So you’re thinking about doing a Facebook Live Stream.
The first thing you wonder is which is most advantageous… going live from your Facebook page or inside your private Facebook group?
It’s a great question and one that has pros and cons on both sides.
(If you haven’t yet created your own Facebook Group, stick with me here… this article will be a great starting point to help you make your decision.)
Let’s dive in.
Difference In Objective
The first thing you need to ask yourself when considering where to go live is, “What’s my objective?”
What you can accomplish with a live stream on your Facebook page is different than what you can accomplish inside your group.
When live streaming from your page you will reach a larger audience, many outside your current network, which is great for reaching new people.
The larger audience gives you the opportunity to expand your brand recognition, which is always a welcome outcome.
The decision to live stream in a private Facebook Group also has a few really incredible attributes.
When going live in a group, you are broadcasting to people that already know you. They’ve joined your group and are interacting with you in a more personal way, (rather than on your page where the whole world can see).
More than likely your group members joined for a specific reason. Like you offer support in one particular area, like my Webinar Support for Coaches Group or it’s specific to a program or service that you offer. Either way, they are there for a particular reason.
The Facebook Live streams that you do in your groups will have a smaller reach because they can only be viewed by group members.
But your live stream content can be more intimate and personal than what you would share on your page.
Inside your group you can give additional support and mini-trainings which, because of the close-knit nature of the environment, often leads to group members purchasing your programs because they feel like they know you.
Audience Views
Next lets talk about the number of views, (or reach), your videos will receive when you’re live or from the replay.
When broadcasting on your Facebook page your potential reach is far greater because it’ll go out to your entire list of fans.
As those fans engage with your live stream, it can then be viewed by their network, therefore substantially increasing your reach.
But what is even more exciting than what’s happening live, is what is going on behind the scenes. As people watch your live stream, (whether live or replay), Facebook is collecting that data and adding each person to a custom audience that you can retarget with paid advertising at a much lower cost in the future.
Beyond that you can also boost the replay with a paid advertising budget to increase the number of views and brand recognition even more.
When choosing to broadcast inside your group chances are your total number of views may be less but that audience is more of your tribe so the actual results, based on your call to action, will be greater.
There would be no real reason to pay for advertising to boost your video to your group members. Facebook will do a really good job of making sure they see the replay in their newsfeed since they are a member of your group.
Content Creation for Live Stream
I think of Facebook Live Stream like a mini webinar platform.
You can present valuable content to a large group of people and if they can’t make it live they can catch the replay. (Sounds like a webinar, right?)
Taking your time to create good quality content is just as important for your live stream as it is for a webinar.
Remember these 3 simple tips
1) Always introduce yourself and the topic at the beginning. Let your viewers know who you are, what you do and the purpose of the Livestream. Get them excited to hang around.
2) Plan out what your call to action is for the training. (There has to be a call to action… a next step for them to take.) For example: sign up for your free offer, visit your program sales page or register for something bigger.
3) Ask your viewers to follow you and receive notifications when you go live. After doing broadcasts on a regular basis you’ll start to see the number of live viewers rise up because more and more people are following you.
Ninja Trick
If you decide to live stream on your Facebook page you can share the replay to your group and then you’re covering two bases at once. (Share it just like you would share any other post.)
Your group won’t be able to interact with you live, (because you’re sharing the replay), but they can still post questions that you can reply to after the live stream.
Closing Thoughts
As you can tell, live streaming from your Facebook page is very different than going live inside your group. One isn’t necessarily better than the other, they are just different.
I usually use my goal or objective for the mini-training as my deciding factor where it makes the most sense to go live. Knowing what you want to accomplish makes the decision much easier.
What do you think?
I’d love to know what your thoughts are regarding Facebook live streaming. Is it something you can see yourself using to reach more people and get more clients? Comment below to start a conversation with me. I’m standing by waiting to hear from you.
Thanks Karen, this was a problem I have been trying to figure out. I’ve been live streaming to my group, but not my page. This past week I did my first live stream on my page and not in the group. Now I’m trying to decide topics for each.
Terri
This is awesome Karen! Thank you for your clear explanations. Very helpful!
Hey Heather! So glad you found this valuable. I’ll be discussing livestreaming a lot more in the coming weeks so I think you’ll get a lot out of it. 🙂
That’s fantastic Terri. The fact that you’ve already been livestreaming means you are way ahead of most others. Congratulations!!! I’m thrilled that this post came just at the right time. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Karen, thanks for sharing this information. I have been advised to do some live streaming, and I’m working up the courage to do that. (I had to make 3 short videos for my website and you’d think it was a five-star film I was trying to make). I survived the video making experience, and I think I would be more relaxed to do a live stream. The blog was very helpful, so I think that now I have to come up with something.
I do have one question: how long should the presentation be? (ideally)
Diane…. this is a great question.
Since you’re just starting out I recommend 7-10 minutes. As you become more comfortable with doing live stream 15-20 minutes would be ideal. The reason a little longer is better is because it gives Facebook more time to push your live stream out into the newsfeed while you are live. This is the quickest way to get new followers and reach potential new clients.
Congratulations on doing video. After 100+ episodes of KarenPattock.TV I can certainly appreciate how much work and how draining it can be. Great job and keep up the good work. (Oh by the way, doing live stream is much easier because it is a much more casual environment.)
Karen, thank you for taking the time to respond to me! I attended a live event last week for Health Coach Institute and was challenged by 2 of our Clarity Coaches to take the leap and do a FB Live for our group’s page. I did several of them during our conference, and after re-reading your great blog I’m enboldened to branch out to my page. The process would have been more difficult had I not had this info on hand. Next stop: podcasts! Thank you SO much!
Thanks for checking in again Diane. It sounds like you’re on a roll. Livestreaming is definitely what is moving the needle in many businesses right now, (for those willing to get in front of the camera). Keep up the great work. 🙂
Thanks for this post Karen. I’ve been doing a weekly FB live since November. I initially started it on my personal page and had great engagement. Then I was told I should be doing it from my business page. My active views plummeted to almost zero and at times, no viewers. 🙁 But I continued to share it to my group and personal page and a couple other groups where it’s allowed. I did feel better once I saw that the number of replays was still averaging between 150 – 250. I haven’t boosted any of them. Had not thought about it really.
I’ve focused more on my biz page that I have mostly left my group hanging. Only posting or sharing a few times a week. I do like the idea of my group being more intimate.
So thinking about your statement, I have to think about what I want to convey to each group (biz page and group). Annndd I have to pay to play. So I will check out boosting future posts.
Thanks again.
Hi Sandra,
Great job in being so consistent with Facebook Live since November. I’m so glad you made the hard decision to move your efforts over to your FB Page rather than your personal page. Here’s something super cool that is going on behind the scenes that you may not know about. Because you are now using your page, every single viewer that is watching your Facebook Live videos, (whether live or replay), is being captured in a custom audience in your ads manager. That means that you can target those exact people in any ad that you run in the future. AND since they have already watched one of your videos and area warm audience, (because they know you), your ad will perform better, (meaning higher conversion at a lower cost). I’m so proud of you and the fact that you’ve stuck with it for so long shows me you are really working to make your business a success. Thank you so much for sharing with me.
Karen this was a very well done post. I love when I read a post and get exactly what I’m looking for in the post. Currently I’m thinking of starting my live stream. I’m not that savvy with Facebook but understand that I need to use it a lot more. I have a group but my objective is to expand my brand and you answered it very clearly. Thanks for great content. Keep up the good work.
I’m so happy that you found what you were looking for Curt. I’m sure your audience is going to be so appreciative that you are sharing your information in the live stream format. Great job!
Karen,
Thanks for this post and for your awesome podcast with Kathleen. Every single episode is jam packed with value. I love how relevant the advice is and I feel inspired to take action every time I learn something new!
After hearing so much buzz about Facebook Lives I am getting myself ready to take the plunge and want to commit to a regular schedule of Lives because I am certain it will help my business. My question is: When you talk about doing Lives from your “Page” are you referring to your personal page or business/fan page? I’m thinking about doing them from my Business page and sharing them in my group. I’d rather not do them on my personal page, but will that destroy my reach? I only have 150 likes/followers on my Business page. Does that matter at all or will FB still push out my livestreams to the rest of the world who are not following me ?
Hi Jill… Great question. Definitely do your Facebook Livestreams directly from your Facebook Business Page. As you said you can then share them into your group, (but can’t share to your page from your group). I wouldn’t recommend them from your personal page unless you occasionally do them just to invite people over to your FB Biz Page, (like… hey guys… all the good stuff happens on my business page, come check me out there). Be sure to ask for likes, comments and shares in your livestream so your audience will help you get it out there. If you have the budget to put a little ad spend behind it, I would boost it to a targeted audience for a few days to get more reach. Inevitably you’ll end up getting more page likes when you do that as well, so it’s helping your brand in two ways.
Great page and content, answered my same question, however:-
Identifying that for me streaming to a page is preferable as I’m a singer wanting as wide an audience as possible the next question in my mind is should I stream from my artist profile page or a PAGE (streaming PAGE) added to my profile?
Thanks
Just to clarify, I am a singer and want as wide an audience as possible.
Hi Karen,
If I’m streaming Live in a private group – do you have any advice for me to give group members to access the live program? I’d love to give proper steps for all to follow. When I did a test – I heard from many members of my group that they did not access it.