I know it must sound strange that you can practice going "Live" privately but sometimes it just takes the terror out of doing it!
Going Live on social media is something everybody should try every now and then. It changes up the content to your audience. More importantly, it's a way to instil trust in you and your brand. This is because you're being your true and authentic self. You're not hiding behind logos or images. Ultimately most people buy from people. Even the biggest brands who frankly can just show their logo to create sales throw up the odd person in their promotions too.
For the life of me I can't work out why that chap has to shout his way all through the ad, but most of us would be familiar with it.
There is no way these guys wouldn't have rehearsed and practiced before filming this. Now of course I realise this is pre-recorded but all Facebook Lives are recorded and saved to the newsfeed anyway. So we need to take into account - it's not just what you say when going Live. It's also taking into account it will be saved and hopefully viewed later.
If you have your business on Facebook then hopefully you will be using Facebook Pages (using a personal profile for business is against Terms of Service). However, all posts and videos in your business page go Public! So the only place left for you to practice privately is your Personal Facebook Profile. Check the link above to see how to find Only Me on your Personal Profile.
Now your finally Live - even though you are on your own, this is your chance to check the following:
Speaking to your hand or worse still, having a friend stand behind your phone is not easy. I get that! It is very confronting that you can't see your audience and possibly gauge their interest fully. However, its something that can be overcome with time and practice!
To avoid any possible "umms" and "er's", I can recommend attaching a small piece of card or folded up paper to the back of the phone that helps prompt you through the Facebook Live. As you recognise friends you may lose track during the broadcast or just freeze. I won't lie it can happen! However, I have found this simple fix can alleviate a lot of that in most instances.
Honestly, that's a very personal thing. It really depends on what you have to deliver. If you're broadcasting at the right time online, you may gain engagement quickly so you can jump to the details fairly quickly. Personally I would aim for something either punchy and memorable in 30 secs or maybe up to 2-3 minutes if you can keep their interest.
Please check your analytics and insights for when to find your audience online. These can be skewed by things like World Cups, Votes or another local or international incidents so do ensure you remain sensitive to things going on outside of your business.
Also, if this is something new you are adding as content, then this is also going to change when your audience is online. Check back on a weekly basis and make sure you're hitting them at the right time.
Well done! Breathe a sigh of relief and if you are proud of it, save it immediately on your phone at the end of the broadcast.
From here you can change audience if you so wish or you can leave it as it is and send the video to yourself so you can later upload it to maybe your website or perhaps YouTube.
It's not a magical cure to sales for your business. It's a tool that you use along with all the others, like networking, blogging and generating great testimonials. If you're nervous maybe do the first few with a colleague or friend. Banter between the two of you will most likely flow well as long as you both go into it with a strategy and make sure you always thank people for watching and leave them with a Call to Action!
Time for a practice maybe?
Working with clients Nationwide from base in Mullingar.
