How your Business Can Use Facebook Live Video to Reach New Customers

Until recently live video on the Internet typically consisted of things like static shots of an empty dais in some nondescript press room somewhere with a snazzy graphic across the bottom saying something like “Awaiting the Arrival of the Tasmanian Culture Minister”. However, with the advent of Facebook Live Video, that’s all changed. Why’s that? We’ll tell you why.

In the past decade, the one-time MySpace competitor has gone from an ambitious little startup to the social media company that ate the world (including MySpace). By the company’s reckoning they now (as of September 2017) have more than 2 BILLION monthly users.

This means only one thing: Facebook, and by extension, Facebook Live Video is officially too big to ignore. In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the ways your business can use this compelling new global communication platform to reach new customers.

Leveraging Facebook Live Video to Attract New Customers

Facebook Live Video is a potentially game-changing marketing technology for two reasons:

1. It’s unprecedented penetration into people’s daily lives.
2. The fact that it doesn’t cost anything.

With those facts in mind let’s take a look at the ways your company can attract new customers using this free global platform.

• Use it to Launch a New Product or Promote a Company Event – If you have an important company event such as a new stainless steel banding product launch or upgrade on the horizon drop a post on your Facebook page alerting your followers that there’s a major live video announcement pending and exactly when that announcement will occur. Be sure to make the announcement post as informative as possible. Tell people what kind of questions (if any) the live video event will address. For instance “Jack and Jill will be addressing the question of why they decided to fetch a pail of water during this important Facebook Live Video event”. Also, tease the outcome “By the time this Live Video event is over you’ll be wondering why you own a mobile phone”. Or something like that. You get the picture. Make sure to announce the Facebook Live Video event on your other social media accounts as well including Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and more.

• Use it to Give New Customers a Better Feel for Your Brand – Turn your Facebook Live Video event into an introduction to your brand and brand experience. Give viewers a real-time tour of your boutique and schedule an in-store promotion for the same day as well to ensure there are plenty of people in the shop. (A crowded store is a better visual than an empty one.) If your product is custom-built furniture take viewers on a tour of the woodshop and let them watch your craftsmen in action. Also, if you have a storefront share your location during the Live Video broadcast and invite the public to come down and join you and become a part of the Live event.

 

• Use it to Introduce the People Behind the Brand – Success is as much about creating an identity people want to associate with as it is about the quality of the product. Let’s take a step back and use the Beatles as an example. Anyone who lived through it will tell you that Beatlemania was as much about kids embracing the different personalities of the four lads from Liverpool as it was about the music. So make important persons within your organization a key part of your Live Video event either as presenters or those giving demonstrations or just talking about their experience working with the company. This puts a face on your brand and draws in people who might otherwise be non-committal.

• Use it to Invite Questions and Provide Answers – Ask people to leave questions in the comments section during the Facebook Live Video event and then answer those questions in real-time. This is a great way to connect directly to the audience and make them feel a part of the whole experience. Also, make a list of the most common questions that are asked about your product, service, or company and answer all of them. Later you can leave this video up and use it as a video FAQ resource.

 

• Use it to Enhance Your Trade Show Presence – Having a booth at a trade show is by turn rewarding and deadly dull. Smooth out the dead patches and attract new customers by the live streaming from your trade show booth. Interview people who stop by the booth and invite your viewers to stop by and join the fun. Who says that only huge conglomerates can pull off multimedia interactive events? Let your trade show booth and Facebook Live Video leverage each other to maximize your exposure with a broader audience.

 

• Interview the Founder – Bring in the big kahuna for a sit-down interview during your Live Video event. People love to see the man or woman behind the curtain. Every brand has a story and most of them start with an idea in the mind of the founder. Get them out of their office to talk about their light bulb moment as well as the company’s early struggles. People love a success story, especially if it’s full of twists and turns and moments spent hanging over the abyss. And almost every founder has a good story to tell. It’s another way to humanize the product and get people involved in the brand.

Other ideas for engaging new customers include running workshops during your Facebook Live Video event, hosting webinars, performing live customer service sessions, and making promotional offers that are available only to those who watch the Facebook Live Video event.

Conclusion

Facebook Live Video has taken the cold, boring world of live streaming and turned it into a dynamic engine for attracting new customers. The only limit to what you can do is your imagination. Keep the above tips in mind and you’re sure to see unprecedented results from your Facebook Live Video events.