Brands and video marketers who want to step up their live content game don’t need to look any farther than Facebook Live. The broadcasting platform, which was officially introduced in April 2016 to all Facebook users, has become a favorite destination for the site’s users when they’re looking for live content to entertain and inform them. However, the same type of content that works on YouTube Live, Instagram Live, or even Snapchat or Twitter won’t necessarily be what works best on Facebook Live. Depending on your particular brand, you’ll want to tailor a strategy specifically to the streaming platform to maximize your reach and marketing potential, and make the most out of your Facebook Live video content.
Fortunately, there are at least eight types of content which perform well on Facebook Live. Consider these options when you’re looking for ways to launch or improve your live video strategy:
AMAs/Q&As
Ask Me Anything (AMA) and Question & Answer (Q&A) content is a shoe-in for Facebook Live, as many brands boast audiences which use Facebook on a daily basis. AMAs and Q&As are a direct way to communicate with your fans, but make sure they don’t become stagnant. Set a new theme or topic for each session you conduct, or bring on a collaborator or person of interest to answer your fans’ most burning questions.
Example: The Metropolitan Museum of the Arts in New York teamed up with Vogue to conduct a Q&A session with the museum’s Costume Institute curator Andrew Bolton and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour about a documentary detailing the making of the yearly Met Gala. As of this writing, the clip has over 200,000 live and post-stream views.
Behind-the-Scenes
Nine times out of ten, consumers only see the forward-facing side of your brand, the side that markets to them and wants to impress them enough to purchase your products or services. But if you use Facebook Live to take them behind-the-scenes, you’ll find brand loyalty and interest will grow. You can do this by showing them preparations for a red carpet event, revealing the process of how their favorite product is made, or by letting them follow along with a particular employee’s daily duties.
Example: Dunkin’ Donuts hosted a live stream for Valentine’s Day where it took viewers on a tour of its test kitchen. The archived clip has more than 41,000 views.
Breaking News
Live streaming is digital media’s answer to traditional live television. As such, it’s only natural for many consumers and social media users to default to platforms like Facebook Live for their news, instead of turning on the TV set. In fact, Pew Research discovered 66% of adults regularly use Facebook to get their news. Use this to your advantage, especially if news is a big part of what your brand covers. Do your best to start broadcasting as soon as a story hits, and talk about the facts as well as your brand’s thoughts or reactions to the news.
Example: For International Women’s Day, news brand NowThis held a live session covering stories about powerful women. The video has so far claimed 66,000 total views.
Challenges
Everyone loves a good challenge! If your brand has an idea for a competition or challenge which can be broadcast live, don’t hesitate to do so on Facebook. You’ll attract your fair share of viewers, but you’ll also reap the benefits of views on the archived live stream, too. Encourage your audience to share in the challenge at home (if they’re safely able to) and report on their experiences in real-time using the chat feature.
Example: In probably one of the weirdest challenge videos of all time, one of the top Facebook video publishers the LADBible live streamed four ice-cream lollipops melting in a battle to see which one would last the longest. This oddly engaging clip pulled in over 6.3 million total views since streaming in July 2016.
Demos/How-Tos
While how-tos might be one of YouTube’s most-searched video types, they’ve become incredibly popular on Facebook Live, as well. You can use the live streaming platform to not only demonstrate how your own product or services work, but also to show how to perform tasks related to your industry. Doing so builds your reputation as a helpful, trustful brand.
Example: Tastemade, a top culinary brand, broadcast a live video of tiny food preparation in a tiny kitchen, and viewers went nuts. The clip has over 3.8 million views to date, and almost 8000 comments.
Events or Appearances
The biggest problem with events and appearances used to be their localized nature. But now brands can use Facebook Live to stream such events to viewers around the world. Bringing a big event or celebrity appearance to your Facebook page means you’re reaching consumers who might otherwise not be able to attend the event in person.
Example: The American Music Awards teamed with Coca-Cola to broadcast live from the red carpet and interview celebrities before the November 2016 awards ceremony. The first video of the night-long series pulled in over 170,000 views alone.
Interviews
Interviews are an easy win for brands who want to connect with their fans, and Facebook Live is the perfect platform to stream them. You can keep things internal and interview executives and employees within your brand, or bring in persons of interest, celebrities, or influencers whom you know your audience will tune in to watch.
Example: Disney teamed up with Airbnb to live stream interviews with stars from its movie The Jungle Book at the film’s world premiere. The video has over 112,000 views.
Product & Service Announcements
Much in the way live streaming events and appearances allows viewers to tune in regardless of their location in the world, product and service announcements can also be made via Facebook Live to immediately inform consumers of your newest offering. You’ll get to see fans’ reactions in real time, and answer any of their questions within chat to help them better understand the new product or service.
Example: Chevrolet used Facebook Live during its CES 2016 announcement of its new electric vehicle, the Bolt EV. Over 57,000 people have tuned into the archived video as of this writing.
Facebook Live Playbook: Free for Readers
With viewers spending on average 3X longer watching live video broadcasts than native video uploads, including Facebook Live video in your social video marketing strategy is becoming vital for generating engagement on the site. Our Facebook Live playbook is packed full of the best advice to help brands, creators, agencies, and video marketing teams, get the most out of their content, distribution, and promotion strategy.