Originally published by Linda Coles on LinkedIn: Have you tried Facebook live yet?

My advice to you? Practice it off-air first.

I tried broadcasting live recently and it was a disaster at the time because the audio wasn’t working properly, but having done the exercise of seeing how it all worked and what I sounded or in this case, didn’t sound like, was a useful practice session.

(Too busy to read and want to listen? Click below. 3 minutes long.)

And the other very cool thing is that because it’s relatively new to Facebook, you can take advantage of them pushing their new baby and what you are recording before they go and change things up and start charging us for the privilege of extra views. While my first video wasn’t any good, it did get a decent amount of views but I decided to take it down before it turned people off, it wasn’t a good representation of my brand.

Below, are a few things to think about before you take over the live stream world:

Plan ahead

What are you going to present because if it’s just waffle, it’s of no use to anyone. Have a clear plan of what you will cover and stick to it. I didn’t plan, and very quickly ran out of things to say but hey, it was just a practice session.

Practice makes perfect

Yes, you need to. Practice by just using your video app rather than live stream to start with. Yes, you will still need to do a dummy run to check the connection quality and audio but the bulk of what you are delivering can be rehearsed beforehand. It’s actually very different talking into a camera than with normal conversation, you do need to exaggerate your voice and facial expression more than you would normally. It feels odd, but looks way better, otherwise you’ll look like a stunned mullet with very little expression.

Length

There will be varied opinions on this and I guess it depends on what is being delivered. A short 1minute video on your factory floor or in your luxury spa would be time enough but if you are live streaming from a special event, your viewers will want as much as you can give them. Let them choose when to quit.

Swivel it

Just like on your smartphone, you can hit the swivel icon to record either you or what you want to record on the other side of the phone so you don’t need to turn the phone around. Flicking back and too to add variation and commentary keeps the viewer engaged.

Steady on

Jamie Oliver took us around a fish market in Asia live recently, so a bit of chatter from him and footage of the market. All very interesting and probably long enough after a couple of minutes. He also filmed it from his phone in his hand so it was a bit jumpy. Yes it gave the feeling of being there and that he was only chatting to me, but a tripod would have been steadier. Not always available, but something to keep in mind.

Lessons learned and practice run complete, there are heaps of opportunities to use Facebook’s new live streaming video. Stand out from the crowd and do it well by putting some thought into what you do from the points above and make a list of possible interesting areas you can film.

Give it a go and see what happens, but practice first :) Now I know how to use it and how I can use it. More so, how my clients can use it.

Have you tried it yet? What results have you had?

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I am the author of three books (Wiley) on social media marketing and building relationships and you can find them all here. You might like to subscribe to me for more useful updates and if you are looking for a speaker or trainer for your next event, do get in touch.