Facebook introduced the Live feature back in 2015. Along with Snapchat and Instagram stories, Facebook Live allows brands to communicate with their followers in a more instant fashion. As users engage most readily with video content and, particularly when we’re looking at younger generations, seek a more “authentic” side to the brands they associate with, Facebook Live is a feature that offers plenty of opportunities.
Facebook Live is free to use (although paid versions with more features are available too). The immediacy it encourages also means that this isn’t the place for expensively-filmed video content. Budget videos shot on smartphones will be perfectly serviceable. So, whatever the size of your company and whatever your budget, there’s no reason not to be using Facebook Live.
So what should you be using it for? Here are a few ideas for using Facebook Live for your business:
Allow Followers Behind the Scenes
A “behind the scenes” video allows your followers to see a real and authentic version of your brand. For those who dream of working with you and those who want to see if your projected brand ethos lives up the image, you can show what life is like at your brand from day to day.
Answer Customer Questions
You’ll likely receive questions from your customers by email, on social media, over the phone and in person. When it comes to regularly asked questions, you could set up a Facebook Live feed to provide answers. You could even answer questions received over social media in real time to give everything even more immediacy. By saving your live video, you can repost it at a later date to other social media platforms, particularly if the same questions are coming up time and again.
Give Teasers
If you have a new product about to launch or you’re planning a big, exciting event, you can use Facebook Live to give your followers teasers of what is coming up. This will help to build a buzz, ready for the product release or the event, and provide your followers with instantly-shareable content.
VIP Access to an Event
If you’re planning an event, do a Facebook Live stream on the day. For your customers or clients who can’t make it to the event, it’s a little taster of what happened. And you could even give your followers the VIP treatment by giving them backstage access and insider insights into the running of the event.
Host A Tutorial
Whatever your product or service, there’s lots of information you can share with your customers. You can use Facebook Live to teach your customers about a given topic. For example, if you sell women’s hair accessories, do a tutorial on how to achieve the latest fashion styles. Or if you provide employee engagement services to clients, do a quick tutorial on how to help a new member of staff hit the ground running. The possibilities are endless.
Test Content
Facebook Live provides brands with an opportunity to test content before investing lots of time and money creating it. With low-budget Facebook Live content, you can test your followers’ reactions – the number of likes, shares, etc. – before embarking on a longer-term project such as an e-guide, a more professionally-filmed video or a series of blog posts.
With so many applications, there’s no reason why Facebook Live shouldn’t become part of your social media marketing mix. It’s a relatively new and exciting way to engage with your customers, providing them with a real and honest presentation of who your brand is.
