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  • Quick Tip: How and Why You Should Use Social Media to Livestream Your Business
Quick Tips

Quick Tip: How and Why You Should Use Social Media to Livestream Your Business

And businesses are falling short: according to the 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer, less than half of the U.S. population trusts businesses. That could translate to a number of things, including shopping with your competitors or an unwillingness to purchase from your website — all of which will affect your bottom line.
There are lots of factors to consider to buff up overall consumer confidence (think: security and industry standards), but let’s focus on the big kahuna: your brand. A brand is more than your name; it’s consumers’ perception of your products, services and name.
With something so all-encompassing, you’re likely wondering how to build brand trust. It may seem like a monumental task, but it doesn’t have to be! Really, it could boil down to three main things:
  • Give your customers compelling content
  • Interact with them
  • Be consistent and authentic
And one way to check at least two of those boxes is to livestream — on the most popular platform, Facebook Live.
And, because the proof is always in the numbers, let’s take a look at some livestreaming statistics:
  • 80% of consumers surveyed preferred watching a video from a brand rather than reading a blog post
  • 82% prefer live video from a brand over social posts
  • Viewers spend 8x longer with live video than on-demand
Here’s a look at Facebook Live, specifically, by the numbers:
  • Started in 2016
  • Achieved 2 billion total monthly users in 2017
  • 1 in 5 videos on Facebook were live in 2017
  • Daily watch time grew 4x over the course of one year
  • Live videos usually see 6x more interactions than other videos

Using Facebook Live

If you’ve never tried it before, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to set up Facebook Live on your mobile devices:
  1. Open up your business Facebook account on your mobile device.
  2. Click on the camera icon to the left of the search bar, and go to “Live.”
  3. Give Facebook the necessary permissions, typically to access your device’s camera and microphone.
  4. Select your privacy and posting settings. (Note that you’ll probably have to switch the privacy setting from “Only Me” to “Public,” or if you’re targeting a certain group, select that option. If you want do a test drive, feel free to use the “Only Me” option to see how it turned out!)
  5. Add a compelling description to help viewers understand what the stream is about.
  6. Sprinkle in the details: tap the location icon to add where you’re shooting, the person icon to tag people in the video and the face icon to add an activity or mood. As a note, all of these are optional.
  7. Make sure your camera is facing the right direction.
  8. Tap “Start Live Video,” and you’ll see more options, such as adding drawings or filters.
  9. Interact with your viewers! With Facebook Live, you’ll be able to see how many are tuning into your video, names of friends who are watching and real-time comments, to which you can respond in your video!
Facebook Live is also available for desktops, but you will need a webcam.

How It Fits the Bill

So, you’ll see that livestreaming can be compelling content if it has a purpose. As an example, it would be a great tool for demos, sneak peeks and behind-the-scenes looks at your business. It also gives you a chance to interact with your customers and potential customers, answering their questions, responding to their concerns or even getting words of encouragement. Lastly, it can endear your business to said potential customers particularly if you appear authentic.
How do you seem authentic? The easiest is to just be yourself. If you are nervous about going live in front of hundreds or maybe even thousands of people, feel free to write a loose script, but don’t plan the whole video to the nines and lose your personality. (Read up on other ways to remain genuine in your live videos.)

Livestreaming Tips and Tricks

And now that you’ve learned how to go live, here are a few tips and tricks of capturing the perfect video from our Kinetic Business by Windstream team:

1. Have a Strong Internet Connection

Remember that viewers are tuning into livestreamed videos because they’re compelling. And your videos won’t garner a lot of interest if your Internet connection is poor, giving you either a pixelated or a start-and-stop video.

You’ll want to focus on your upload speed, in particular, and how much you’ll need will depend on how high you want your video quality to be. Generally, we’d recommend having at least a 5 Mbps upload speed, but ideally, you’d want 10 Mbps. Not sure what you currently have? Talk to a Kinetic Business representative today to look into getting the speeds you need with Kinetic Internet.

2. Promote Your Livestreams Beforehand

Let your Facebook followers and others who may be interested know about your livestream before the actual event. That way you can ensure that you have the most eyes on your video. And, don’t use the one-and-done method. If you set a schedule of when to livestream — and promote those dates — those viewers will keep coming back!

3. Engage, Engage, Engage

Building your brand trust isn’t going to happen if you’re not actively engaging with your customers. When using Facebook Live, feel free to give viewers a shout out when they tune in, or even respond directly to questions.

Finding it difficult to livestream and read through comments or questions? Have an employee help manage responses through a desktop!

Happy livestreaming!

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