Mala McAlpin Our hands-on, interactive industry lends itself perfectly to live content.
Live social media videos can be completely nerve-racking if you haven’t had a tonne of practise at it. Not only does it leave you completely open to mistakes (and possible misrepresentation of your business) that you can’t edit out or take back, but the live comment stream can be fairly overwhelming and sometimes off putting, particularly if any negativity happens to pop up on your screen while you’re trying to focus.
There are several reasons business owners and practitioners are turning to Instagram Live as a regular marketing strategy. Not only does a great live video offer your business invaluable personality and credibility, along with the chance to deliver a lot more information than you could do in a regular post, but Instagram Live videos are given priority on users’ feeds, meaning your video is bumped up to first place ahead of other users’ Stories in the queue. Plus, your followers will receive a pop-up notification at the top of their window saying “*insert name* has just started a live video” – a definite advantage in the world of no-longer-chronologically-ordered Instagram posts.
And of course, clients are looking for interactive ways to engage, and in such a visual, hands-on industry, they love the behind-the-scenes style glimpse into a business or treatment. The live comment stream allows for the video subject to respond to users’ comments or requests as they happen, whether it be answering questions or demonstrating a product or treatment on demand – almost like a casual conversation with a friend. It doesn’t get much more interactive than that!
Here are some things you can do to boost your confidence before going live on Instagram (or Facebook for that matter!):
1. Practise – if you’re ultra-nervous, write yourself a bit of a script, and try recording standard videos first as a practise run. Ensure you’re comfortable with yourself, your delivery and your message before you go live.
2. Use prompts – the beauty of selfie-style interviews is you can hide whatever you need to behind the camera without viewers ever knowing – although, avoid staring off into the background for too long! If you tend to forget your words when nerves set in, enlist a team member to hold up cue cards for you, or keep key talking points, products, etc. on hand to cue yourself: do what you need to do to make the process easier for yourself.
3. Apply the standard rules of marketing – these include what you may normally apply to digital marketing or social media. Be consistent, go Live regularly so your clients know what and when to expect to hear from you to keep them coming back for more. And more importantly, determine your goal/s for each video – what do you want to get out of this?
4. Pre-publicise – if you’d like to drum up some excitement prior to going Live, post a regular feed post on your Instagram announcing when you will be going Live and what you’ll be talking about. Invite users in to watch and share any questions they may have.
While it may be scary, avoid putting too much pressure on yourself to be perfect. Consumers want authenticity when it comes to brands and experiences, so just be you, treat it like a casual conversation, and let your passion for what you do shine through.
