Top 10 Tips for Successful Facebook Live Stream

“Every Interaction in any form is Branding.”- Seth Godin.

Social media started as a tool back in the 2000s, but it has become a whole world in itself when you look at it today. From staying in touch with our loved ones to following the latest in the world to creating entirely new ecosystems, social media has come a long way. And today, it has become one of the go-to mediums for brands to garner more users for their products.

One of the most recent ways that social media celebs and brands have found to expand their user base and engage their audience is via Facebook Live. With live streaming, businesses get the opportunity to interact with their audience and get their feedback unfiltered. They can even drive up sales by launching a new product or offer on a live stream. 

Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, brands charted new paths to engage their audiences and kept their images rife in people’s minds. And most of it happened via Facebook Live. Be it a small brand or a large conglomerate; everyone used Facebook Live in their own limited capacity to achieve consumer success. However, just like with any other way of building a community, working with Facebook Live has its own challenges. 

One of the biggest ones is figuring out when to use it, and the next one is the context of using it. The answer to this lies in reflecting whether your community is looking for a one to one Q/A session or for a long term solution that they can keep coming back to at a later point in time. These are imperative to deciding whether you should do a Facebook Live session or just an explainer video post.

Perfect Moments for Streaming on Facebook Live

With Facebook Live, brands unlocked the capability to engage their loyalists, patrons, and new followers directly. This has helped reimagine what social media can actually do. So, what are the moments that are perfect for streaming on Facebook Live:

To Connect with Your Audience in a one to one chat

One of the best ways to connect with your audience is by being a human in front of them. Instead of being just a brand or a business entity, show emotions, empathize and understand what they are saying. Try to give them a heartfelt reply and be as genuine as possible to make them see that you have their best interests at heart.

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This will help instill trust in their hearts about your intentions and what you aim to do for them. The connection should happen both ways. They should connect with you as you to them for it to be mutually and financially viable and beneficial.

Answer Questions in Real-Time

The newest trend in town is to conduct a live Q&A session with your audience. Getting on board this bandwagon is pretty straightforward, as you just need to answer some questions correctly. Using Facebook Live for answering questions in real-time is just what you need to solve customer queries, generate leads, and maybe even provide customer satisfaction.

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Using Facebook Live, when you show your emotions and be human whilst answering questions, it automatically drives up your credibility. Furthermore, it makes you seem  genuine on your end. Answering questions will also help you understand your audience’s problems while giving you points to ponder about running your business. 

Showcase an Event to People Who Couldn’t Attend In Real Life

One prime example of using Facebook Live properly is allowing people to attend an event they cannot physically attend. Some examples of this were the Apple iPhone launch in October 2020 and the Tomorrowland 2021 in January 2021, all of which were streamed live for audiences. 

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Doing this shows that you care about your audience and you are willing to go the extra mile to give them what they want without compromising their comfort. Live Streaming further allows them to be immersed, similar to being there.

To Share Industry-Related Updates

Sometimes, some updates in your business or your industry would be much better conveyed via your mouth instead of a press or news release. In cases like these, the best would be to come up in front of your audience and clear the air. 

Whether it is a change in your company policy, a shift in the business practices, or just informing about adapting to a new industry norm, a Facebook Live stream is the best way to do it. 

To Show Off Your Company Culture

With tons of workplace reviewing websites, it is pretty easy to get a bad rap about having a not so friendly work environment. This can worsen as your attrition rate may go through the roof, and scouting new employees will be a struggle. 

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So, to prove the naysayers wrong, a Facebook Live stream about your company culture is the perfect answer. Use the live stream to talk to random colleagues in real-time and show off the excellent work culture you have.

Suppose you plan the event properly and convey the emotions properly to your audience in that brief interaction via Facebook Live, you can rest assured that you will get the desired outcome. 

Top 10 Tips for Successful Facebook Live Stream

While there are many ways to become successful at Live Streaming in general, with Facebook, you will be better off with some proper tactics and planning. So, without further ado, let’s dive right into the top 10 tips for a successful Facebook live stream:

Promote before and after the Facebook Live Stream

One of the best ways to make sure your Facebook live stream is successful is by making sure you garner an audience. And to do that, you need to promote it on various channels in numerous forms, ranging from personal invitations to posts and remarketing posts. Not only that, you can enable it before it happens to build hype. 

And once it is done, you can promote the live stream to make sure that you can get more traction from the Facebook Live Stream. Promotions have now become increasingly important to achieve success for Facebook Live. So, if you want to get more audience and be noticed by the relevant people, promote as much as you can and be tasteful and subtle about it. 

Source your content and talking points from your community

When you have formed an audience, there is a high chance that you might have come across a few problems or concerns or topics of discussion within your community. Facebook Live Stream is the perfect platform for this kind of discussion. But, of course, the best would be to pick up a favorite subject from your community, and you could even research the content in this forum. 

Setting your talking point and the discussion topic relevant to your community will automatically drive more audience towards you. This is because everyone is looking for answers, and if you have managed to find them, you are essentially solving a problem, which makes it more valuable. So, make sure to include this fact in your promotions if you are answering a widespread problem. 

Prepare your location and limit distractions

Like a presentation venue for an audience, Facebook Live is pretty similar, and you need to make preparations. So, if you are going to do a pre-planned Live Stream, make sure to have a location ready with all the necessary products and things for the streaming. Furthermore, make sure you are isolated so that you are not distracted by anyone or anything. 

While many people do it spontaneously, that seems more like a thing left to people and professionals who have a relatively decent background in working with FB Live. So, before the Live Stream, make sure that your workplace is ready according to what you want to do and there are no elements that can intrude on your process. 

Do a dry run with the “Only Me” feature

Before putting yourself on the pedestal in front of your audience, make sure that you do a tester run without any distractions. This also helps you understand which parameters to change/alter if they look bad in the actual video. To do this, you need to activate the “Only Me” feature of Facebook Live.

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This will allow you to pick the problems at the source and let you decide the best route for directing the Live Stream on Facebook. Furthermore, you can understand and correct the implementation plan for the overall stream. Sometimes, things might look better in our head than in reality, and doing a dry run helps figure that out. 

Choose the right time for the Facebook Live

Just like posting on a social media platform should be done at a specific time, Facebook Live Stream should also be done at the right time. You need to ensure the maximum availability of users and the maximum audience for yourself at the right time. 

While posting on Facebook is best preferred between 7 pm to 9 pm, going Live on Facebook is best chosen between 1 pm and 3 pm. However, don’t just rely on these numbers. Instead, survey the target audience, and observe the metrics to figure out the best time for the Live stream. 

Give your broadcast a title and make formatting decisions

Giving your broadcast a title helps make things clear in a prospective viewer’s mind. It allows them to understand and contemplate what the outcome will be at the end. Furthermore, it lets them know what kind of value the Facebook Live stream will add to their intellect. 

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Once you are done with the title, make sure to decide on the formatting for the Live stream as well. These include the camera orientation, the dialogue delivery, whether it will be a solo act or having people invite guests into the stream. All of these are questions that need to be answered beforehand to provide more clarity to the user. 

Make the video visually engaging and offer context constantly

Deciding on the formatting parameters, you will probably set the tone for the overall Live Stream. Now, it is time to make the video more visually engaging. Unless you have a ton of things that you want to show in a specific place, try moving the camera around along with yourself. That change in scenery and change in pace makes things more interesting. 

Now, with Facebook Live Stream, the number of viewers can fluctuate constantly. Some people can join initially, and some people can participate in the middle, while the rest can join near the end. And to make sure that all of the viewers understand the stream, keep offering the context constantly throughout the stream. This will not only make it more informative but inclusive as well. 

Be Spontaneous and don’t worry about mistakes

You must have a script or points to help you through the overall Live stream. And sticking to them is critical because you know your community best. However, sticking to them like robots is not the way to do things, especially in Facebook Live. 

Facebook Live is a tool to engage other people in real-time, and hence, it needs to come off as natural and spontaneous. This means being genuine and being human. Of course, errors might happen in some aspects, so no need to worry about that. Instead, pick them up in your stride and maybe even laugh at yourself for it. This will show your audience that you have a sense of humor as well.

Engage, interact, and build relationships via comment/feedback

The prime aspect of using Facebook Live is to build a rapport with your community. And this will not happen unless you are more inclusive in engaging with your audience. To engage them, you need to call a few of the new joiners by name, reply to commenters, answer questions in real-time, and interact with the audience. Furthermore, you can even add people with yourself in the Live Stream. 

Make use of that and allow one to one spontaneous interviews with the community people. The idea is to build your following for the brand and establish trust via building a relationship. Forming a relationship is always better than developing a follower, allowing the users to feel included. 

Take feedback from your users about the pace of your stream or even about your brand, and take tangible steps to work on them. Maybe even give them an explanation or idea about a particular comment to make it clear. 

Analyse your results and ask viewers to help in the promotion

After the Live stream, it is imperative to look at the results. And these include going over metrics like session time, number of users, number of comments, total engagement, and the overall likeability index of the stream. These are determining factors for the Facebook Live stream success rate. If it scores well against those parameters, then your stream is successful. 

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Once your Facebook Live Stream session is over, it is time to let the long term sharing do its work. And that is part of the post-stream promotions. If you have a loyal audience, then the chances are that they can do this job for you via sharing your stream, liking your page or posts, and subscribing to your channel on any other platform. All of these will directly impact your user base in terms of growth. 

Best Ways for Finishing a Facebook Live Stream for Brands

If your content delivery has been on point and your Live Stream has been on a high, then it’s time to end with a bang as well. The following are some ways brands can use to complete a Facebook Live Stream:

Smile and Say Goodbye

If the entire purpose of the Facebook Live stream was limited just to this session, then the best way is to smile, say goodbye, thank the viewers, and provide them with a means to send you feedback later. This is a classic method of ending on a high with consumer satisfaction. 

Solve the problem but leave it open-ended

Another classic way to leave your customers wanting more is to solve their problems and leave the discussion slightly open-ended. This helps generate user interest as they can ponder over the solutions offered and maybe even develop their own explanations. They will look forward to the following discussion or Live stream from you, and just like that, you will have garnered more traction for yourself. 

Set the premise for an upcoming product/video or a follow-up stream

The most preferred way of ending a video like that is to do subtle marketing for your brand. And that can be done by relating the topic of discussion in the Facebook Live Stream to a service you offer. While some people go overboard with the marketing, keeping it subtle and classy is the way to go. 

Furthermore, you can relate the context of the Live session with an upcoming product which the people can look forward to as the solution for a particular problem.

Verdict: Is Facebook Live Successful for Brands?

Absolutely! With Facebook Live, the arena has blown wide open to garner new audiences and gain more traction with the present ones. In addition, it bolsters your stance as a modern-day brand and shows that you care about the problems of your community to address them. 

So, if you want to achieve business success in the modern era of social media, Facebook Live Stream is one of the best tools at your disposal!

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Author:

Bhavik Soni is a Creative Writer at Auto Monkey. We provide an original analysis of the latest happenings in the social media industry. Connect with Latest Social Media Trends and News plus tips on Twitter, Facebook and other social tools on the web.