We’re coming up on the two-year anniversary of Facebook’s release of Facebook Live. It has been a great tool and has really started to revolutionize the way businesses are using video in their marketing. In fact, a recent report from Facebook reported that one in every five Facebook videos is a live broadcast. While Facebook Live is a great tool and way to connect with your audience, it still has some pretty weak areas that need improvement.
Here are four elements that Facebook Live should include:
Boost Scheduled Live Videos
One of my favorite features of Facebook Live is the ability to schedule your live videos. When you do that, Facebook gives the post a nice callout feature that your followers can use to get reminded of when your video goes live. Facebook creates a post with a blurred-out version of your cover photo and then overlay text with the date and time of when you are scheduled to go live. Facebook also includes a "Get Reminder" button in the post so people can subscribe and get a notification of when you are about to go live.
Building up hype and marketing your Facebook Live broadcast before you go live is a great way to build audience anticipation. As a marketer, I would love to throw some dollars around that post for some pre-promotion to get more live viewers. However, Facebook has disabled the functionality that will let you boost a scheduled Facebook Live post. At our company, we create a new, separate post that includes the link to the live video and then create an ad around that post. It's a workaround, but it takes a couple more steps than we would need to.
Custom Images For Scheduled Live Videos
The second thing I wish we could do with Facebook Live is to have the ability to use a custom image to promote our upcoming live video. As mentioned earlier, Facebook gives page administrators a post when a live video is scheduled, but they look rather boring. These posts allow you to upload a custom image, but instead of encompassing the whole 1200x630 image, your custom image becomes a thumbnail within the Facebook Live post.
Wouldn't it be nice to be able to customize the look of a scheduled live post to however we want? Plus, with the ability to boost scheduled Facebook Lives, we'll be able to fit the image to our own page branding. Fans are already following a certain brand and they are aware of how that brand is supposed to look and feel. Because Facebook makes all scheduled videos similar-looking to each other, there is a disconnect happening between a fan/follower and a brand when a Facebook Live is scheduled.
Data On Subscribers For Scheduled Live Videos
When someone clicks on the “Get Reminder” button on the scheduled Facebook Live post, I’d love to see the data of who clicks on those numbers. Can we please add that analytic to a dashboard somewhere — perhaps in the insights stats for each individual video?
If you have not looked at Facebook Insights for your page, you are missing out on a ton of data about the followers of your page. As page administrators, you can see demographic data, geographic data, reach and a whole lot more. I'd love to see Facebook share that same data on people who are subscribing to a Facebook Live video, as it could help content creators target live videos to interested audience members.
The Ability To Edit
The last and probably most important request for Facebook is to integrate some simple, quick-edit features to use after a live video. If I want to use the video in any sort of Facebook ad after our broadcast, I want to be able to trim the beginning or end of the video. Perhaps this feature would let you add a filter or new end slide. This feature would be welcomed by all Facebook Live users.
Now, those are only a couple of suggestions for Facebook Live. As Facebook continues to dive deep into video with live video and the new Facebook Watch featured shows, the video platform will continue to grow. And as they grow, I hope that Facebook can find some way to implement some of these suggestions, as they’ll be a welcome addition to its platform.
Do you have a wish list for Facebook Live? Let me know in the comments below!
