We has so much fun with the first BlueBird Happy Hour Facebook Live session. If you missed, it you can watch it here or on my Facebook Page.

Facebook Live

After rolling out to celebrities and public figures at first, Facebook Live is rolling out to everyone now. I currently have it on my Facebook Page but not on my Profile yet.

We have seen a lot of development with live video tools in the last year making live streaming video one of the most exciting features in the social media world right now. I think the best thing about this trend is that it gives us the ability to add live video on the fly. I’m sure some of you will read this and cringe. Because any time we get these tools there are bound to be people that don’t manage to produce excellent videos. Let’s give it a chance and I’m sure we will learn with whom we want to spend our time.

I decided to relax and just dive into Facebook live - I hope you follow along and tell me what you like!

How to get on Facebook live:

As mentioned, the tool is rolling out meaning that you might not have it yet. If you do, you will see this in your apps post options:

The other option is to use the stand alone Facebook Live “Mentions app” - you can download it here:

• Google Play
• Apple App Store

You will have to verify your Page and/or Profile before you can broadcast but the Mentions app helps with the process. In my experience it takes a while to process the verification this way but I’ll be patient. Right now I’m happy I can broadcast from the Pages app.

As you can see Facebook Live is designed to work with your mobile device. This has the advantage that you don’t need any extra camera or audio equipment. You can just take out your phone and start broadcasting. I did this last week when I had a spontaneous idea and it worked great.

Please keep in mind that video is using a lot of data so you should be on wifi or have a generous data plan.

How to use Facebook Live:

As mentioned above, as soon as you have the option, you can start broadcasting.

The app asks you to set a title for your session and off you go. The people that liked your Facebook page will get a notification and can tune in, comment or leave one of the new reactions.

My Tip: Practice makes perfect. Think about a few things you want to talk about if you are not a natural speaker and play around with it. You don’t have to fill an hour - this is no webinar.

But at the end you have a recording of your video you can share on your Facebook Page or even on your blog.

What I learned in my first Facebook live session:

1. You can’t edit a video on Facebook. Beyond changing the title, description and thumbnail image you can’t edit a video once it is on your page. And since you can’t download the video and upload the edited version without using tricks I could not edit out the first few minutes. I realize that being able to edit the video would take away the spontaneity of live video. I just need to be better prepared next time.
2. Light and background. Like with every video having proper light and a clean background is crucial.
3. Remember to hold your camera in portrait format or you will be a sideways talking head!

Facebook Instant Articles:

As Facebook is working on dominating the time we spend on the internet it discovered that many articles we users like to read load rather slowly. This is especially important considering that over 80% of users access Facebook from their mobile device. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a standard that would allow for faster and more reliable delivery of these articles?

Voilà - Facebook Instant Articles was born 🙂 .

Fortunately Facebook worked with Automattic, the makers of WordPress, on a Plugin that helps with the setup. You have to add a open graph tag in your header, connect a working Facebook app and verify your RSS stream. If this sounds really intimidating to you it might be a good idea to contact your favourite web developer (check if they have done it before) or check out our WordPress Garage to get a quote.

However, there is lots of help available on the Facebook side and with a little bit of patience you can do it even without programming skills.

Here are some advantages - please feel free to add more:

Andvantages of Facebook Instant Articles

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Tweet4Ok Frithjof Petscheleit
Owner

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Andvantages of Facebook Instant Articles

Listly by Tweet4Ok Frithjof Petscheleit

Here are some advantages of Facebook Instant Articles. Please feel free to add some more and vote for your favourites!

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1

Load Speed

Instant Articles load 10x faster than standard web articles on Facebook

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More Reach

On average Instant Articles will be read 20% more often (according to Facebook)

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3

Less Likely To Abandon

Readers are 70% less likely to abandon the article if it loads so much faster and is easier to read.

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Shareable

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