Are you ready for your close-up? With Facebook being the top dog of social media, if you haven’t already started using the live video feature on the platform, you need to get to know it well — and jump on board. FB now has more than 2 billion users monthly. That is an opportunity that businesses can’t afford to miss.
Digging into this feature can add a dynamic tool to your comprehensive social media marketing program that can really engage and excite your customers. Read more to find out the different ways you can use Facebook Live marketing for your business.
Understanding the Basics of Facebook Live
As the name suggests, users tap the live stream icon to broadcast an event live from their smartphone on Facebook. You also have the option of typing in a description of the broadcast. Any followers of your business can view the event. An excellent feature of Facebook Live is that once you have completed the live stream, you can tap “finish” on the video and it will be uploaded as a permanent feature on your timeline.
There are a few additional points to note regarding the options for the service. The time limit of the live stream video service is four hours, and if needed, you do have the ability to block certain users. A key difference in this live streaming service, as opposed to other similar ones like Periscope, is that users can access the video at any time and the video is connected to other parts of the FB app.
Now, let’s get into the different ways that Facebook Live marketing can help your business.
6 Ways to Use Facebook Live Marketing to Help Your Business
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- Broadcasting Live Events
Whether you are getting ready to host a unique event with entertainment, doing a special event with a new business partner, or celebrating a company milestone, broadcasting live events can promote your brand and engage your customers in new and thrilling ways. For example, Dunkin Donuts launched their DD Summer Soundtrack campaign to promote their iced coffee products, hosting five live concerts in five cities. Using bands that catered to millennials, their target audience for the broadcast, they not only reached the people in the cities where the concerts were held but potential customers watching on FB, YouTube, Snapchat, Twitter, and other platforms utilized for the event.
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- Highlighting Your Products
Have you ever thought of doing a tour of your retail store? What about showing how your products are made? Get one of your employees with a dynamic personality to host a live broadcast. You can even have a script beforehand if you like — but don’t make it too stilted or mechanical. The whole point of live video is the “reality” feel. Martha Stewart has done a great job showcasing her exclusive products at Home Depot on Facebook Live. In her tutorials, she offered up a call to action by highlighting certain products. This is an important example of how valuable the feature of keeping the video on your timeline matters. Value for the long haul.
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- Conducting an Interview
Do you have any thought leaders in your industry you can talk to? Hosting an interview like this can garner respect and showcase your brand in a professional, informative, and entertaining way. Sephora used this well when they spoke to several beauty care experts. Another option is to highlight company employees to create a more personal connection with your brand. Going beyond that, you could also use this as a recruiting tool to find top talent right from the land of social media. Showcase employee stories of the workplace, why they like working for the company, and what new initiatives are going on with your products and/or services that they really love.
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- Hosting Informational or How-To Sessions
Businesses should always be on the lookout for creative ways to offer added value to their customers. From showing how to install a line in a weed eater to giving information about the stock market, Facebook Live can be instructional while showing your expertise at the same time. Bloomberg, a noted industry leader in the stock market, has utilized live streaming to broadcast updates and show their followers what charts they need to watch – all with simple videos such as live views of office desktop computers.
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- Creating New Marketing Campaigns
Take your idea from the computer to the smartphone. Using short, entertaining, and even humorous videos to launch and promote a new campaign is an excellent Facebook Live marketing tool. An organization that has utilized this well is the ASPCA. In Adopt a Shelter Dog month in October 2016, they launched the #31DaysofRescueDogs campaign. To help spread the word, they brought in some volunteers to walk puppies around New York City and streamed it live to their followers.
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- Running a Contest
Everybody loves to win. Whether it is a new contest or an ongoing contest you want to create more exposure for, do a live video where you give out the details — and announce the prizes. Encourage feedback in the comment by asking questions or offering up challenges. Beachbody, a successful fitness company, utilized the live streaming feature on FB for a “pantry grab” contest. Promoting good nutrition, the company had a contest to show their audience what a healthy pantry should look like, giving advice on what to keep and what to ban from their pantries forever.
With the amount of traffic that the social media site has on a daily basis, using Facebook Live marketing techniques is a huge opportunity for your business. Celebrate the launch of a new product. Interview a local celebrity. Use humor to engage your customers. Be creative and have fun.
Bringing Facebook Live into your diverse digital marketing portfolio can offer ongoing value to your business — developing loyalty, promoting your brand, and growing (and exciting!) your customer base.
