to an audience beyond the conference hall, and involve people beyond your hashtag in real time.
6. Events: you now have your own video crew to share news and announcements with your community.
7. Behind the Scenes: live video streaming will likely launch a new genre of fly-on-the-wall or behind the scenes reporting, enabling organizations to share back stories.
8. Listening and Engagement: social engagement has been underplayed so far but social video streaming enables organizations to truly hold a conversation.
9. Customer Service: it’s only a matter of time before someone records a customer service rant using a video streaming app and a brand is forced onto the platform to respond.
10. First Person Video: everyone has a story to tell. Brave celebrities, sports people, politicians and business people will use the app to tell their own stories.
The original version of this post can be found here.
