The Ultimate B2B Facebook Live Video Production Plan

Written by The Valve+Meter Team / February 7, 2018 / 8 Minute Read
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Live video is transforming the digital landscape. While many B2B marketers hesitate, Facebook Live offers a unique opportunity to connect with clients, spotlighting brand personality and fostering engagement. Dive into the benefits, explore creative use cases, and learn how to craft a successful production plan for impactful live streaming.

Digital Advertising

Live video has become more popular than ever, and Facebook Live is where many consumers are gravitating.

According to Livestream, 81 percent of internet users say they are watching more live-streaming content year over year.

Live video is highly interactive and can help draw the attention of current and prospective clients.

But when you look at the B2B marketing landscape, many marketers are still hesitating to adopt live video to their strategy.

Any brand trying to increase brand awareness and build trust with customers should go live on video, which is why more B2B marketers need to take a strong look at utilizing Facebook Live in their content strategy.

Facebook Live for B2B marketing is one of the best ways to connect with clients in a way that spotlights your brand’s personality, is easily shareable, and engages in ways other content lack.

If you’re asking yourself if B2B Facebook Live is a viable B2B marketing channel for your business, then you’ve come to the right post.

We’ll dive into the benefits of B2B Facebook Live, some creative ways B2B marketers can use Facebook Live, and provide the framework for a successful production plan for your first live stream.

Ready? Let’s dive in.

5 Reasons to Plan Your First B2B Facebook Live Event

Produce Unique Content

Two of the most powerful marketing channels are video and social media. Facebook is the most used social media platform to date, making Facebook Live a match made in heaven.

Brands can produce an instant, real-time viewing experience available on any device for their audience. The beauty, and the challenge, of this, is producing unedited and unfiltered content.

Very Cost-Effective Video Strategy

Facebook Live is all about living in the moment, which means you don’t need expensive camera equipment or editing software to produce a video. Just your smartphone and the Facebook app.

While this strategy is more affordable, this also means production quality can be limited, and using the channel for the right types of videos should be considered. Company announcements, new product releases, and other large announcements might be better suited with the help of a full-service video marketing team.

Videos Build Trust With Your Audience

There is a very personal approach to Facebook Live. You can quickly host live question-and-answer sessions on the spot with little set-up time.

Remember that doing something live establishes a strong level of humanization that is hard to achieve through a website, landing page, or email. Is you build trust with your audience, they will continue to buy from you and refer you to their network.

Drives More Traffic to Your Facebook Page

Many B2B marketers struggle to generate enough value from their Facebook page. But hosting a Facebook Live video gives you a prime opportunity to promote your page to draw viewers in and keep them coming back to your page.

When you create a constant stream of live video and published content to your Facebook page, it helps your brand build a steady source of traffic to your page.

See Engagement in Real-Time

Facebook allows you to see the number of live viewers and total viewers of your video after the broadcast ends. During the live broadcast, viewers can leave comments and react to what you’re saying. You can also reply and respond to their comments during the live event.

During your broadcast, you can get a feeling for how the topic is being received based on the comments and questions you ready at the moment. This can help you pivot your content strategy going forward, recording future B2B Facebook Live videos.

7 Creative B2B Facebook Live Use Cases

So now you’ve bought into the idea of creating B2B Facebook Live but can’t think of a good idea to try as your first broadcast. Here are some creative ideas you could try for your first video:

Touch Base With Current Customers

One creative idea is to use Facebook Live to pull your current customer base in with a quick livestream update. You can let them know what’s going on with product improvements, tease an upcoming marketing piece you’re working on, or just highlight a team member.

Provide Customer Testimonials

Anytime you’re with a happy customer, you should always try and get a quote for marketing use, like a case study or a landing page. Asking if they would sit and do a live stream case study can be a great marketing tool to entice potential customers in your pipeline. The live engagement can also encourage prospects to ask real clients questions. They may feel more comfortable getting an answer from another customer than from the company–which can work for or against you.

Hold Q&A Sessions

If your product support or customer service team fields the same questions over and over, hosting a Facebook live Q&A session with a team member may work for you. This is a great opportunity to spotlight your brand’s customer service and produce a deeper connection with customers or entice fans to become customers themselves.

Make Presentations

If your marketing team creates compelling content, you can repurpose it into a quick B2B Facebook Live video and present it to your audience. This is a great way to use the content you’ve already worked on creating and using a new channel to promote the piece. This is a great teaser for lead generation too!

Go Behind the Scenes

Your business is unique. Show off your unique brand personality with an impromptu look behind the curtain at your office. Showcase your development team working on new features. Walk back into your customer support center. Give fans a quick look at what your all-company team meeting looks like. Your team has fun, so let your audience see it.

Host Interview Series

If you can get industry experts to come in a sit down with you in front of the camera, a single or series of interviews can make for great B2B Facebook Live videos. You can still turn these into a Q&A session, especially at the end, but this is a chance to get fans to tune in and see your brand as a thought leader inviting well-known experts in your industry to share their knowledge with your following.

Share Product Demos

Have a new feature or new product launch your company is ready to announce? Hosting a live product demo can let customers and prospects see what’s new. If you usually ask leads to sign up for a product demo, no problem. You can do a brief demo that is less in-depth and still use it as a lead generation tool asking viewers to sign up for the full product demo.

A Successful Production Plan For Your Next B2B Facebook Live Stream

So now you know the benefits and have a list of ideas for your company’s first Facebook Live video.

But where do you begin?

It can seem overwhelming, but to simplify things, we’ve created a production plan for you. It covers everything you need to remember before you go live, during the live broadcast, and things to think about after you end your broadcast.

Before You Go Live

Resist the urge to grab a camera and go live without fleshing out a strategy first. Any B2B marketer with a few Facebook Live streams under her belt will tell you it’s important to plan everything before racing to hit the record.

Review the details

  • What backdrop will be behind you when you’re live?
  • Do you have a strong and reliable Wi-Fi connection?
  • How clear will your audio be?
  • Do you need to invest in a tripod, a microphone, and/or additional lighting?

Have a plan

  • What are the goals of your live-streaming campaign?
  • What frequency will you use the tool?

Understand your audience

  • Who will you be speaking to and what kind of content/tone will resonate with them?
  • What time of day will be best to capture their attention?

Ready to Go Live

Now that you’ve followed a few basic Facebook Live tips to plan your event, you’re ready to go live. But first, remember to think about things like:

Promoting your video

  • It’s imperative to inform your audience that your event is coming.
  • Use Facebook, other social platforms, email marketing, your website, any channel you can think of to get the word out.
  • Be sure to ask your social media audience to share the news to expand the reach of your event.

Rehearse at least once

  • Facebook has a practice function to allow you to get your feet wet pre-event.
  • Even if you want your video to come off completely natural and unscripted, it’s good to run through the main points you want to cover in the video before going live.

Be interactive and personable

  • Remember to be yourself and let your personality show through. The social media audience will respond well to your authenticity.
  • Also, keep an eye out for comments during your event. This is a great way to gain insights into your audience as well as keep things interactive and interesting.

After The Broadcast Ends

No list of Facebook Live tips would be complete without a follow-up plan. Once your live-streaming social media event is over, be sure to spend ample time on the assessment stage.

Analyze the results

  • Facebook offers up some key metrics that will help you assess the success of your event.
  • You may incorporate other KPIs such as web traffic upticks and an increase in user signup or sales conversions.

Share the video

  • When your Facebook Live stream is completed, it will be stored as a video file in your timeline.
  • Now you can share with followers who missed the live stream, allowing them to share and promote the video through their social media platforms.

Follow up with viewers

  • Thank your attendees for joining you, and directly reach out to any users that engaged during the event if more follow-up is needed.
  • At the end of your event, it is also a great time to give a ‘save the date’ for your next Facebook Live event.

Planning Corporate Events

Corporate events are a wonderful way to communicate your message and values while bringing business people together. To be successful, there are a number of perspectives to consider. There are the hosts of the event, the employees working the event and the audience. Obviously, the audience is of the utmost concern, but it is also important that the hosts and the employees are engaged as well. A successful event has an atmosphere of enthusiasm and energy.

Start by asking a few simple questions. This can get you headed in the right direction.

What is the goal of the event?

Planning an event begins with a goal in mind. Setting clear goals and objectives, in the beginning will help you to stay on track as the event takes form.  Events require a tremendous amount of organization, by referring to your goals along the way, this will ensure you are staying on track.

Who is our audience?

No matter what type of event is being hosted, without people, it will be a flop. Understand your audience and what would feel good to them. What is the benefit of attending? Is it networking, awards, food or entertainment? How can you value your audience’s time while communicating your message and values?

What’s the date?

Consider the timing of your event to be a platform for success. Picking the right time of day and the right day is very important. Always check local calendars, sports, school and holiday schedules to make sure your events don’t overlap with other high profile events. Think about your audience and the timing required to make attendance a viable option, rather than a hardship. For example, planning an event downtown Indianapolis, during a Colts/Pacers game could be tough sell.

Work well with others.

Truly partner with all your vendors. Build relationships that promote success for co-workers, caterers, delivery people, valets and with the venue staff. Success is not mutually exclusive. There is space for everyone to shine. Take the time to compliment, encourage, offer assistance and laugh with the people you are working with.  Find the fun and enjoy the event.

Build your team.

Successful events take highly organized people, yes. But you also need thinkers, doers and don’t forget that you need creative people too. Creativity is necessary in events planning. In many cases, creativity, flexibility and being a problem solver all mean the same things. Inevitably there will be a curveball or two. Things happen unexpectedly, sometimes it is a failure in equipment or an unexpected absence of someone or something crucial. Just breathe, know that there is a solution, then find that creative person for ideas.

See, B2C marketers don’t get to have all of the fun. B2B Facebook Live videos certainly have their place in any B2B marketing strategy.

By getting creative with some video ideas, following a basic list of best practices before your live-streaming event, during the show, and after it’s all over, you’re likely to join the ranks of the many brands that find success in this cost-effective tool.

Partner with our social media mavens to optimize your live events today. Request a free consultation of your entire B2B marketing strategy with us today!

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