Facebook just rolled out three new features to make it easier for content creators to go live on Facebook and I'm seriously geeking out.
Let's dig into them right now...
Grow Your Audience With Live Video Crossposting
If you don't know what crossposting is, it's a simple way to publish a video across multiple Facebook Pages to drive more engagement.
Crossposting removed the need for Pages to send video files to one another because it made content shareable behind the scenes.
The other cool thing about crossposting is that when another Page crossposts your video, any engagement that they accumulate rolls up to your video analytics and vice versa!
For example, Ross Brand from Livestream Universe has been a guest on Lights, Camera, Live not once but TWICE.
I granted crossposting access to both live stream videos and when he published one of the videos to his Page, the video instantly appeared as having more than 4K views!
💥Instant social proof.💥
Now every time a person watches any of those videos on Ross' Page, his engagement numbers will roll up to my video analytics.
So this is why today's update is amazing...
Back in the day, I had to wait until a live stream was done BEFORE I could give crossposting access and that meant new audiences couldn't engage with me in real time. With this new update, I can give my Lights, Camera, Live guest access AHEAD of time and as soon as I go live, my guest can instantly publish the post so we can pull in more viewers.
The only downside with crossposting live videos is this...
““Comments and reactions from your Page’s live video won’t appear in the other Page’s crossposted broadcast, and viewers can’t see where the original live video is coming from.” ”
That means as a broadcaster, I'd have to monitor comments on my Page and my guest's Page. Ack!
Good luck if you plan on having your live broadcast crosspost to more than two Pages.
Live Rewind of Live Videos
As a live streamer, I have a habit of recapping what I covered every 10 minutes so new live viewers can catch up on what my guest and I are talking about.
More often than not, new live viewers will pop in and leave a comment saying that they'll come back later to watch from the beginning.
That's great for engagement on the replay but it sucks that those viewers miss out on the live engagement.
This new feature allows live viewers to control the live broadcast by rewinding to parts they might have missed.
Now if you ask me how I'd use this feature, it would have been this part during Mark Zuckerberg's testimony to Congress.
And now for the last update...
One Stream Key to Rule Them All
Content creators that regularly used the Facebook Live API to broadcast, always had to grab a new custom stream key every time they went live and that process was tedious at times.
I remember when I used OBS Studio, I had to copy and paste my stream key into a Google Doc so I wouldn't lose it.
And now thanks to today's update, content creators have a permanent stream key that they can use over and over.
Why is that awesome?
““Because a Page’s stream key is permanent, it can be sent in advance of a shoot — making it easier to collaborate across teams and locations for live productions.””
To be honest, if you've been using third-party software like Ecamm Live or BeLive.tv, chances are - you never had to worry about a stream key because they would handle that for you.
And that's a wrap!
What are your thoughts on these three new Facebook Live features for content creators?
Would you crosspost your live videos?
Enjoyed this post? Pin it.
