profile, a page, a group, or even an event. Viewers can watch from their computer, mobile phone, or other connected devices. allows candidates to speak and engage directly with their audience.
If you have ever done a video chat with friends or family through Facebook, then you have already used Facebook Live. However, campaign broadcasting is not typically as casual as personal communication. You can use Facebook Live to record and stream a variety of campaign-related material. It’s not particularly difficult, and you don’t need a full studio setup. In many cases, you can use your mobile phone to broadcast.
In this article, we will explore how Facebook Live can help your political campaign’s digital marketing strategy.
Setting up Facebook Live videos for your campaign
You can either stream at a particular time or schedule a time for a live stream. There are plenty of topics for creating live videos:
- Campaign events, rallies, and fundraisers.
- Canvassing activities.
- Participation at public meetings or legislative sessions.
- Behind the scenes of the campaign.
- Personal candidate updates.
- Reminders/Get out the vote.
One advantage of a live video (or any online video) is that you are not limited to the standard 6, 15 or 30-second ad. The longer a live video lasts, the more opportunity there is for others to join in and engage with the content. The time limit for a live video session on Facebook is 8 hours. That should be more than enough time for any event.
Facebook Live videos often seem spontaneous, but for the best results, you’ll want to plan each broadcast. Randomly filming a canvassing walk might not be interesting. But if you have a topic to discuss or something interesting to show, that will give your broadcast a purpose. You might not need a script, but you should have an idea of what’s going to happen before you turn on the camera.
You can always broadcast on the spot, or you can schedule live videos ahead of time. Announcing your broadcasts ahead of time helps build anticipation and buzz. Posting upcoming announcements to your social media accounts. Also notify your email subscribers and website visitors. Build anticipation for your events to encourage more viewers.
When you create a live event from your page, group, or profile, you have many options. You can either go live immediately or schedule your video for a later time. The more information you include when you set up your event, the better. You’ll want to add a descriptive name and location, any special guests, and a call to action. This might be to have viewers follow you on social media, volunteer to help, or donate. If you have a poll or questions to add, you can do this when you set up your live post.
You only have a few seconds at best to catch someone’s attention before they scroll past your video. An interesting title and image will help draw attention.
Live video broadcasting tips
If you have never done Facebook video broadcasting, take the time to learn the settings and options available to you. Facebook continually updates their platform and features.
- Make a few practice recordings to get used to speaking in front of a camera. Learn to be yourself while recording.
- Keep your videos (and other types of posts) short and to the point. Users scrolling through their feed aren’t going to spend a lot of time on long posts or videos.
- Place and setting are important. Choose a proper location that is not too busy or too loud. How you compose your shots is also important. For example, placing your subject one third to the left or right is more visually interesting than having the subject in the center of the frame.
- Proper lighting is required, especially if you are recording indoors. You may want to add artificial lighting from one or more sources.
- Consider using good clip-on microphones. Poor audio can provide a worse experience for viewers than even low-resolution video.
- Run a quick trial video before your event and play it back to make sure everything is working properly. There is nothing worse than starting a video and finding out after a few minutes that your audience cannot hear or see you.
- Before you go live, make sure your internet connection is solid. You don’t want to get dropped in the middle of your recording. Depending on your settings, an unexpected drop-off could terminate your live video event.
- Over time, you can check your stats and feedback to see what your content audience engages with the most. You don’t want to become repetitive, but you will probably find that certain topics or video types tend to do better than others.
After your Facebook live video event…
Once your live stream broadcast is finished, your video is automatically posted to your timeline and saved to your Facebook video library. From there, other people can view it in the future. You can also download your video to your computer.
You can edit your downloaded video to tighten it up and add an intro and outro (beginning and end branding clips). Then you can upload your edited video to your campaign’s YouTube account and embed it into your campaign website. For more control over your embedded videos, consider using a paid video hosting platform like Wistia or Vimeo.
Ready to get started? Lights … camera … stream!
