 Welcome to The Journey. Today, we're going to give you the ultimate guide to Facebook Live for your business. So back in April of 2016, Facebook launched Facebook Live, and it's a live video streaming service that lets anyone, yes anyone, broadcast from their mobile devices straight to their Facebook news feed. Since its launch, live streaming video has exploded in popularity, particularly in Facebook Live. In 2019, only 14.5% of businesses on Facebook didn't use videos, and it's no wonder why Facebook Live is so popular. Videos see three times the engagement when shared on Facebook. So what is Facebook Live? Surprisingly, I mentioned it on the phone the other day with my mom, and she told me her and her best friend did a Facebook Live around the campfire, and I was surprised she even knew about it. But Facebook Live is a feature that uses the camera on a computer or mobile device to broadcast real-time video to Facebook, and live broadcasters can control who on Facebook can see their video and use this content to engage their audience during moments and events that are important to them. Like, apparently they can't fire for my mom and her best friend. I love that. So why are marketers getting so excited about Facebook Live? Well, because it's fun and fairly simple, and it's just an easy way for them to use the power of video to communicate their brand's story and build authentic relationships with fans and followers in real time. So this episode will help you learn the best tricks that can make a huge difference in how many people see your live broadcast, also how they engage with it, and how it performs. So preparing to go live. So the first things first, before you can go live, you need to set up a Facebook page for your business. Now, we're going to assume that you've already done this, but if you haven't, get on it and then get it verified. Yeah. And in order to verify your page, it's pretty simple. You just have to enter your phone number for Facebook to call you with the verification code. And then you enter the four-digit code. It's honestly, it's that easy. But make sure all your business info is up to date. I can't stress this enough. Like your contact info, the location that you're at, your address, hours of operation. And make sure you have call to actions in there too, those CTAs. Now, just some other things to think about is just making sure that you have a cohesive brand style going on. That means your profile and cover photo really match your business and your brand. You also want to make sure that you have proper equipment before you begin. Now, you don't have to go out and spend a ton of money to get all sorts of fancy equipment. You just use your phone or your computer, but you want to make sure that you have a full battery and a decent internet connection. You don't want to be in the middle of a fantastic moment that you're sharing with your fans and followers, only for that connection to drop or your phone battery to die. Also, you want a lavalier mic that could help remove background noise and improve the audio quality, especially in a louder or more crowded area. And hold on. A glass of water nearby. A glass of water to nearby to help you clear throat, because you're going to be doing a lot of talking and any props that you might use during live. You don't want to be caught heading into your untidy bedroom, following along to grab a book or no in front of your live audience. No embarrassing stuff here. We've all seen that in Zoom meetings. So figure out what to say. It's live, not scripted. So don't write down what you're going to say word for word. Your audience will pick up on that. But you do need a strategy for what you're going to talk about. So give yourself five to 10 bullet points that you'd like to hit during your talk. Yeah. And if you're interviewing, think of a few good questions that you want to ask and write them beforehand. And if you're streaming an event, have the info for the event and any CTAs, handings you have to go fumbling around. Let's talk about how to set up that first live video stream. So excited. Be sure though to choose your privacy and posting settings. Really important. If this is your first time going live and you want to test it out first, which I'm a huge advocate of, or you just want to prepare your shot before going live, switch your video's privacy settings to only me. Next up, you really want to write a compelling description. So really to get people to tune in, you want to write an attention grabbing headline and help them understand what your Facebook live broadcast is all about. Yeah. Your video description appears at the top of the live video when Facebook users view it, much like a Facebook photo caption or a status update. And then tag friends, choose a location or add an activity. So tag people who are in the Facebook live video and add location from where you're shooting or share what you're doing in the broadcast itself. And these touches can add more personalization to your video, increase discoverability, and make people want to tune in. And next up is just to click start live video to start broadcasting. And once you click it, Facebook is going to give you a countdown three, two, one, then you'll soon be live. And as soon as you start streaming, your live video will appear in your news feed and other news feeds just like any other posts. And Facebook really encourages live videos, so they start to announce it to your followers, letting them know that you're jumping on. So that just a little bit more boost ability to get people to engage and watch your stream. Yes. Embrace the inner celebrity in all of you as an entrepreneur. And once you're live, introduce yourself. Often when you first start the video, take a minute to introduce yourself and what the video is about. But keep in mind that when you first start live streaming, you may have zero people watching. But don't worry, even in a few seconds, you could have, say, a handful of viewers. And as people find your video on their news feeds, they'll join in. But that means you'll want to reintroduce yourself for a second, right? Because you're going to have some new folks that just tune in to see your great Facebook live. And even a fourth time to catch people up. So Emma, one second in, what's your intro? Way to put me on the spot. All right. Hello, Facebook live. Hey, Emma here. I don't know if we have anyone on the broadcast yet. So I'm just going to wait about one minute to see who joins us. All right. So one minute in. What do you say? Okay. We're one minute in. So now we've got some viewers. All right. Hello to the 309 viewers in here right now. I'm Emma from GoDaddy. Just to recap what's happening right now. This is episode one million of the journey. All right. Killing it. Killing it. You got 309 viewers. That's awesome. Now a few minutes in. Let's go. There's so many people watching now. So it's a few minutes in. All right. Just to give you a quick recap on who I am in case you guys don't know, I'm Emma from GoDaddy. And today we're doing this whole new series. And this is essentially giving you guys a glimpse into Facebook live. I did get a nice and easy, short and simple. Now 15 minutes in. How does that change? So now that we have 3.5,000 people in this broadcast, let me just start from the top, because some of you might not know what's happening. And I'm Emma from GoDaddy. You might know me from some videos. You might not. Either way, it's nice to meet you. Today we are filming a new video about Facebook live. I love it. Those are fantastic intros. And I think one of the great parts about Facebook live is just how you're able to interact with the viewers and commenters. So really want to keep your viewers engaged and encourage them to interact with your live videos, whether it's the likes and hearts or adding comments as you are asking them questions and interacting with them and doing so and having them interact is actually going to help your rankings on the news feed. Yeah, the hearts are very reinforcing, right? And you can also interact with them both by speaking directly to them in your video. And if you want by having someone else respond to comments from a desktop computer elsewhere, which I prefer because it's less multitasking. And don't worry about mistakes or stuttered when you're on live video. We're all human. We all make mistakes. I make a ton of mistakes making these videos. Luckily they fix it in production and make me look fantastic, I hope. But there's always going to be some type of technical difficulties. That's okay. But you can't call cut if things happen, right? You have to roll with them and keep filming and talking. And then just be sure to click finish to end the broadcast. Right, you don't want to take that with you. But then after you've gone live, the video is going to stay on your timeline and on your page like any other video post. So if people missed live broadcast, they can still go back and see what you did. Yeah, but Facebook continues to actually promote your live videos for up to 30 minutes after you've closed your stream. So take advantage and do these three things. Add a link in the comment section. If appropriate, link to whatever your main call to action is there. And that was in the video. And always remind people to follow you in the process. Yeah, and you can promote it to help grow your audience. So share it in some of the groups that are relevant or send a link to your email list. Utilize it on other platforms. There's lots of things you can do. But what you don't want to do is just re-upload the entire live video on other platforms like YouTube. It's really best to cut out kind of the best moments, those little golden nuggets, and distribute those on those other networks. Totally. And answer any comments you didn't get to, which is bound to happen, right? You know, you miss someone. But if you miss someone, make sure to respond in text afterwards. Going live is all about engagement. So don't leave them hanging. Stick around for at least 30 minutes after you've closed out to answer any comments that might pop up. Yeah. And you can always go back to the post on your timeline and edit the description, change the privacy settings, or even delete the video entirely if you don't want it to live anywhere afterwards, just like you would with any other post. Totally. It is nice to have that option. But don't jump into this with just one live video and expect that, hey, there's gonna be 20, 50, or 100 viewers. You need to commit to at least 15 lives in order to make it like a concrete test for you to start gaining some traction. And I actually encourage you to kind of test things out with those early videos since you don't have a ton of people watching in yet. You can see what your style is like on video or what you like to do, or try out different segments to kind of see what works and what doesn't work. And then when all your followers do come after you started to gain some traction, you've got all the kinks worked out and you're going to kill it on screen. So will you be losing Facebook Live for your business? Have you seen any tangible results with posting on Facebook Live? And how does this live compare to streaming other platforms? I would love to know your comments down below of this video. All right, that's our app. You just learned how to use Facebook Live. Please leave us a comment and don't forget to subscribe to our channel. Make sure you ring that bell so you get these episodes first. This is The Journey. We'll see you next time.