You may have heard of the popular new live streaming apps Periscope (owned by Twitter) and Meerkat. These applications allow for users to invite audiences, promote and share live stream videos with the options for creating public streams or even private streams only viewable by select users. With the ever-growing strength of video marketing, these live stream apps are truly golden for marketers to have the ability to build buzz and capture audiences’ attention at specified times. In a timely fashion, Facebook has announced its introduction into the live stream arena with its newest feature, Live.
Unlike Periscope or Meerkat, however, Live is not available for use by all users (these apps are popular with marketers and personal users alike). It’s only available for use by select VIP users who have been granted access to the Facebook app for public figures, Mentions. These VIP users generally consist of public figures and celebrities who will be able to stream their live videos which will appear on the top of your newsfeed if you follow or like that celebrity’s page. To add, anyone who has recently interacted with that person’s page will be given a push notification letting them know a new broadcast is going to begin. Some of the celebrities that are already onboard include Serena Williams, Martha Stewart and Michael Bublé.
The Live Trend
Live isn’t the first move into live social media experiences by Facebook. They have recently unveiled Place Tips, a feature that allows users to see curated live content from events in real-time including for the summer music festival Lollapalooza which took place last week.
How Does This Benefit Marketers?
There is a vast potential for benefiting from Facebook Mentions. You don’t have to be in the business of marketing a public figure in order to reap the benefits. A few initiatives to consider are product placement opportunities, celebrity marketing collaborations and celebrity endorsements. Begin by researching public figures who have images that fall in line with your brand and target market. Next, come up with creative marketing concepts to be delivered by Live. Be sure to go for creative content that promotes your brand but isn’t a hard sell. Remember that social media is still not the arena for such tactics and even advertisements should be consumed similarly to entertainment. Live stands to open up plenty of opportunities and it’s a great lead into more proactive marketing on Facebook as it allows you to control the days and times a message is received by audiences rather than the traditional format of waiting for users to log on and discover your page at their leisure. It will definitely be interesting to see if this will lead to a new evolution of Facebook as we currently know it.
