Reaching a New Audience
You may have seen me pop up on your Facebook recently as I’ve been doing regular broadcasts on Facebook Live. Well I say regular but I have done 3! I have loved it and been able to bring my tarot reading to a whole new audience and really engage with them. I’ve been asked by quite a few people how to run Facebook Live so I thought it was a good idea to write a simple guide that anybody can use.
How the tech works….
The really great news is that you don’t have to be technical at all. You can use Facebook Live from your own profile or you can use it on a page that you manage. It’s been great for me to run this from my Tarot Avenue page as I can connect directly with my followers. You can give the broadcast a name and choose to make it public or just for your friends. I have been going public and have had people join from all over the world. It’s quite amazing! All you have to do is click “status” or if you are using it on a fan page just click “publish” then you will see a little icon that will open your video feed. I should be clear here that you can only use this on your phone and it’s not available on your desktop or laptop. You can choose whether you want to use the front or back camera and you can shoot in landscape or portrait.Be sure that you have a strong signal. I would recommend wifi but it should also work with 4G.
Preparation…..
If you are doing this from a fan page you want to be sure that you are as organised as possible as there is no going back and editing. You are representing your brand and have this rare opportunity to show them who you really are so take your time and do your preparation. No pressure! Actually it’s not nearly as scary as it sounds.
I put my phone in this little tripod contraption and you can get these really cheap on ebay or amazon. You can also just lean your phone against something but it could go wrong!
How to get an audience….
I’m still learning but trying a few different approaches. I was trying different times but decided to do the broadcast at the same time every week, so people know when to look for me. I also prepare a couple of graphics that I post to my social media channels on the day of and then I follow up with one 5 minutes before to remind people.
You can also create an event in Facebook and invite your friends. For my first one I encouraged friends to join in so I didn’t get lonely and it just blossomed from there.
When you are live your audience can type in questions or respond to what you are saying. You get a stream popping up the side so you can directly answer them. This is invaluable. You can also ask them to share the post so they can invite others to join. You also get notified about how many people are watching you but don’t get hung up on this as I feel it’s not always accurate.
My recommendation is to do at least 30 minutes, as long as you have good content, as you will find that the longer you are on the more people will find you.
What to talk about….
I make sure that I have key points written down on a book beside me. These are just things that I want to be sure to cover off at the start of the recording. I usually give an update on any blog articles I have written and talk about what I have been doing with the business and any exciting projects/news.
I do live tarot readings so what I usually do is reach out to my followers on Facebook and Instagram before the broadcast and ask if they have any burning questions. I make sure that I have about 4 or 5 questions to draw on if I am not getting a lot of interaction. However, I have found that most people are only too willing to interact so I don’t always get to those questions. I do however, follow up with that person and tell them that I will either to get them next week or encourage them to come to the live event and interact.
You really can talk about whatever is relevant to your business. This is not purely a business tool but you might want to live stream a sporting event, concert or your child’s nativity play (please don’t!) haha.
If you already have a following it can be good to reach out to them before and just ask them what topics they would like you to cover. This can be a great way for you to understand what your customers like and also might give you inspiration for new blog posts.
What happens next…..
After the broadcast the video is saved to your feed. You will be given stats about how many people watched, when it was most popular and even a breakdown of the gender and age of those watching – cool huh?!
When the video plays back the viewers won’t be able to see the comments so that is something to bear in mind. If you are asked a question it’s a good idea to repeat the question before answering so those watching the replay can follow what’s happening.
I like to go in to the post and write a thank you at the end to all of those who commented and participated. This is also an opportunity for you to take the audience to the next level so maybe you want them to sign up to your email list or maybe even just ask them to ‘like’ your Facebook page. They will be onside with you and if you have given loads of content away for free they will be only too willing to help you out.
I find that doing live tarot readings is a great way for me to introduce myself to a new audience. They really get to see my style and work out if I am the right reader for them. I keep the readings short and sharp and do comment if they want longer readings they would have to book. Be careful not to be all sell, sell, sell. This is a chance for you to build a relationship. I also usually do a little bit of Facebook advertising after and ‘boost’ the post. It costs very little (you can choose your budget) but it gets the video in front a huge number of people and you can also target who you want to see it based on their age, gender, location and interests. This has been a really useful way of advertising for me.
Comments
Hi David – Thanks for this, it really is great to have it explained so well. I have also done live but I did find it difficult from my fan page. People also found it hard to find me, can you help me with the fan page connection.
I did advertise and had many looking for me and many on the page but they could not find me or get on.
Thanks for your help Rosina
Hi Rosina,
If you hit publish from your fan page can you see the ‘live’ icon? I know that Facebook is rolling this out in different countries at different times but I thought they were pretty much done now. If you hit publish on your fan page, as if you are writing a post, the live icon should be right next to the camera, as per the picture in the post. Hmmm. Hope you manage to get it up and running. As soon as you go live on your page people should be able to find you. Also encourage people who are watching to share the post so their friends will also get notified. Best of luck. x
Hey David
I have looked into it a bit more and it is available on my main personal page but not on my fan page as yet. This makes more sense why only people who were friends could see me.
Thanks for your help though.
Be sure to keep updating your app on your phone or tablet as it won’t appear unless you do the update. Best of luck X
Hi David,
I have had great success with LIVE events as well! Your guide was well-written and easy to understand. I think you are terrific at generating content for your website! I am not that good at it, so I use you as inspiration! I recently took a Facebook marketing class and they said that the LIVE videos have the greatest organic reach of anything we can put on our business page, so we should make the most use of it as we can. Wishing you great success. – Susan
Hi Susan. Nice to hear from you. I’m glad that the guide was helpful. If you are looking for blog ideas you may want to check problogger. They have a free programme where they email you lots of different blog topics.
I have certainly found live videos to have the best reach.
All the best.
Hi David-
Loads of gratitude for sharing your experience and wisdom. Thank you.
Lloyd