Blog & Company News
Jul 19, 2016
Your Business is Live Now
Facebook is a great place to get engagement
with potential customers. From ads to boosted posts and Call To Actions, Facebook is definitely a place for business, and new features are being added every day to make advertising feel less like advertising and more like natural communication with people you do business with. Facebook's latest feature, a response to Persicope (by Twitter), is Facebook Live Video. A user or page can broadcast video from their smartphone or tablet and receive comments from people watching the stream.
This leads to a much more engaging format for viewers and businesses because you can interact live with an audience instead of simply replying to comments and messages. For marketers, one of the best features is that people who follow your Facebook will automatically receive a notification when you go "live". That's a free push notification to users with the Facebook app on their phones will see.
There are a lot of creative ways Facebook Live could be used to interact with customers and promote your business, but here are a few popular ideas to get you started:
- Live Q&A - Q&A's are engaging, informative, and can be really fun. Start broadcasting and let your audience know you're taking questions in the comments, then answer them on the broadcast. Get creative and do your Q&A along with something that's entertaining to watch for your audience: artists can draw or paint, musicians can play music, chefs can cook, the possibilities are pretty much endless.
- Day In the Life - Think about doing something like an episode of "How It's Made", but for your business. Showing your process will build rapport with Facebook viewers and spark interest in your business. If you're able to stream something particularly cool or interesting, you'll be able to get shares and reach an exponentially larger audience than standard posts will fetch.
- Events - Grand openings, premiers, holiday parties and promotional events are a great way to get people in the door, but for those who can't make it, set up your phone on a tripod or a stand so your Facebook fans can join in on the fun. Seeing people enjoying the environment of your business reflects very well on new customers. Live stream a party and include your business's location with an open invitation to new customers!
These certainly aren't the only ways in which you can use Facebook Live to engage with your customers, but hopefully this will get you into the habit of live streaming with the app and getting better engagement with your fans and customers.