Should you be using Facebook Live for your business? Is it worth your time and effort? According to Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), videos (live and otherwise) are viewed more than four billion times per day. And with Facebook giving priority to live videos in the news feed, you certainly may want to consider this service for getting your business message out.
So how can you make use of Facebook Live to engage with the platform’s over 1.1 billion active daily users, or at least those users who are likely to be customers? Here are a few tips.
Ways to Use Facebook Live for Your Small Business
Give an Inside Look at Your Business
As with Instagram Live or Periscope, you can use Facebook Live to give your customers a behind-the-scenes look at your business and how it works.
You can also use the service to focus on an aspect of your business that your audience would be interested in.
Promote an Upcoming Event
Have an upcoming event that you want to promote? Start by making your audience aware that you will be hosting a live video about the event using posts for a better reach. Be sure to have an easy to remember URL to share with your viewers. Post the link on the video comments as well just in case your viewers don’t have a chance to write it down. Use a tool such as Bitly to create a URL that you can track.
Use trackable URLs to tell which social platform is getting you the most signups for your event.
Tease New Products
Use Facebook Live to give your audience a sneak peek at your products. For instance, if you have just launched a new product, you could tap into the massive daily users of the platform to get the word out.
If you opt for this option, consider providing a link during your video to take pre-orders and capitalize on your audience’s excitement. Use this session to also answer questions from your customers.
Engage with Your Facebook Group Members
Do you run a Facebook group for your business? Well, you can now use Facebook live to broadcast regular business updates that are relevant to your group. This is definitely a good opportunity to connect and to deepen relationships with your customers.
One thing that you have to remember though is that any of your group members can post live video to the group so you might want to adjust the group settings so you have to approve all new posts.
Customer Care
Any serious business knows the importance of having an efficient customer care service. Luckily, Facebook Live makes it absolutely easy to take care of your customers’ questions. Use live videos to respond to questions. This is especially useful when it comes to answering repeat questions.
Identify a common question that your customer service team receives and rather than answering the question over and over again, use a Facebook Live video session to answer it.
Things to Consider Before You Use Facebook Live
Before you start streaming live videos, you need to:
Have a Plan
Live video is great for engagement, but you don’t get a chance to fix your mistakes. Before going live, ensure you have your broadcast plan well laid out. Have points to guide your conversation.
Implement a Call-to-Action
Always end your live broadcasts with a call to action. This could be a call to sign up for your email newsletter, subscribe to your broadcasts or to check out your products.
Consider Your Video Quality
While many people enjoy live broadcasts because of authenticity, you still have to make sure you deliver quality videos. Make sure you are audible enough and in an environment that your audience would love to see.
When used correctly, Facebook Live can be a great tool to work into your overall marketing and social media strategy. Of course, more interaction and engagement with your audience is likely to increase your sales.
How do you use Facebook Live for your business? Please let us know.
Images: Facebook