Facebook Live is a great way to connect with customers on a personal level. They are able to see your face, hear you talk, and see your store and products.
We get a lot of retailers who tell us that they don’t like to see photos or videos of themselves, but your customers DO want to see you! You are the face of your store – and a beautiful face, at that! We know it can be intimidating to broadcast live, but there are a few things you can do to set yourself up for success.
Tell people about the live broadcast ahead of time.
If you want people to tune in to your broadcast, you need to let them know when and where they can find it. Start posting about your live broadcast a few days before, and let customers know that they simply need to be logged in to Facebook and they should get a notification when your broadcast goes live. If not, they can go to your page and click on the live stream to tune in. If someone misses your broadcast, they won’t have to completely miss out. You broadcast will stay on your wall, and even have its own URL so that you can share it in email and on other social media platforms.
Make sure you have the right person on camera.
The person who is the face of your live broadcasts should be passionate and knowledgeable about your brand and products. It’s great to show the store owner or manager in videos to make a connection with customers, but passionate employees can get in front of the camera, as well.
Social Edge member Maureen of Skirt recently did a live broadcast to personally thank her customers for helping the store get to 10,000 likes on Facebook. Simply shot on a smart phone, the video helped to show how genuine the owner is, and got more than 180 reactions!
Share an offer.
An easy way to drive traffic and track sales is to share an offer in your Facebook Live stream. Write the offer on a piece of paper and be sure that the camera gets a good shot of it. And don’t forget the deadline! By offering this exclusive promotion only on your Facebook Live stream, you will easily be able to tie the promotion to the sales it creates.
Promote the video.
The day after your live stream, promote your live stream by boosting it via. the Facebook Ads Manager. Choose to promote only to your fans, who already trust your brand and will be more likely to purchase based on watching a video.
Bloomtastic, a Social Edge Member and florist, spent $100 promoting one of their Facebook Live streams. The results were the sale of 32 products which equaled just under $3,000 in sales. Promoting on Facebook is an investment, but one that can have a huge pay out.
Create a great description.
Before your broadcast, Facebook allows you to create a description that will later be displayed with the video on your wall. Be sure that it gives a short but accurate description of what the video will cover, including brand name of products, if possible.
Have a Facebook Live video you want to share?
Leave a link in a comment below, I’d love to see it! And if you haven’t filmed one yet, I challenge you to do one this week, take action!
Thanks for the tips Crystal! We’re excited to try Facebook Live later this year…
Take action, Bethel! It’s a great way to boost organic (free!) reach!
Great tips! I think I’ll take your advice and try filming a live video this week in place of a regular post. Thanks for the extra push, I needed it!
Happy to give you a little push 🙂
We did it! I followed your tips and we’re getting such an amazing response…I knew it would be good but I didn’t think it’d be THIS good! I’d love for you to check out the video on our page. We’re already writing notes for how we can do better on the next one 🙂
https://www.facebook.com/dejaandco/
Woot woot! Great job on taking action Bria! I watched the video and you did a great job, and your audience seemed to love it! Keep it up, FB Live is a great way to boost exposure and engagement. Thanks for sharing!
We’ve been using live on Furry Friends Inc. Facebook since you taught us any Whizbang Seminar. Wow! Worth the price of admission! Great results and people are loving the shows. Great way to make it super personal. Hope you get a chance to watch
Debbie, what’s your page link? I’d love to check them out! I searched but there are a few Furry Friends Inc so I want to make sure I’m looking at the right one. Can’t wait to see!
https://m.facebook.com/pages/Furry-Friends-Inc/128855529585
I love your videos, Debbie! You’re great on camera 🙂 Thanks for sharing. To get even more results, you might want to consider promoting your lives, only to your local fans. (I teach this in Social Edge, I call it a Most Recent Ad where you advertise your most recent post, only to local fans). Retailers who are doing this are seeing great results!! Again, thanks for sharing, Debbie!