Talking of Facebook Live commerce, I am reminded of the below words.
“B2B and B2C no longer exist. Only P2P matters now — person to person.” – Jeremiah Owyang (Founding Partner, Speaker, Industry Analyst – Kaleido Insights)
Considering the crowded and competitive marketplace, entrepreneurs strive to position their brand better for getting more leads and earning higher profits. Social media networks help enterprises to boost brand awareness and expand their reach. Facebook Live commerce is one such method.
What people want from social platforms apart from the promotional content is:
a. A human connection because no one likes to interact with robots all the time.
b. Dynamism in the type of content you share to cut out the boredom and keep the excitement intact.
Be it Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you need to foster personalized relationships with your audience members to grab their attention. They wouldn’t start following your brand because you showcase terrific products, but because they have specific interests and objectives like:
Source: BostonDigital
Let’s talk about Facebook, one of the most celebrated social platforms where people love to connect and share personal stories. Content has evolved immensely on Facebook, starting from text and social media graphics to videos. We cannot deny that Facebook has helped brands of all shapes and sizes grow their community and grab and nurture quality leads. But despite its numerous perks, is it easy to stay ahead of your key competitors here with over 90 million other business pages?
The answer lies in how you incorporate Facebook into your marketing projects and the ample features it provides under one umbrella – case in point is live streaming, which Facebook added to its arsenal in early 2016.
Source: SocialMediaToday
The primary purpose of developing this feature is to connect more and more people. Yet, many marketers do not leverage it to the fullest. That’s why we have come up with a comprehensive guide on how to use Facebook live for increasing brand engagement and boosting sales. But before diving into the advanced tips, let’s understand some basics.
What is Facebook Live?
Facebook Live is a video streaming feature that allows you to broadcast a real-time video to reach your audience via your business page or a personal profile on the channel. As a broadcaster, you can determine who can watch your video and leverage the content to get your target audience involved with your business.
Why Has Facebook Live Commerce Become So Popular Among Social Media Marketers?
Facebook Live drastically changed how social media was used earlier and made ‘real-time content’ the superhero for businesses. Today customers prefer videos and live content making live streaming one of the best ways to grow your social media audience without burning your pocket. The upside for Facebook live is your in-built audience, and if you have a loyal follower base on the platform, then your live streams will be a hit in no time.
Why Do Brands Flock To Facebook Live and How Do They Use It For Commerce?
How Facebook Live has evolved and gained massive popularity indicates its ‘pull factor’ among brands. So let’s look at the main perks of going Live on Facebook:
- Live streaming helps you to connect with your audience most humanely and genuinely. Going live on Facebook is the quickest way to grow your audience database and get more eyeballs on your brand.
Source: Social Media Examiner
- Facebook live allows brands to broadcast unique content to the target audience based on their specific interests and preferences. These videos add a lot of freshness to your content arsenal and offer real-time content to your viewers, thereby establishing an instant connection.
For example, Buzzfeed streamed a live video on Facebook where its employees tried to find out how many rubber bands would be needed to burst a watermelon, and the video got 11 million views!
Source: Mediakix
- Streaming live videos on Facebook is one of the most pocket-friendly marketing strategies for any business. Also, there’s no need to invest in high-quality cameras or expensive editing tools as viewers seek pleasure in the raw action. So basically, you can pick your mobile phone and start streaming live.
Source: HubSpot
- Brands use live streaming to drive maximum traffic and engagement to their Facebook business pages. If you stream fresh content regularly, more users will keep coming back to see your videos, and that will build a loyal follower-base for your business while providing quality data and insights.
- Brands use Facebook Live for exhibiting their company’s culture and sharing behind the scenes content to grab the attention of potential customers and employees who with the brand’s ethos and love to get a sneak peek into the office space.
For example, HubSpot streamed a video on their Facebook channel, sharing some of the best job application tricks:
Source: Harger Howe Advertising
Users love to know more about your work culture, and they appreciate such transparency, which also lets you drive more real-time engagement towards your brand. Behind-the-scenes live videos are one of the best techniques to grab more loyal followers on Facebook.
Source: Hootsuite
Which are the Top 5 Ways to Use Facebook Live for Higher Brand Engagement?
Facebook Live can become a crucial marketing tool for your business, but mediocre strategies wouldn’t land you many leads. Hence, we will now discuss tips and tricks to use live streaming to boost brand engagement and conversions. Let’s learn the five key ways to leverage Facebook live for higher brand engagement and sales:
1. Answer Fan Questions and Host Live Q&A Sessions
While you go live on Facebook, it’s the easiest way to take up questions from your viewers and to give them answers. Such videos allow you to get feedback on your performance instantly and generate consumer-led content.
Live Q&A sessions are entirely authentic and are a format of storytelling. There are no scripts or editing, and your audience will love that authenticity, which will help you improve social conversions for your brand.
Here’s a Facebook live video by Brian Tracy, a famous Canadian-American self-development author and motivational public speaker.
Source: Brian Tracy
You can also host ASK ME ANYTHING (AMA) live sessions to answer your fan questions. Such videos make your viewers feel special. They get to see that you are listening to their queries and are interested in knowing about their pain points like Mod Girl Consulting did in one of their live videos on Facebook:
Source: Mod Girl Consulting
2. Share Live How-To Guides With Your Facebook Live Audience
If you want more people to watch your Facebook live streams, you must provide them some value in your videos. Making people learn to do something with the help of how-to live videos can be a great way to share knowledge.
These videos let you create a community for your brand and connect with a broader audience. For instance, Dunkin’ Donuts live-streamed the how-to guide for making luscious Valentines’ Day treats on their Facebook channel, which helped them connect with cake lovers and grab their attention:
Source: Neil Patel
3. Broadcasting Company Announcements, Industry Updates & News
You can share industry-related updates, company announcements, and news with your audience in your live Facebook videos. It will make you their go-to resource, which will help you build a trusted follower base and establish credibility for your brand.
Let’s look at how Hootsuite nailed this strategy by creating a Facebook live series named #Hootlive, where they showcased the latest news related to the social media industry on their feed regularly:
Source: Online Sales Guide Tips
4. Stream a Live Interview or Bring a Guest to Grab the Attention of Your Facebook Audience
Partnering with influencers and showcasing their expertise on your channel is one of the most effective marketing tactics for any social media platform. You can earn quality leads through this method while streaming Facebook live videos. Also, you can feature a guest who talks about an essential topic in your niche or even interviews with an industry expert.
Sephora featured the hair expert Jen Atkin in one of its live streams on Facebook, who talked at length about vacation hairstyle trends and tricks. The video was excellent in terms of engagement and spreading awareness:
Source: SEMrush Blog
Similarly, Airbnb invited the cast of The Jungle Book for one of their Facebook live events, one of the smartest cross-promotional marketing techniques that allowed them to reach millions of Disney fans and boost their brand awareness:
Source: Neil Patel
5. Treat Show your Target Prospects to a Live Event on your Facebook Channel
Letting people attend an event (that they cannot join in person) through your Facebook live streaming can be a real game-changer for connecting with potential leads and maximizing organic reach for your brand.
UNILAD transmitted the Homeless World Cup final which grabbed 6,31,000 views, 10,000 reactions and 1,100 shares from people worldwide:
Source: wyzowl
While broadcasting a live event on your Facebook channel, you need to be a little cautious in planning the entire thing and send invites and reminders to keep your audience thrilled ahead of the go-live!
How To Engage Your Audience And Activate Commerce Through Facebook Live?
Facebook Live is one of the most interactive and engaging options for grabbing quality leads and nurturing a loyal community. But ultimately, every brand wants to optimize its conversions, and for that, you need to leverage the potential of this medium strategically.
When streaming live videos on Facebook, you must ensure that you are not doing all the talking and action. Your audience must be engaged proactively throughout the stream, in two-way communication.
Facebook live streaming lets you capitalize on the micro-moments when your viewers pick their smartphones to watch your videos and act on a need to learn, do, or buy something. Also, these videos can trigger the purchase intent, which you, as a brand, can instantly gratify if you have the technological capabilities to complete the entire shopping journey right on the platform.
What Are The Five Vital Strategies for Facebook Live Commerce?
We have already explored how you can step-up your Facebook Live gameplan with some of the best techniques like showcasing guests, sharing how-to’s, etc. But if you want to sell your products through Facebook Live, here are the five best strategies to do so:
A. Provide Prominent CTAs For Commerce In Or Around Your Facebook Live Video
Call-to-action (CTAs) are an integral part of live video marketing on Facebook as these buttons urge the audience to take specific action desirable by the brand. Some examples of CTAs include:
I. Subscribe (to your newsletter or blog)
III. Sign up
IV. Show now
V. Watch video
VI. Learn more
Adding relevant CTAs to your live streams on Facebook helps your audience take the desired action even if they don’t watch your video till the end. Let’s take a look at one of the live streams of Todd Herman’s Facebook channel about his 90-day course.
There is a link to his course in the stream description and comments section, making it easier for users to sign up.
Source: Vidyard
B. Provide your Facebook Audience Lucrative Discount Codes/Promotional Links During Your Live Videos
Everyone loves freebies, so sharing discounts and coupons during your Facebook live videos is another hit strategy to grab more leads. For example, at the end of the live stream, Chalene Johnson, an American physical fitness entrepreneur, offers her audience a free deal to buy her PUSH journal:
Source: Social Media Examiner
C. Utilize Keywords to Pick Purchase Intent from Facebook Live Comments
Facebook messenger bots can be one of the best ways to generate more leads and conversions from your live streams as it helps the audience quickly sign up for and receive your special offers.
If you want to place a commerce magnet in front of your audiences, you can ask them to type a particular keyword in the comments, like here it’s “checklist.” Once they do, they’ll automatically receive the freebie via Facebook messenger bot:
Source: Social Media Examiner
D. Utilize Commerce Bots to Engage Customers during Facebook Live
There are various ways to set up an automated bot for your Facebook Live videos. Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing capabilities have made bots truly versatile and dependable. Engaging thousands of customers at the same time, yet one-to-one, and talking to them about their personal needs and requirements is something made possible today, thanks to these bots.
E. Start an Agent-led Conversation via Messenger
Once you get some leads interested in getting your freebies, you can start an agent-led parallel conversation with the customer to convert the subtle purchase intention into a sale. You can connect with those leads via Messenger and:
I. Answer queries II. Clarify doubts
Maintaining a connection with the audience and providing excellent customer service will help you cultivate a personalized relationship with your prospects and nurture them into paying customers.
F. Offer Native Shopping Experience on Facebook
Facebook Live videos can push hots leads into your conversational commerce funnel, and you can convert them via Messenger or Facebook Shop. Both let you work with catalogues and guide the users through the purchase experience without redirecting them to an external URL. It creates a frictionless retail experience that customers remember long after.
Let’s Have a Look at Some of the Brands Who Have Nailed Streaming Facebook Live Videos!
(i) Live Streaming Pros the professional video creation brand made their audience feel special by giving them a sneak-peek into their upcoming content. They streamed the recording for a future workshop to use as an opt-in. You could do something similar for your event, podcast, or product.
Source: SageShark
(ii) Hosting live shopping on Facebook is one of the best ideas for grabbing customers. The women’s apparel brand Beach Boutique organized live sales of their clothes so that customers could place orders directly without worrying about the location of their outlets:
Source: BeLive Blog
(iii). Conducting contests or giveaways on Facebook Live is another excellent technique to build your follower base and drive maximum traffic to your specific Facebook business pages. For example, Lucktastic, which is a gaming app, did a fantastic job with their live contest:
Source: Kim Garst
(iv). Doing charity on your Facebook live streams is the most powerful way to showcase that you care for the community. One of the best examples of such videos is Teenage Cancer Trust, where they broadcasted a live video from their Glasgow unit immediately after the airing of a BBC documentary. The stream was watched more than 14000 times and had 117 comments and 362 reactions!
Source: JustGiving Blog
Wrap Up Time!
Facebook Live can be an extremely lucrative channel for promoting your brand in this era of digital marketing transformation.
That said, you need to plan things and keep your business and audience interests in mind before coming up with content ideas for your Facebook Live streams.
With a little bit of curiosity and knowledge of the latest social media trends, you can easily leverage Facebook Live to its fullest potential!
Author bio: Dhruv is a Content Marketer. He likes reading up on the latest digital marketing and social media trends. When not sleuthing for tips, he is chiseling his fitness-goals and traveling around the world.