How Brands Can Use Facebook Live & Livestreams for Their Campaigns
Whether on Facebook Live, Periscope, Google Hangouts, or other platforms, livestream-ing is an exciting new opportunity for brands to communicate with customers through authentic, less rigid forum.
Before diving in, there are a number of considerations to weigh to decide if livestreaming is the right solution. Below I’ve outlined some guidelines to reflect on to help navigate this new offering.
Is Livestreaming right for your campaign?
Here are some questions to ask:
What is your campaign goal?
The question behind the question- does your goal tie back to something livestreaming can offer? Livestreaming can offer deep engagement with a small group of people, or the ability to create “live” content that can be used later on. Evaluate if the stated campaign goals can be achieved with livestreaming first and foremost.
Are you able to offer something that attracts an audience?
Most livestreams typically offer a new or behind the scenes look, such as Q&As or product announcements. They typically are specific to a period of time (a day, an event, an hour) and benefit from leveraging an existing audience- fans of a celebrity/influencer, a conference, or a bought audience.
What’s your production and media budget?
While you’re able to save your livestream for later, the shelf life of livestreams can be shorter than other video content especially when tied to an event. Thus, significant media investment is needed to drive viewers to the livestream at the given time. In addition, livestreams can be more difficult to shoot, edit and repurpose them then scripted content, so additional production dollars must be allocated.
Are you equipped for the unexpected? (or, are you ready to be “authentic”?)
Livestreaming presents a new communications challenge to prepare for. As an unanticipated mistake, including off-the-script comments, inadvertent use of unapproved media/logos, and technical issues are a potential risk of the broadcast. The live setting requires additional advanced preparation and forethought to ensure a brand safe recording.
If you’re confident in all of those areas, congratulations. You’re ready to enter a new world of social video and do it live!
