How to Use Facebook Live to Engage with Your Audience

You likely already know that your brand should be utilizing Facebook Live. In just the few short months since being rolled out to the public in early 2016, Facebook Live has captivated social media audiences around the world. From Buzzfeed’s exploding watermelon to a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit, brands of all sizes and industries are experimenting with how to employ one of the most engaging tools available to social media users.

You’ve decided that you want to include Facebook Live as part of your brand’s social media strategy. The only question is: how do you use it to engage with audiences?

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Live Events

One of the most obvious answers is to stream live events, thus giving your social media audience a sense of experiencing the event vicariously through the Facebook Live video. Live events can range from movie premieres and red carpets – such as Disney’s live video for the premiere of The Jungle Book – to sports events – like WWE’s infamous “elbow drop” live video. However, even events for smaller businesses – such as a local art gallery opening, the grand opening of a neighborhood coffee shop, or even an auction – make for great candidates for a live stream video.

Customer Service

One of the inherent advantages of social media marketing over traditional marketing is the ability to engage with our audience. This capability is enhanced significantly with Facebook Live. Consider hosting a question and answer video for your brand, which Slate did when it introduced Facebook Live. Another popular usage of this tool is to livestream a ‘product reveal’ or ‘product tease’, as Chevrolet did for the 2017 Bold EV. The opportunities for customer service and engagement via Facebook Live are nearly limitless.

Education and Entertainment

Facebook Live enables brands, no matter how large or small, the ability to demonstrate, instruct, and entertain. This not only allows brands to showcase their knowledge, but unlike YouTube, it allows brands to respond to questions and comments in real time. Benefit Cosmetics does this very effectively with its weekly ‘Tipsy Tricks’ makeup tutorial. Tastemade invited its audience to watch a beautiful (and tasty!) live video of “live latte art”.

Do you have any tips or thoughts on how to engage your audience with Facebook Live? We’d love to hear in the comments! Also, keep an eye on the Ignite Social Media Facebook page this afternoon. We’re going live to reveal our local Michigan Mystery Trip.



Ignite Social Media