Episode 7: How to Embrace Facebook Live for Increased Engagement

If you haven’t already done a live video, chances are you’ve thought about it (and likely been scared away). In this episode, I cover how to combat the most common arguments I hear for avoiding Live video. From your content to your looks, I’ve got tips to increase your confidence. By the end of this episode, I hope you’ll feel ready to take the plunge and reap the benefits live video has to offer you! 

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Alright, so Facebook Live… we are going to talk about live video today. Now, you can go live on multiple platforms. YouTube has a live feature, of course, Instagram stories, you know, you can go live, it's up for 24 hours. Facebook Live has been around, it's, you know, the original social media live-streaming that was kind of created, and has been embraced, by businesses. And so we're going to kind of just focus on Facebook Live today because they are all different in their own ways. But you know, Facebook is a challenging platform for a business page to make an impact unless you're offering value all the time. And as we all know, the algorithms, as I like to call them, they're kind of like, leprechauns doing crazy things in our computers. You know, Facebook really dictates what is presented to us in the newsfeed and as a business, you are automatically, you know, squashed as far as, you know, people being able to see your stuff. And if you're being salesy and promotional all the time, even less, because they know that nobody wants to be sold to. And, as a business, you know, we are, you know, we're an interruption into the newsfeed because, you know, primarily people are on Facebook for personal use… we want to see our friends, we want to see what everybody's doing, you know, we're not necessarily going to Facebook to learn something, or going to Facebook to, you know, research something, but people do learn and consume content that's valuable, that's helpful, on Facebook. Because we're there and, “Oh, hey, someone is going live,” or “so and so's got this great article,” or “so and so's talking about this topic that I'm interested in.” So Facebook Live, one of the reasons why Facebook Live is one of the best ways that you can not beat the algorithms, but work with the algorithms (there's really no such thing as beating them), but you need to embrace the algorithms and understand them so that you can work with them. And Facebook Live is an example, because Facebook live videos, I read a stat and the stats change constantly. So I don't get too crazy on stats. I mean, they literally are always changing. And it's, it can be very difficult to actually find stats that are new. But a stat that I saw recently, you know, it says that your organic reach of your regular posts on Facebook, you should expect less than 2 percent of the people that like your page to see it -- less than 2 percent. That's depressing. Now, I don't know about you, but I know what my stats are, they’re better than that. But I also focus heavily on offering value all the time. And I think that's why my organic reach, you know, does pretty good, it does better than the standard. Now, I just said less than 2 percent. But what the same, the same, you know, area, Facebook live videos, you can expect 16 to 25 percent to see your post. So, if you're going to be posting and you're going to be sharing information, I mean, you want to get in front of people, you want people to see your stuff, you're spending all kinds of time creating content and putting things out there, you want people to see it. And so you have a few ways you can do it. You can work with the algorithm, or you can do paid advertising. Now, small businesses, we got to be scrappy, okay, we can't be spending a bunch of money every week so that people see our regular educational content. So Facebook Live is absolutely something that I think every single business, every professional, should totally embrace. This is 2019. Facebook Live has been around for a few years now. And if you have not embraced Facebook Live yet, this episode is definitely for you. Because I'm going to talk to you about a few of the reasons why most people have not embraced Facebook Live or why they don't go live. And I'm going to share some information that helps you overcome some of those… oh, I don't know, objections, I guess I'll call them. So that's what we're going to talk about. But before I go there, I do want to share that, you know, also some people, you know, they'll say, “well, Facebook is not where it's at, I spend my time on Instagram.” You know, if that works for you, and that's where you are, and that's your jam, that is awesome, that's fine. But I still, you know, the stats still show it, the statistics, the information, the data that's out there does show that Facebook is still King when it comes to social media. It's got the most users, you know, it's got the most engagement, it's just got the most watch time for video. It's, it's crazy. Now when I say watch time for video, you can't really compare watch time of videos on Facebook to YouTube, because hello, that's all YouTube is. So nix that, but here's the deal. Here's why I still like Facebook, for businesses. There are so many options, there are so many things you can do, especially as a small business, especially if you're like a small, local business. Now, you can, you know, add services to your page, there's so much information you can add to your page that you cannot add to an Instagram profile. You know, I think Facebook has all kinds of great features. If you use the features and take the opportunity, then you can do some really great things for your business… you have Facebook groups, you just, there's just so much there. And so I still love when I work with small businesses, they've got to have a Facebook presence. And I just, I strongly encourage it. But so, if you're sitting here and saying, you know, “I'm more, you know, spending my time on Instagram, that's where all my stuff is, that's where my people are, that's where they’re used to seeing me,” that's great. I still think you should have a Facebook profile. I still think that you need to be utilizing the Facebook platform to do ads. I still think that Facebook is a great place for you to also push content out there because, you know, if you are putting content on Instagram, great, take some of that content and put it on Facebook to, you know? I mean, if somebody discovers you and their jam is Facebook and not Instagram, then you might be missing some opportunities. So I just I feel like, you know, Facebook, the profile is important, almost as important as just simply having a web page. So Facebook Live, again, it's going to get you more reach, it's going to do a better job for you, it's got great engagement, people are very likely to engage on these videos, you know, and there's something else I want to share is that, you know, videos only take up 3 percent of the content on Facebook, but they get the highest rate of engagement. So whether it be a published video, meaning you recorded something and then you uploaded it, or a live video, (but live videos get six times as many interactions as regular video, okay?) Now I’ve shared with you and say, “Hey, 3 percent, only 3 percent of the content on Facebook is video.” But I just told you that it gets the highest rate of engagement. And live videos get even more engagement. What does this say to you? I mean, come on, think about this, what an opportunity! There's only 3 percent... only 3 percent of the content out there is your competition to create an engaging video, and the videos are going to perform better, right? So I hope this is helping you get convinced that live video needs to be something you need to embrace, right? But let's get into some of the objections. I'm going to go through four common reasons why people don't go live. 

The first reason is people really just aren't, quite frankly, aren't sure what they'll say on live video. And then the next reason is, you know, people just don't think they look, they don't think they look good on my video. And they don't want to they don't want to make a mistake. And they don't want to look foolish, right? And so they're afraid “It's live! Like, what?! Oh my gosh, what if I fumble with my words, right?” We're going to talk about that. And then, as I mentioned, but it's actually its own reason, is people don't like how they look on video. They have all this, you know, the self hatred, they're so critical of themselves and they just simply do not like how they look on video. So they hate it, they avoid it, they don't do it. And then the last reason is that people get overwhelmed by the tech, and they just don't know how to go live. So those are the four things that I'm going to cover today on this episode. As we go through each one. I'll give you some tips and some insights that will hopefully help you overcome those objections. So if those sound like you, keep on listening, we're talking to you. 

Okay, so you're not sure what you’ll say on live video. I get this all the time, people are just like, “what would I go live about? You want me to go live every week? That's 52 topics, that's 52 live videos a year. What in the world, but I don't I don't know what I would say.” So I'm just going to give you a few high level kinds of videos that you can do. So the first one is show someone how to do something, okay. So I want you to show someone, you know, like educate them. So teach them how to do something. Whether it be something involved in your business, let's say you sell, you know, craft kits, right. You would literally take one of these kits and you would show people how to do it, you would just go walk them through it. If you sell, you know, if you're a retail store, and you've got a do-it-yourself kind of paint for furniture and you’re also upcycling furniture, and you sell this furniture and you sell home decor, you could do a live video that teaches someone how to properly, you know, paint an old chair, right? You could show them the process. Now if you are car dealership, maybe you've got, you know, some of your key sales people, you're letting them do live video on your page. An example would be you know, you could show someone how to connect their mobile phone to the Bluetooth device on the car right? Now, is the mobile phone what you're selling? No. But it's a feature that you're making sure people know how to do and you're showing them how easy it is, which is going to help them and it's just going to make them think, “Okay, well I can do that.” Right? So you're kind of showing someone how to do something. Educating is one of the best things you can do, I gotta tell you. Okay, so the next idea would be: go behind the scenes, like, let people in your business a little bit. You know, you could show like, if you have a studio or a workshop, you could take them behind the scenes and show them around, actually show them the inside of your business... go on a tour, right? You want to be inviting, you wanna be transparent, you want to show that side of you. You could show, you know, your back warehouse and just kind of show how you handle shipping and receiving, you know, there's just a million ideas just going behind the scenes also can help you showcase your employees, which I love as well. So one of the best things you can do that creates excitement is to reveal something. So you can share some big news in a reveal style. If you can build anticipation, you can hit the jackpot with live video. So I actually love, you know, when I see nonprofits, they'll have, you know, their annual campaign and they'll do a live video to reveal the results of how things came out. Or, you know, they'll be a contest, and, you know, a business will wait and they'll do a live video, and they'll actually reveal the winner live on the video, like revealing something. What this does is it creates anticipation. And people have a lot more tendency to stay tuned. We all remember April, right? The pregnant giraffe. I mean, look at all the views that that Facebook live got. Because there was this anticipation and it was like something was going to be revealed. I mean, a new baby giraffe, right. And so people constantly checked in on this live video. That's also kind of an example of a behind the scenes. So some of these kind of overlap together. 

Another example I really like is, you know, doing an interview. So interviewing somebody else. So either a customer or a subject matter expert, bringing them on as a guest in your live video, this is another great way to educate or talk about something. But you know, if you're going to interview a customer, it might be like a testimonial. And if you're going to interview a subject matter expert, like an employee, or somebody that maybe works at one of your vendor companies that you order supplies from, then you can use this style to educate. So again, there's another overlap. But doing the interview is great, because it kind of takes all the attention off of you. And sometimes there's more conversation and it's more engagement. When I do interviews in my Facebook Lives, they always do so well. I love doing interviews, and I'm going to be doing more of them. I love them. Another idea for, you know, what you can do is a live Q&A. So actually gather some questions and answer them live on video. You could either do this where you post the questions you're going to answer ahead of time, or you could do a post and say I'm gathering questions, and I'm going to answer them live on the video. And anyone that comments and continues to ask questions, you can answer those questions as well.

You definitely want to create a show or shows. So you want to be consistent. And so if you do these regularly, you can actually do one style and do it every week. Or you can do, you know, a mix of these styles and do like one a week, but just make sure that you do it in a way where people are going to, you know, really tune in and want to watch you, right? Okay, so those are some ideas for you. So honestly, those apply to almost everybody. Everybody has something to teach, everybody's got something to show. You know, we all know people that we can bring on to our Facebook Lives, and your customers, your ideal customers, your clients, the people that you want to bring in, they've got questions, and you've got answers because you are an expert in what you do. So we all have ideas, we all have things we can go live about, right? So I hope that some of those prompted some ideas for you. Now, I will say this, if you want more ideas that are really a little bit more specific than the examples I gave, then I actually have a freebie for you. So you can go to MelanieDyann.com/FiftyFBLiveIdeas. And that is going to give you, I will email you 50 ideas. Okay, so 50 Facebook Live ideas… I just went through, you know, a dozen or so and if you need more ideas, I got you covered. If you think about it, that's 50 ideas, you could go live for almost an entire year, every single week. So go get that freebie. It's on my website. Again, that's MelanieDyann.com/FiftyFBLiveIdeas and the 50 is spelled out, but I will include that link in the show notes, so it's easy for you to grab. 

Okay, next objection, or reason people don't go live: they're afraid they're going to look foolish or make a mistake. Oh, friends, you know, here's the thing: We all make mistakes, right? I mean, I can tell you I've made mistakes. When I go live, I stutter, I mean, heck, I'm stuttering on this podcast, right? I'm probably talking too fast sometimes. I have, you know, been on a live video and I've lost track of what I was saying and I've like literally fumbled around and like “I don't even know what I was getting at.” You know, there are definitely examples out there, you can google them. Just Google, you know, embarrassing Facebook Lives and you'll find all kinds of stuff out there. And I guarantee somebody's probably done something way more embarrassing than is even possible for you. But here's what I want you to think about. So one of the things I love about live video is that it's raw, and you are going to make mistakes, or you might screw up and that's expected. You actually aren't supposed to be perfect on live video, people don't expect you to be perfect. And that actually makes live video, in my opinion, easier than produced video. If you’re producing it, you're, you know, polished and you can edit mistakes out and whatnot. But when you're live, people actually expect there to be a little bit of that rawness and, you know, kind of spontaneous, you know, talk, but here's why I love it. And here's why I think people like live video is it shows that human side of us, right? So you're human, and when you act like one, people like you better for it. And you can act like a human on Facebook Live, which includes maybe fumbling over your words, maybe forgetting what you were going to say, maybe stuttering a little bit, right? Maybe, you know, you've got hair on your face, and you didn't realize it or whatnot… nobody cares, nobody's going to hate you for it. And if they're super hateful and judgmental, then they're not the right fit for you anyway, right? So you just kind of have to get over that fear of, you know, making a mistake, because you probably will make a mistake on a video here and there. And that's perfectly fine. In fact, it makes it even better. 

Okay, so moving on to the third reason, kind of similar, but a little different. You don't like how you look on video. So you know, here's the deal. No one does. No one really likes how they look on video. And the example I'm going to give you is that you always hear about these famous actors and actresses, they will tell you that they don't watch their own movies, or they don't watch themselves on their show, whatever it might be. And that's because even they don't like how they look, right? And they don't want to lose their confidence. Because they're, they just love to act, and they love to do what they do, but they don't necessarily like how they look doing it. So here's the thing, nobody really loves how they look on video. So you kind of just have to get over it. You know what I mean…  I mean, there are definitely some things that you can do that will help you look the best that you can look. And I'll give you three tips. Okay, one, get a tripod. Get some sort of mobile device tripod, so that you're not holding the phone. Because when you're shaking the phone or moving it around, it actually is going to make you look blurry or crooked or whatnot. And it's just distracting. So the live video is not going to be as much fun to watch. Now, if you're doing a tour or something, you're probably going to be walking around, that's fine. But you know, get a tripod for most of your live videos, it's definitely a better way to go. The other thing is lighting is important. If you don't have any lights, that's fine... face a window or a doorway. Okay, so natural light is one of the best lighting features that you can use and it lights up your face. And it does make you look better on video, I promise. And then the other tip I've got for you is camera… you want to hold that camera up high. You want to hold that phone, make sure it's up high. It's at least at your eye level or above your eyes. Okay, so when you think about, like selfies, Google it, just Google “selfie,” and go to the images and you'll see all these pictures of people taking selfies and they're holding the phones up. Okay, they're holding their phones up high. That's because these professional selfie takers, right? The narcissistic social media people, they know what, they know what looks best. So make sure that camera and, you know, the lens is up a little bit higher at your eyes or above. And actually is going to help some of the shadows on your face look more flattering. it just works. I don't know, it's one of those things right? I don't want to understand it. It just, it is what it is. Okay, so of all those things, though, I will tell you lighting is probably your best friend. Okay, so if you don't have a tripod, no big deal. If you're not holding the camera up high, no big deal. Lighting absolutely is your best friend. It’s going to make the biggest impact on making you look better on your live video. 

Okay. Alright, last reason, okay…. You are overwhelmed by the technology, and you just simply don't know how to go live. I get that. Yep, it can seem kind of funky. It's like, “Okay, I'm gonna hit this button. And people can comment, like, what do I do, like, about these things, and I don't know, and…” Here's the deal, you're never going to figure it out until you figure it out. So the best way to get started is to get started. And going live is absolutely like a big deal, especially that first time you go live. So I don't want you to go live for the very first time on your business page. Okay, I want you to practice first, get acclimated with how Facebook Live works. Because I mean, there are some things, there's buttons, there's a lighting adjustment button, there's a way to bring someone on as if for an interview, as a guest. I mean, there's, like, stuff, right? And you don't, you don't really know what that's like until you do it. There's a description you got to create before you go live, I mean, so just give yourself you know, take a deep breath, give yourself some grace. And just practice, I've got two ways that you can practice. One: A lot of people don't realize that this is a capability, but you can actually go live on any page, either your personal page or business page, and you can actually set the privacy to only me, and I'm holding up air quotes right now “only me” because that's literally what the setting is. So, you know, you have your privacy setting of public and, you know, friends and things like that, there's also a setting that is “only me” and no one will see that piece of content except for you. Now, I don't really know what this is necessarily for, like, I don't really know why anyone would ever want to publish something and then make it only visible by them. But maybe they did this so that people could practice some things, I don't know. But there is a privacy setting that you can set that “only me” so you have to click on it. And sometimes you have to click “more” to see that setting. So you can actually practice going live by yourself with no one seeing it. Now, the only disadvantage to that is you're not going to get to see what it's like to see comments pop up and those types of things because those do come up. And that is kind of something that I would like people to have a general understanding of. The other way you can practice, which is the way I really recommend, is I want you to find a friend, it could be your spouse, your partner, your best friend, it could be your business partner, could be someone that works for you, it could be your kid, I don't care, it could be your mom, I mean, right? The least judgmental person on earth, I hope it would be your parents. So go create a private Facebook group and make the group secret or just simply closed. And when you create a private group, the reason why you have to have somebody else is because you can't create a group by yourself, you actually have to have somebody else, you have to invite someone to this group, create a group, right? So you can't have one person in a group. So find somebody, tell them you're going to do this and add them to the group and then go live in the group. And then you have this person, you can have them, you know, watch you, tell you how you sound, you know, comments, so you can see what those comments look like. I mean, honestly, find somebody that is wanting to embrace live video as well and practice with them. You guys can practice with each other. I have actually a few of these groups with their practice groups, I have one that I liked, I call it my sandbox, because I play around with new technology. You know, anytime I'm checking out a new live app for my, you know, when I do my show where I screen share and things like that, I actually use that group to just kind of check it out, test it, see how it goes. If I've got a mic, I want to test, you know, to try out I practice in there as well. And I also use this group when I want to practice an interview with somebody and I want to kind of like give them an idea about what it's like to be interviewed on a live video. So private groups are a great way for you to practice.

All right, there you go, you guys, we did it. We got through those four major objections that I'm sure you have felt, if you, you know, are avoiding live video, I'm sure that those reasons touched on quite a bit of the reasons why. Now I'm gonna say the reasons, they're kind of excuses too, right? Like, “Oh, we don't like how we look…” Well, you got to get over that. I want you to get over it, I want you to do something about that. And I want you to go live. I gave you all these great reasons why, you know, Facebook Live is so great for small businesses, especially, you know, ones that are local, and they just they don't have a huge following. They just don't, they need to, they need to make a great impact with, you know, their efforts, you know, you're busy people, you don't have a lot of money to spend on stuff. So what you do implement out there, it needs to work, okay? And regular posts, regular social media posts aren't really cutting it anymore. And if you've got a blog out there, and it's a great blog, and you share that link to Facebook, it's not going to perform as well as it used to back in the day. And so you could write a blog post, and then you could do a Facebook Live. And you could touch on or talk about some of those, you know, the concepts in your blog post because you're educating. And then you can tell people, “Hey, if you want to read further about this, I've got a blog post I just put up on my website,” right? So use the Facebook live to share about the blog posts instead of just, “Hey, here's my latest blog post” and you have a link, right? That just doesn't work as well anymore. And so try it, do it. Get yourself out there, do some Facebook Live, you know… I went live every single day for an entire month. And it had exponential results. My Facebook following, my Facebook page likes went up 30 percent. I mean, it was a 30 percent increase, which is massive over just a 30 day period of time. That's a mass and I used no ads, no Facebook advertising, I boosted no posts, it was all organic. And I got great, great reach. I've gotten, you know, new people that are following me now. And now people kind of expect my live videos and I get even more engagement on my videos now because I did this little blitz, right? So I highly encourage you to embrace live video. I definitely gave you the ideas that I hope that you'll listen to, and you wrote them down and you're thinking about how they can work for your business. And again, go grab that freebie that I put up. I've got it up on my website. It's 50 Facebook Live ideas, okay? 50 ideas for you. So I went through like a dozen on this podcast, and that this freebie. It's just a nice little sheet and it just lists all these ideas and you can apply them to your business. You're good to go, you got 50 ideas, you can't use the first excuse that you don't know what you'll talk about, right? So go to MelanieDyann.com/FiftyFBLiveIdeas. And again, it's in the show notes. So go grab that freebie and let me know, I want to know how you're doing live video. What results are you getting? Are you ready to go do live video? I want to know, please let me know. Feel free to email me anytime. [email protected]. Let me know how you're doing with Facebook Live. Alright, you guys! That's what I got for you today. Get out there. Go be awesome and go live.