What is Facebook Live and How Can I Use it For My Dental Practice?
Facebook Live is the social network’s live-streaming video functionality. Users can broadcast live videos using just their smartphones. Why is this a good thing? First let’s look into the ever increasing prominence of social video.
The dominance of social media and the rise of mobile usage has all but ensured social video’s position as the king of content. Users continue to produce—and watch—more video at greater rates than ever before. It has been found that over a third of all online activity is now spent watching video and this is predicted to increase to over 80% by 2020.
Facebook even favours video within its algorithm and is now providing a preference towards live videos in the newsfeed increasing organic reach.
It has also been found that people are ten times more likely to comment on a Facebook live video than regular ones and users tend to watch live videos for three times longer.
What are the main features of Facebook Live?
- Notifications
Facebook Live is considered a distinct content type and it has its own notification system.
When someone goes Live: “People who frequently engage with or have recently interacted with a person or Page going Live may receive a notification.”
If a user is particularly interested in Live video from a particular broadcaster, they can choose to subscribe, which means they’ll be notified any time that broadcaster goes Live.
- Invite friends
When a user is watching a broadcast, they can choose to send an invitation to a friend to watch with them.
- Live reactions
Users can react to the video stream in real time with reactions appearing on the video itself throughout
- Filters & Masks
Similarly to snapchat, users can add filters or masks to their live stream to make them more interesting or aesthetically pleasing.
- Metrics
You can measure the success of your videos through Facebook’s analytics system ‘insights’
If you’re looking to produce a successful Facebook live video, don’t worry about being slick, as many users prefer the ‘rawness’ Facebook live videos provide. Make sure that you plan your broadcast and know what you’d like to say so that you don’t become too tongue tied. Let people know that you’re planning a live broadcast to try and maximise viewing figures. It’s also important to have a strong internet connection so that the video doesn’t drop out halfway through- wifi is best, rather than relying on mobile signal. Respond to any comments during the broadcast and remember to ask the audience to subscribe and like your page so that they see future broadcasts.
If you would like further information about social media for your dental practice, give Dental Design a call on 01202 677 277 and a member of our team will be happy to help you.
Thanks to Hootsuite for the inspiration for this post.
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