It’s safe to say that social media has disrupted the way in which we consume information, news, and entertainment and how we connect with friends and family. With all these social media apps installed on our smart devices, it’s become habit to frequently check our phones and start scrolling every 5 minutes.
In this day and age, millennials love videos. Why? Because we’re lazy! Its effortless to watch videos and most importantly, it’s fun. Our smartphone screens are getting bigger and it’s just easier to comprehend the key messages that are being communicated to us.
According to Facebook the number of videos posted per person increased by 75% in 2015 and video posts have 135% greater organic reach than photo posts. Even more, Facebook generates 8 billion video views on average per day. (That’s more than the world’s population!)
Late last year, Facebook Live was launched allowing users to live stream their videos. This presents a tremendous opportunity for brands to directly communicate and engage with their followers on Facebook. When a video is being streamed live, conversations can be initiated through Q&As in the comments section which can further lead to the video being shared and talked about even. This higher engagement could potentially lead to sales and brand awareness. At the end of the day, the idea with Facebook Live for brands is to generate buzz and it is free and easy PR!
Facebook has also recently launched a video browsing hub and video search engine on mobile devices making much easier for users to browse top videos as well as videos from friends and family. To add to this, they have also integrated Live videos directly into the Facebook Search tab so that users can view Live clips in relation to trending news and topics.
According to Facebook statistics millennials spend 3 times longer watching live videos as opposed to uploaded videos*. In order to harness the power of Facebook Live and create a stream that appeals to millennials, Brands need to consider the following steps:
- Understand your audience/followers. Know when they are most active on Facebook (This could be easily achieved by studying your Facebook posts analytics and by judging how many likes or engagements a posts gets through trial and error by posting at different times of the day)
- This is subjective, but don’t make the stream too long or too short! (This links back to understanding your audience in the previous point)
- Inform people ahead of time before your broadcast and perhaps create content to advertise and create hype about the broadcast.
- In the Live stream, encourage the hit the follow button, share the video and perhaps participate in a live question and answer session.
- Make sure you have a strong connection when you go Live so you don’t ruin the audience’s experience.
- Plan ahead, have fun, and go live often! (I’m not getting paid by Facebook)
By following these steps and leveraging Facebook Live you will easily be able to generate buzz, build your brand and directly communicate and engage with your audience.
By Manit Sethi Social & Digital Coordinator at Vero PR (www.manitsethi.com)