How to Use Facebook and Instagram Live to Market Your Brand
Live streaming has become a popular trend that brands are utilizing to market themselves on a variety of social media platforms. Since live streaming was not offered on social media apps previously, platforms like Facebook and Instagram have followed the trend and allowed users to become part of the experience as well. Viewers would rather watch videos via live stream than watch a video through a traditional post, so why not use live streaming to help elevate your social media strategy?
It is important for brands to utilize Instagram and Facebook Live because it creates a personal connection between the brand and the viewer, as the content is natural and unedited. A brand can utilize live streaming in a variety of ways: to reveal new products, debut recent initiatives, or cover live events in real-time. Live streaming is geared towards an in-the-moment experience, causing users to feel an urgency to watch the live video or they will miss the opportunity to see what the brand is promoting within the live stream.
On Facebook Live, viewers are able to respond during the live video using different “reaction emojis” to be able to show the brand how they are reacting to their content within the live stream. By live streaming, it allows viewers to feel like their feedback is being heard. Both Facebook and Instagram provide viewers with the option of responding within the comment section for questions, comments, or feedback that the streamer could respond back to within the live stream if they choose.
When using Instagram and Facebook Live, it automatically moves your content to the first spot within the “Stories” feed, showing users that you are currently live streaming. These platforms are prioritizing live stream content as they want users to be able to have the opportunity to interact real time with the streamer. Live streaming also acts as a free advertisement tool to help expose your live streams to your followers, as a free notification is sent when you start the live stream to users who prefer to receive Instagram Live notifications. After the live stream is over, brands can post the completed live stream to their story so users who were unable to watch, still have access to it for 24 hours.
A variety of brands and influencers have used Facebook or Instagram Live to increase their social media marketing and have been successful doing so. Let’s check out a few different ways you can be successful using live streaming!
Ways to Be Successful Using Instagram and Facebook Live
- Understand Your Purpose: Think to yourself, what is the point of this live stream? To gain more followers? To launch a new product? To receive feedback from viewers? Understand what you are trying to accomplish throughout the livestream, so you can strategize different tactics to reach it.
- Set a Goal: Before you start live streaming, create a clear goal of the things you want to accomplish during the live stream. Understand what target audience you want to reach and the number of viewers you want to reach throughout the live stream.
- Engage Your Audience: Engaging with your viewers allows a relationship between the viewer and the brand to be built. Creating a strong relationship takes time and effort, so responding to comments and answering questions allows the viewer to feel like the brand cares about their opinion.
- Promote Your Live Stream: Post a few days before the live stream on different social media platforms announcing that you are going to be live streaming on a certain day and time. This allows hype to be built for the live stream and gets followers curious as to what is going to be announced.
Live streaming can be a new way of elevating your social media strategy, while also creating a strong relationship between the brand and the viewer. Viewers want to trust the brands they spend their money on, so live streaming is a perfect way to show reliability and authenticity.
