How to Use Facebook Live: The Ultimate Guide

It is no secret that dwell streaming took off in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

It proved a precious instrument for forging and sustaining human connections as I noticed personally internet hosting webinars and digital meetups at my final firm — and it hasn’t slowed down.

Market Research Future predicts that the live-streaming market in the US will develop from about $90 billion in 2024 to almost $560 billion by 2032.

Fb Stay is the second most popular platform for dwell streaming in the US.

Wish to discover ways to livestream on Fb? On this put up, I’ll clarify how intimately and share precious recommendations on easy methods to get probably the most out of your movies.

Desk of Contents

As of June 2024, Fb Pages can only go live when they’ve been up for over 60 days, and they’ve no less than 100 followers.

Fb made this modification to assist fight spam and be sure that these posting content material are reputable. So, if you have not already met this minimal, ensure to check out this guide that can assist you develop your small business web page following.

Properly, for one, Fb has the most important viewers of any social media platform, welcoming over 3 billion active users. This makes the potential attain of Fb Stay immense.

As well as, Fb is admittedly prioritizing video on the platform, which implies Fb Stay is extra prone to be served within the newsfeed and in entrance of your viewers than different static mediums.

This implies elevated model consciousness and visibility.

Stay streaming can be only a enjoyable, memorable method to talk your model tales and construct genuine relationships with followers and followers.

Entrepreneurs can go dwell on Fb to make firm bulletins, host interviews, subject questions, run demonstrations or tutorials, broaden the attain of in-person occasions (like HubSpot did under), and, general, have interaction audiences in a extra private, human manner.

Plus, it’s all freed from price.

Whereas a reasonably easy idea, Fb Stay has plenty of little nuances entrepreneurs have to study to get probably the most out of the platform.

This information will provide help to study the most effective tips for making a distinction in how many individuals see your dwell broadcast, how they have interaction with it, and the way it performs.

You go dwell from an online browser utilizing your laptop’s built-in digicam or an exterior digicam and streaming software program (additionally referred to as an encoder like Restream).

Observe these steps:

Step 1: In your Fb homepage, you need to see a “Stay” or “Stay Video” possibility. In case you are on a profile, it will likely be beneath “What’s in your thoughts?” The icon is a crimson digicam.

Step 2: Select to “Go dwell.” It’s also possible to “Create dwell video occasion” for the long run on this web page.

Step 3: Fill out the main points to your video.

For those who’re utilizing your webcam, this contains what video and audio instruments you’ll use in addition to your video title and outline. It’s additionally the place you choose the place you need your video to be posted. You possibly can select from:

• Your timeline
• A Web page you handle
• A Group you’re in

If utilizing a streaming service, you’ll fill out your title, description, and site, however Fb will offer you a streaming key to make use of in your encoder. Take this key again to your streaming service and full the mandatory setup steps there utilizing it.

Step 4: Click on “Go Stay” within the backside left nook when you’re prepared.

Professional tip: Throughout your broadcast, you should use the “dashboard” web page to create polls for viewers, view and reply to feedback, and general handle and improve your engagement.

Actual-time engagement like that is what makes dwell content material thrilling and completely different, so don’t shrug it off.

I do know that at any time when I’ve gone dwell on Fb, audiences have liked listening to responses to their questions or feedback verbally on the published. (And I can’t lie; I’ve liked listening to them throughout broadcasts I’ve watched.)

Extra on the instruments Fb has accessible to make your broadcast extra partaking in our subsequent part.

Keep in mind that a dwell stream recording can be printed to the property the place you went dwell. That content material is nice as a result of you possibly can download and repurpose it for further use.

Essentially the most complete efficiency knowledge to your Fb Stay movies may be present in Meta Business Suite:

However I wouldn’t blame you if it will get a bit overwhelming; there may be plenty of info there.

For a fast pulse on how my content material is doing on Fb, I normally click on the insights button under particular person posts.

The way to Entry Video Analytics on a Fb Enterprise Web page

Step 1: Head to the left-hand column of your web page and choose Meta Enterprise Suite.

Step 2: Choose Insights from the left-hand facet menu.

Step 3: Click on, “content material,” then set your media kind to “video”

Step 4: Dive deeper into your insights by deciding on filters and scrolling down the web page. (Observe: We didn‘t have any movies posted to the web page we used on this instance. For those who do have movies, you’ll see them seem right here.)

Step 5: To view insights for a particular video, click on on the video title in your content material record. From right here you possibly can view metrics from when the published was dwell in addition to over its total lifetime.

Want some inspiration? Try these great examples of Facebook Live videos to assist get your inventive juices stream.

In our detailed Marketer’s Guide to Facebook Live, we cowl important greatest practices on easy methods to plan, run, and analyze the outcomes of a business-run Fb Stay. Obtain our free eBook to brush up on these greatest practices.

2. Check out dwell video earlier than broadcasting dwell.

If you wish to experiment with dwell broadcasting with out sharing it with anybody else, you possibly can create a check broadcast by adjusting the viewers to be simply you or a colleague or pal.

To do that, toggle Create a check broadcast earlier than going dwell into the on place after you begin the method of making a dwell video, outlined here in Step 2.

3. Don’t go dwell too steadily.

The artwork of organic reach on Facebook has modified over time, nevertheless it does nonetheless exist. Stay video is usually a highly effective instrument in natural attain, as customers may be notified of the content material.

However don’t abuse this. Solely go dwell once you’re ready to supply true worth to viewers.

For those who go dwell too steadily with nothing to point out, folks will start to tune you out or, worse, unfollow you.

4. Preserve reintroducing your self.

While you first begin the video, take a minute to introduce your self and what the video’s about, however don’t do it simply as soon as.

While you first begin dwell streaming, you might have zero folks watching. Even a couple of seconds in, you could possibly solely have a handful of viewers.

As folks discover your video on their newsfeeds or see the notification within the app, they‘ll take part steadily. So, to catch folks up, you’ll wish to reintroduce your self a second, third, and even fourth time.

Cosmetics model Benefit does a great job with this for the primary couple of minutes of its broadcast:

5. Lean into fashionable subjects.

Unsure what to speak about it once you go dwell? In response to Statista the most well-liked forms of dwell streaming movies in the US are these associated to breaking information.

As a enterprise, you possibly can monitor business information and reply or add to the dialog on Fb Stay.

Different fashionable choices embody humorous movies and how-to’s.

6. Make the video visually partaking.

You need to be visually partaking — not simply on the very starting of your broadcast (though that’ll be vital for when of us view the video later), however all through the video as increasingly folks take part.

It ought to be no shock that Martha Stewart is a grasp of that.

I really like the colourful graphic she begins her video with (which additionally acts as its thumbnail) and the fashionable set on which the published takes place. She makes use of quite a lot of props and angles to maintain the video fascinating.

The extra visually partaking you may be, the extra you possibly can entice folks to stay round and actually focus.

Facebook started monitoring signals of video engagement — like turning on the audio, switching to full-screen mode, or enabling excessive definition — decoding that as customers having fun with the video.

In case your video engagement is sweet, Fb is extra prone to present it in additional newsfeeds.

7. Roll with the sudden.

What makes a dwell video particular? The spontaneous, interactive nature of it.

Folks love the flexibility to work together and even influence what occurs in a dwell broadcast.

These moments make dwell video particular and differentiate it from scripted, edited, or in any other case pre-recorded movies.

So, embrace the platform. Plan your most important speaking factors, however don’t run off a script and be able to pivot with the sudden.

That mentioned …

8. Don’t fret about errors or stutters.

Pay attention, we’re all human. When people and expertise combine, there can generally be technical difficulties.

Actually, that’s one of many positives I feel got here out of lockdown. With distant work and digital conferences from dwelling, all of us grew to become a bit bit extra comfy with little interruptions or mishaps.

For those who‘re recording a dwell video, issues may go flawed — your tools might malfunction, you could possibly lose your prepare of thought, or you could possibly get photobombed by a random passerby.

If issues occur, you possibly can’t name “minimize” — you need to roll with them and hold filming and speaking.

The excellent news? These items assist hold your broadcast human and actual.

In case your telephone wobbles whereas filming, chuckle and name it out. For those who neglect what you have been saying, make a joke.

The secret is to maintain the published like a enjoyable dialog, so if errors occur, hold it gentle and hold the strains of communication open along with your viewers.

9. Encourage viewers to “Like” and “Share” the video on air.

One of many major methods Fb‘s algorithm ranks a put up is by how many individuals “Like” and “Share” it. The extra individuals who do, the extra it’ll present up in folks’s newsfeeds.

When individuals are watching a video, they might be extra distracted from “liking” and “sharing” than they might be with a static put up.

That is truly one thing the folks at Facebook noticed about video content material early on, so don’t be afraid to say it verbally throughout your broadcast and even show the message on the display.

10. Interact with commenters and point out them by title.

The variety of feedback in your broadcast is one other method to get Fb to give it a higher relevancy score — one other nice method to get into newsfeeds.

So, encourage your viewers to remark by asking questions like Tastemade does on this video:

Interact with people who find themselves commenting by answering their questions and calling them out by title. Not solely will it get extra folks to remark, nevertheless it’s additionally a enjoyable method to embody your viewers within the dwell expertise and make it extra memorable.

11. Work with a moderator.

While you‘re the one on digicam for a Fb Stay video, it’s actually exhausting to concentrate to all of the feedback popping up on the display.

If the feedback are coming in quick, it‘s particularly simple to lose sight of them as they disappear under the fold. Plus, you’re most likely occupied by recording and entertaining viewers.

Due to this, it is all the time a good suggestion to have a further individual logged into the first account to watch the feedback on a desktop laptop.

That manner, they will deal with responding so the individual recording the video can focus on creating an excellent expertise.

12. Subtitle your broadcast within the feedback part.

Your viewers could also be tuning out and in to observe your video in the course of the work day, or they could merely be watching your video with out sound. Some folks might even have listening to limitations.

Regardless of the cause, periodically subtitling your Fb Stay video within the feedback part is an effective way to maintain folks engaged and make your content material extra accessible.

This additionally permits people who find themselves tuning in late to make amends for what is going on on.

Instruments like Verbit can assist.

13. Ask viewers to activate Fb Stay notifications.

Along with asking for likes, shares, and feedback, ask viewers to subscribe to dwell notifications. It’s also possible to ask them to “like” your model on Fb in the event that they haven’t already carried out so.

This will increase the probability of their being notified of your subsequent dwell broadcast.

14. Broadcast for no less than half-hour.

As quickly as you start recording your dwell video, you‘ll slowly however absolutely present up in folks’s newsfeeds.

The longer you broadcast — particularly as likes, feedback, and shares begin coming in — the extra doubtless individuals are to find your video and share it with their pals.

As a result of timing is such an vital issue for engagement in these dwell movies, Facebook suggests going dwell for no less than half-hour. Nevertheless, you possibly can keep dwell for as much as 4 hours utilizing the Fb cellular app and eight hours utilizing a desktop.

Bloomberg Enterprise often goes dwell on Fb for hours at a time:

15. Finish with subsequent steps

Earlier than you finish your dwell broadcast, remember to end with a closing line, like “Thanks for watching” or “I will be going dwell once more quickly.” This retains your dwell video pleasant and conversational.

Whilst you’re at it, give the viewer steerage on their subsequent step. What ought to they do with the knowledge they only acquired out of your video? Would you like them to subscribe? Make a purchase order? Now’s the time to share that decision to motion.

16. Add a hyperlink to the outline later.

As soon as you have completed the dwell broadcast, you possibly can all the time return and edit the outline, change the privateness settings, or delete the video, similar to you’d some other put up.

You possibly can add a trackable hyperlink to the outline within the put up, which might direct future viewers to your dwell video collection web page, the positioning of no matter marketing campaign you are utilizing the video to advertise, or someplace else.

We hope this has been a useful information. We’ll hold you posted with any new developments and ideas for connecting along with your viewers in different cool methods.

17. Repurpose your dwell video content material.

To maximise the attain of your streams, it can save you your movies after which add them to your profile. It’s also possible to repurpose the movies by sharing clips as profile highlights and creating brief movies to share on different channels like Instagram Tales and even TikTok movies.

Professional tip: Quick on time? AI can assist you repurpose. For instance, OpusClip can assist throughout any video into bite-sized clips for social media. Or you possibly can transcribe utilizing ChatGPT then use HubSpot’s Content Remix to create social media posts and weblog articles amongst different issues.