Association’s Guide to The Ultimate Facebook Live Session

Did you know that Facebook Live videos are watched 3 times more than regular videos?

‍The numbers don’t lie, and your association needs to know how to use this tool. Introduced in 2016, Facebook Live is an amazing engagement tool and a valuable resource for members. With this tool, you can stream live video to your members, allowing them to interact with you while you are broadcast. Whether on a mobile device or a desktop, all you have to do is set up your camera and start streaming.

Sounds simple, right? However, it’s not just about setting up the camera and talking. You want the best plan for your Facebook Live broadcast in advance in order to maximize engagement, spark interesting conversation and connect with your members. With 20% of videos on Facebook being live broadcasts, your association should hop on the Facebook Live train to communicate with your members and increase engagement.

‍Here’s our guide to planning and executing your next Facebook Live broadcast:

Create an agenda

What’s on the agenda? Without an agenda, your livestream can get lost in translation, leaving viewers more confused than they started. Your topic should be based on your target audience and what they want to learn and gain from the Facebook Live experience. To figure out a good livestream topic, you might want to turn to your association’s members. Consider conducting a poll on your Facebook or Twitter page and ask your followers what they would like to see in the next broadcast, whether it be information about your next event or a specialized topic related to your association.

If your target audience is made up of younger professionals, choose a fresh topic that will help them learn and grow their membership within your association. You can suggest topics that will help young professionals learn how to network, jump into their career or grow their business, all with the help of your association. Whatever it maybe, choose a topic and brainstorm some ideas before you go live. Having a topic in mind and creating an outline will make sure your stream runs smoothly for your viewers, and you won’t slip up.

Promote your broadcast

Once you have your livestream planned, it’s time to start promoting. Your members should know about your live stream before you go live, so they know what to expect from the broadcast and when to tune in. This is where promotion comes in. Schedule promotional posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can do this manually, or you can use a post scheduling an app like Hootsuite or Buffer to promote your next live session. Use hashtags on promotion posts and during your live video to attract a bigger audience and spread the word! Social media isn’t the only tool to help you promote your next Facebook Live session.

You can also use banner ads. If you want as many viewers to tune in as possible, create an enticing banner ad for your association and advertise your next Facebook Live broadcast. This will increase traffic and clicks on your Facebook page and the amount of viewers tuning in to the live video.

Want another way to promote? Consider sending out emails. Nearly 105 billion emails are sent each day, and one of them should be your association emailing members about your next Facebook Live event. Keep your email design simple and effective, and don’t give away too much information about your live video. This way, members will be hooked in the email and intrigued to tune in to the broadcast. Make sure your email is mobile-friendly. With 44.7% of emails being opened on a mobile device, you want a design that works on all mobile devices.

Format your video

When it comes to a livestream video format, there are a few things to consider. Before you start your live video you’ll be asked to give your video a title, a description and tags to make your video searchable. You can limit viewers based on age, gender, location and language. Or, you can make the entire video public, allowing anyone to come and engage with your association. Then, let’s talk about where your video appears.

‍When you start a live video, it will appear on your association’s page like any other post. Because this can look like a traditional post, you want to make sure you capture your audience’s attention. Writing an attention-grabbing description to go along with your Facebook Live video will entice members to click on your video. Make sure the description is compelling and will attract viewers to join and interact. This way, you can increase your engagement, traffic and live video views. Facebook also allows you to schedule a live video ahead of time. An announcement post will be published to News Feed letting your fans on Facebook know that the broadcast is coming.

Make it easy to find

So, you’ve got an audience interested in your livestreams. Great! But if they don’t know where to find them, it could cause trouble for your engagement rates.If you’re doing a public Facebook Live session for your members, you want to make sure it’s easily accessible. Doing this is simple. When you go live, toggle the privacy button under your name and click “public.” That way, everyone can tune into your broadcast.

Want to increase your engagement chances? Broadcast about your livestream with helpful social posts. Right before you go live, post a Facebook status or Tweet out a message to your followers. Remind them to join the stream and make sure to attach a link to the live video. Once you go live, use hashtags, tag your location and add an activity and what you will be talking about. This will make your live video discoverable to a bigger audience and draw more viewers in to your live stream.

Interact with viewers

One of the greatest parts about Facebook Live is the interactive comments. You can speak directly to your viewers and ask questions on camera. Then, your viewers can respond in the comments down below. This creates an open stream of communication between your association and its audience. Encourage your viewers to ask questions and pose topics that may spark interesting conversation to get the most member engagement and interaction out of your live video. You can also view how many people are tuned in at the top of your video stream.

This is great for associations looking to track their livestream engagement rates. When your live stream is over, it is saved and published to your Facebook page. This way, if you missed any questions or concerns in the comments section, you can respond shortly after the stream ends.

Conduct a post-live survey

Do you want to know how you can improve on  your association’s next Facebook live session? Try sending your members a “post-live” survey. Ask questions relating to the livestream’s content, response rate and any other pertinent topic. Make sure to keep your survey short, sweet and to the point. This helps members quickly give feedback and not waste any time for either party. These responses will help you plan for future Facebook Live broadcasts and indicate which aspects you need to fix or improve. Analyze your results and get to work on improving for your next Facebook Live session.

Looking for a new way to survey? Consider creating an interactive survey. Interactive surveying has a 30% greater success rate than traditional surveying. Making your survey interactive is an effective way to engage your members and get the best personalized feedback. Facebook Live could be the perfect engagement tool for any association- including yours.

‍Consider hosting your first Facebook Live session and see how a new audience engagement tool could potentially increase your membership.