Have you tried using Facebook Live streaming to connect with your audience?
If not, I encourage you to give it a go. The world of marketing is always evolving, leaving us marketers having to constantly stay on top of the trends when it comes to reaching families and spreading the good news about how amazing our school is. Facebook Live is a hot marketing tool that I’m seeing schools use with great benefits.
This week, I want to explore the benefits of Facebook Live for school marketers. There are many reasons to use Facebook Live. Here are the main ones I’m seeing.
Facebook Live will:
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Help families get to know your school better
One of the biggest benefits of using live streaming video is that it helps current and potential families get to know your school in a deeper way. Facebook Live can give people a view of your school that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to see.
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Lead to higher engagement
Facebook Live is by nature an engaging type of medium. People like to interact live in real-time, sending emoticons, likes, comments and shares. You’ll notice that your number of visitors will increase on your website and blog too. There’s just something about having a conversation live that triggers people to engage with you.
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Set your school apart from other schools
Facebook Live will help your school stand out as the go-to experts on education. People will look to your school as an authority, setting the standard for other schools in your niche. It increases your credibility too, as you become more transparent and people can get a better idea of what your school offers students and families.
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Build an audience that LOVES your school
Facebook Live is becoming very popular. The potential to reach more parents with the click of a button is today’s reality. Using live-stream platforms like Facebook Live is a nearly-free way to drive inquiries (and enrollments) for your school. Facebook Live is on the rise, and it continues to grow every single day. Facebook has an incredibly large user-base, making it one of the best platforms for marketing and content promotion, which means you can reach more families by using live video content. People spend 3x more time watching live-streamed video than they do watching non-live videos.
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Help you generate ideas for future content
When parents engage with you on Facebook Live, invariably they will ask questions that will stimulate all kinds of content ideas. Facebook Live enables you to get to know your audience a lot better. And the more you know about what your audience wants to know, the better position you’re in to create great content for them.
Facebook Live input and feedback is truly gold for a school marketer. Being able to create content that not only serves the folks that tuned in on Facebook, but also gives you the opportunity to repurpose that content on other platforms opens all kinds of new possibilities for your marketing efforts.
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Expand your reach
Facebook is prioritizing and promoting live streaming right now. I’ve spoken with Facebook page owners that report their reach on live videos goes beyond what they normally get for a post, and, in some cases, significantly more than their total page followers. This shows that Facebook is promoting live videos into news feed. There is a big chance that when you go live Facebook will prioritize it and place it at the top of newsfeeds.
And, Facebook has made live video even more discoverable with Live Maps that promotes videos, making it findable by people who are not already fans. Parents can open up Live Maps and look for local broadcasts. How cool is that?
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Help you test new ideas and get immediate feedback
If you can get people on a live video to feel comfortable interacting with whoever is broadcasting, you can have a real-time conversation with viewers. (Note: there is a small lag when you’re broadcasting.) You can use it to test ideas and get feedback right away.
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Reach Facebook Group members
Many school marketers have Facebook Groups or Events set up. Facebook Live can be broadcast privately to Groups and Event pages. This opens up a world of opportunity and allows you to connect more intimately with your followers.
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Give your school a cost-effective video strategy
Schools are always looking for cost-effective strategies when it comes to social media marketing. With the influx of video, it’s hard to stay on budget and provide attention-grabbing content.
Facebook Live relieves a bit of this stress. Most users enjoy the live-action and unedited approach to live streaming. This means you don’t need a fancy camera, set design, or editing schools. Facebook Live is all about being in the moment.
You can use your smartphone to post content to your Facebook Live feed. One word of caution: don’t let the low-budget appeal weaken the quality of your content. Even though recording might be less expensive, you still need to provide viewers with something they actually want to watch.
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Create more excitement about events
Facebook Live can be used for special events. Live videos are often raw and unedited, which means viewers often don’t know what to expect. Schools can use that emotion to evoke excitement around an event. If you correctly promote your Live videos, parents will come back to see updates or get more news about the event. The consistent use of new live videos will excite and encourage your followers to come back for more.
As school marketers today already know, it can be tricky to build your Facebook organic reach. Anything you can do to create a consistent, engaged audience can really make a difference. What’s more, people really like it when you answer their questions on social media. What’s even more interesting is that 90 percent of millennials and 79 percent of baby boomers report that answering social media questions is cool rather than annoying. This has big implications for Facebook Live broadcasts because you can respond to questions right then in real-time.
If you haven’t already, you should give Facebook Live a try. Facebook Live is social, genuine, and uncut. Facebook Live works as a window into the life of your school. Whether you plan to stream via your phone or you’ve invested in swanky film equipment, Facebook Live has the capacity to infuse your marketing with new life.
Have you tried Facebook Live video yet? If so, what do you see as the main benefits? I’d love to get your opinion in the comments below.