How To Catch Lightning in a Bottle with Facebook Live Video

Here’s some online marketing jargon for you…”lightning in a bottle.” In online marketing terms, lightning in a bottle is all about taking the early high ground when a new marketing tool comes along. The latest tool is Facebook Live. The tool is just what the name indicates – a video streaming service that allows anyone broadcast live video directly from a mobile device to their Facebook news feed. This isn’t actually new, Facebook has been testing it for quite some time and rolled it out slowly. The first roll out was to celebrities and brands, then iPhone users, and now practically anyone with a Facebook profile or fan page can go live.

Streaming Videos With Facebook Live

Here are step-by-step instructions on how to use it:

Using your mobile device, go to your Facebook timeline. Tap the “Write Post” button. A status update box will open that includes some icons. One of those icons is “Live Video”.

Tap the Live Video icon. Give Facebook access to your camera and microphone when prompted. You won’t receive this prompt for subsequent live videos.

Press “Continue”. Fear not. This won’t start the video. There are a few preparatory steps first.

Choose privacy settings. If you want to play around with this a little before going live with your first video, you can select the “Only Me” option. This is a great option if you want to do some practice runs before going live for your event.

Create a compelling description of your broadcast. This will show up on people’s News Feeds like a status update above the video. To get people to tune in, create an attention-grabbing headline to convey what your broadcast is all about. This is analogous to writing a compelling headline for a blog post or article.

Set up your camera. Before you click “Go Live,” be sure your camera’s pointing in the right direction. Your setup screen background will show what your camera sees. If you want to change the camera view, just click the rotating arrows icon in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

Now you’re ready to go live, so click the “Go Live” button. You’ll see a 3-2-1 countdown after which your video will begin streaming live on your news feed and others’ news feeds.

Interact with viewers. Like any other engagement, live interaction will improve ranking. You can either interact with them by speaking directly to them in the video or by having someone else respond to people’s comments from a desktop computer located somewhere else. Comments will appear live at the bottom of your feed in reverse chronological order, so earlier comments will be farther down.

When you’re done, click “Finish”. Your video will stay on your timeline. You should also save it to your camera roll so you have a copy for further use.

Making The Most of Your Facebook Live Broadcast

With a broadcast length of up to 90 minutes, Facebook Live Video is a useful marketing tool. By saving your video to your camera roll, you’ll be able to repurpose it.

Some of clients using Facebook Live are already experiencing major success.

Wes Moss, Financial Advisor and Radio Host, Capital Investment Advisors

Wes hosts a weekly radio show on financial topics and uses Facebook Live weekly to air his broadcasts in real time and interact with his listeners.

Ceata Lash, Founder and Inventor, PuffCuff

Ceata hosts monthly broadcast to educate her fans on how to use her product and provide other valuable hair tutorials and tips.

Remember, after you launch your videos you can take the download file and spread it across the web. Be sure to republish it on YouTube or Vimeo, your blog, and other social media channels.  If you had a good discussion and wanted to turn it into a blog post, find a transcription service or hire a writer to watch the video and paraphrase the discussion.

Have you started using Facebook Live yet? How has it been useful to you?