I recently did some work with Suzanne Jauchius on setting up a Facebook Live Call-In Show. Several years ago, she had a really fun radio show on 105.1 The Buzz where listeners would call in and ask questions, so she wanted to bring it back. Here are instructions that cover the basics, and can hopefully help anyone looking at creating their own show.
Instructions:
- As far as I know, you need to use your smartphone to be able to invite people into your conversation on Facebook Live. (I’ve found articles like this one: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-live-guide that claim it’s possible to broadcast from your computer and still invite people if you are broadcasting from a managed page. So it might be possible for you to use your computer to broadcast live. If you do, you need to use Google Chrome or Firefox as your browser. Still, just using my phone has been most reliable for me)
- Do what you would normally do to make a normal text post, but instead of posting it, click “Live Video” or “Live” instead.
- Title your video post. You might have a more applicable title for the video at the end, and you can edit the title after the fact. At this stage though, you want something descriptive and engaging that will draw in viewers. A reasonable placeholder title might be something like, “Psychic Suzanne Jauchius Live! Join now to have your questions answered” (or however you want to market the work you’re doing), with maybe some instructions for how guests can get invited to join your screen in order of their request. Guests can be invited, or can request to join. Either way they need your permission to share your screen.
- Note: Be sure to let guests know in advance that to join your video, they need to be on their phone.
- After you click “Live,” your camera will turn on, but it won’t be recording yet. Check to make sure you have everything (lighting, background, hair, props, etc) set up the way you want it for the video recording.
- Important note: be sure you have something you can talk about for a few minutes before other people join the conversation and get into the Facebook Live video. A good option starting out might be to give the audience some context by talking about your old radio show and how you wanted to revive certain aspects of it. You can also give recaps of previous episodes, follow up on a previous guest’s story, establish rules and procedures for appearing, talk about the accuracy of previous encounters, or whatever. But be sure you have something to fill time with (I made the mistake very painfully and publicly of not being prepared for this part).
- Have some people planted in the audience to get the ball rolling. A couple friends asking questions, sharing, and “liking” will go a long way to set a fun tone for your video, as well as demonstrate to other people how to participate. No one wants to be first, so having someone else can make it easier for everyone else to follow.
- Press the “Start Live Video” to go Live.
- You can see when someone joins the video, and can click the “invite” button next to their name to see their video. They can also request to join, and you can accept, or decline their request, or just ignore it.
- When you’re done with each guest, you can click an X in the upper left corner of their picture to remove them from the conversation.
Other Thoughts:
- After the video, post the content immediately to maximize views. Tag everyone who participated with a comment or appearance. You can even single out other people to thank them just for watching, whether they are a new or longtime viewer. That connection can help them become more loyal fans.
- Host the show at a regular time each week. Predictability is a good way of growing a reliable fanbase.
- There’s another service that you can access FB Live through called Belive.tv. The main differences are that you can schedule times in advance to be live, and the guests will appear on screen with you side-by-side. It generally looks more professional (with FB Live, guests just appear in a thumbnail sized box in the corner and are harder to see). Another benefit is that it cuts out the “filler” time while you’re waiting for your guests to get online. It costs $20 a month for the standard version, which I believe lets you do longer videos. The free version gives you 2 videos per week with a 20 minute cap each. I’m checking with a friend that uses it to see what Standard gets you. https://belive.tv/packages I’m not 100% sure it’s the right fit for your format, or that it lets you add and drop guests smoothly since you need both guests online before you start recording. We can play around with it this week, I signed up for the free trial.
For a one-on-one session, or questions, reach out to me at nicholaspihl (at) gmail.com