HOW TO USE FACEBOOK LIVE TO GROW YOUR BLOG

If you have been living under a rock these last few months (or maybe you’ve been enjoying your IRL-life instead), you might not have noticed that Facebook Live (that is live stream video from your Facebook page) is really blowing up right now.

As in it is everywhere, and all the cool kids are doing it (and if you are a blogger you probably should be doing it too!)

Why you ask?

Well lots of reasons (which I will go into below), including the fact that Facebook is trying to compete with (aka annihilate) Periscope, Snapchat and Youtube right now.

So to help their cause (and pretty much bribe everyone to come on over and use their live streaming options instead) they have set their algorithm to reward accounts and posts featuring Facebook Live videos.

So what this means is (right now) Facebook live posts get seen way more than regular posts, AND your other posts around that post will also get a nice flow on effect with extra views too.

The other main reason is that Facebook Live, and in fact any Live Streaming, is a really great way to connect with your readers, and increase engagement and traffic too.

Because as we all know, the more of you (and I mean the real, warts and all you), you put into your posts and social media, the higher your engagement and connection with your readers will be.

It’s simple maths people!

Still not convinced? We’ll I’ve put together some of my favourite ways that blogger’s can use and grow their blogs through Live Streaming right now.

Not sure how to use Facebook Live to grow your blog? Here are a few ideas;

1 – Demonstrate something – so if you’ve done a how-to post or other instructional content, you can do a live demo of it on Facebook and then get people to head back to your blog to see the full instructions.

2 – Discuss your latest blog post topic – When you hit publish, why not jump onto Facebook live and tell people about the post you just published. Share a few of the good “nuggets” of info, and again get them to check out the post for more.

3 – Run challenges – I’ve been doing this in my free Facebook group (Secret Blogger’s Society), where each Monday I pop up a quick 5 minute video with a blogging challenge in it, and then check back in on Friday to see how people went. This is really great for increasing engagement too (in fact all the Facebook live stuff is!)

4 – Interviews, panels & discussion topics –  It can be tricky to just babble all by yourself for any length of time while you wait for people to jump on to your video, so a lot of of people have started to do multi-person broadcasts, where they either just discuss a certain topic together, or they live stream an interview with a relevant person. Or, I’ve even seen panel discussions work really well too.

5 – Live stream events / Behind the scenes – Off to some glamorous event, or something else that you think your readers might love a sneak peek into? Live stream is a brilliant way to almost bring your readers with you and let them experience a bit of what you do, well, live (it went banana’s at Fashion Week recently!)

Really want to give Live Streaming a go, here’s a few tips & tools to make sure you look pro from the start!

THE LONGER THE BETTER

One thing to note is that at the moment, the longer the Facebook Live video runs, the more it will get seen (you want to aim for 20 minutes or more for the best results). The time of day can also make a huge difference to how many people are able to watch it live.

GIVE PEOPLE NOTICE

If you are planning on doing a broadcast, they recommend that you do a post about 20-30 mins before the broadcast to tell people to expect it, you can also share these posts on your other social media.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT TIME OF DAY

The time of day that you do your broad cast can have a big impact on how many people see your video live. Because people need to be A- On their phones, and B- Able and willing to sit and watch a video (so when they are at work is probably not the best time!).

USE THE RIGHT TOOLS

If you’re going to make Live Streaming a regular part of your schedule, you’ll want to get the right gear. So things like a basic iPhone / Smart phone tripod (you can get these on eBay for under $10), or even a selfie stick are great.

And if you ever need to live stream at night, or in poor lighting, investing in a phone case with built in beauty lights like the Luvo case can make your broadcasts look super pro!

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

If you really want your Live Streaming to look super professional you can invest in a special Live Streaming, editing and broadcasting camera like the Mevo (although seriously, just your iPhone should be fine to get you started!)

Got multiple pages, groups and accounts you want to Live Stream across? Check out Live Leap here.

Or just want to be able to Live Stream from your laptop (not your phone), try out this free software called OBS Studio (and follow the directions in this post to get it set up!)

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR NEW FEATURES

Did I mention that Zuckerberg is making it his personal mission to destroy Snapchat and Periscope right now? Well he is, and because of this you can expect to see lots more awesome features and functionalities being added to the Live Streaming system.

So far this include the addition of video filters (this is live now, yippee!), multi-person streams (so you can do live interviews or chats with other people around the world, and it will broadcast to both of your accounts… so many cool applications for this!) and also viewer “Waiting rooms” (which will really help you get as many people onto your broadcasts from the start too). You can read all about the upcoming features here.

But wait… how do you actually do a Facebook Live broadcast?

Well it’s super easy.

1 – Firstly open up the Facebook app on your phone.

2 – Go to the page or group you want to broadcast from (you can do a test one from your personal page if you like first to get the hang of it!)

3 – Click in the Update Status box like you are going to post a normal post / image onto your wall.

4 – Look for the Facebook Live icon (see pic below).

5 – Click it (well… duh)

6 – Write a quick headline or intro for your broadcast (so people will know what it’s about). You can always update / edit these later.

7 – Prop your phone somewhere, fix your hair, check you have nothing in your teeth and then press “Go Live”.

8 – That’s it. Don’t forget to ask people to say hello or ask questions in the comments, or to give you a Like if they are watching live (this all helps your video to get seen more too btw).

9 – When you’re done click Finish and it will save automatically to you wall, so anyone who missed it live can still see the replay.

That’s it… pretty much everything you need to know about how to use Facebook Live on your blog (and a few ideas to get you started too).

So, are you convinced?

What about if I double-dared you to give it a go?

Have you tried Facebook Live yet? Got any other tips for how bloggers can use Facebook Live? I’d love to hear all about it!