Leadership and Civic Engagement
Facebook Live Tips and Tricks
by Sarah Nichols on Sep 20, 2018
As many of you know, WREN has been streaming Facebook Live content every Friday since the start of July. We use these #FacebookLiveFridays (and sometimes additional days, too) to highlight the great work our partners are doing and discuss relevant issues facing the women and girls of South Carolina.
Doing our Facebook live videos has been a learning experience, and we have had some people reach out to us for tips and tricks on how to create Facebook live content that we thought we would share with you all.
First, let’s give credit where it’s due. Roshanda Pratt – storytelling and live streaming strategist and heartfelt producer of “The Rosho Live”—set us up for success with some great advice on building your livestreaming content and audience. Here are some of our takeaways from her:
- Acknowledge your live viewers! Encourage them to comment and share.
- Content doesn’t always have to be big and razzle-dazzle; look for the little things. Content is everywhere.
- Come up with hashtags for livestream! #branded
- Repurpose “old” content; no content is ever wasted
- Introduce yourself/your organization briefly at the beginning of every video so that new followers or viewers know who you are.
- To grow your audience: engage after the broadcast: take ten minutes to engage with comments and audience.
- “Thank you for sharing! What value did you find in this?”
- To grow your audience: watch other people’s live broadcasts and comment to connect and help one another; meet them where they’re at.
- Commit to delivering the same value whether it’s 2 people or 200 people watching your broadcast.
- For accessibility purposes, try your best to add captions after every livestream
- Link to things talked about in the comments section.
For split-screen broadcasting with a remote party, we use a website called BeLive.tv. This is a service that requires a monthly subscription if you want split-screening and other capabilities, but there is a 2-week free trial available to see if you want to purchase the service. BeLive is a great way to interview someone remotely, add your personal branding, write on-screen updates and show comments in real time.
Also, don’t be afraid to have fun with your content! It will keep your followers engaged and having fun as well.