With every passing minute, 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated and 136,000 photos are uploaded on #Facebook. It’s the third-most popular website in the world—and Facebook Live makes up an ever-growing share of this activity. So, how can you capture as much #Facebook #Live viewership as possible?
One way to cast a wider net is to leverage your Facebook broadcasts both before and after you go live: first by #scheduling your live #streams, and then by embedding the recorded video on your website.
Instead of simply going live on Facebook, schedule the exact date and time you want to broadcast, and Facebook will give you a direct link to your event. This allows you to generate buzz days or weeks ahead of time, so your followers can make sure they’re free when it’s time to watch.
Facebook also gives your followers the option to get a reminder notification before the broadcast starts, letting them join the stream up to three minutes early. This allows you to go live to a full house right from the start.
But you can’t just set it and forget it. Having a direct link ahead of time allows you to promote your scheduled stream in several ways, including by:
Sending out promotional emails.
Writing a blog post about the upcoming event.
Putting a banner or pop-up on your website.
Writing a series of Facebook posts teasing the live session.
Posting about the event across your other social networks.
Since engagement is the core metric of success, the economics are simple: The more people watch, the greater engagement and participation will be. This makes for more interesting and authentic content that viewers, in turn, will want to share.
And engagement doesn’t stop after the live broadcast ends. Facebook allows you to save the recorded video, so you can amplify your reach even further. Not only can you share it on Facebook to capture viewers who missed the live stream, but you can also embed the video on your website or blog. This allows you to generate additional traffic from website visitors and search engines and to reach viewers who may not have Facebook accounts.
With the #Wowza #ClearCaster™ appliance, it’s easy to schedule and embed Facebook Live videos.
by Holly Regan at Wowza Media Systems