Have you wondered why so many people are creating their own Facebook Live videos and shows?
Doesn’t it seem like a lot of work and pressure, just to broadcast 30 – 60 minutes of video content?
What if I told you that a single one-hour video that you broadcast live to Facebook will generate dozens and dozens of pieces of content that you can use to fuel your content marketing efforts both on your blog and on every other major social network? You can spend a little time up front creating content, then populate your social media planner for months.
And what if I told you that the combination of two or more of these tactics could have a multiplying effect on your audience, traffic, leads and sales?
Want to learn more? I thought so.
“You can create months of content out of a few Facebook Lives. And make sure you include a call to action.” – Mari Smith
Begin At The Beginning: Facebook Live
This is a topic that I talked about in an interview recently and wanted to go into more depth for you. I know not everyone likes to write and blog as much as I do, yet we still need to find efficient ways to create video, social, and even written content. This will help you!
It’s worth noting that I’ve chosen to recommend using Facebook Live… as opposed to Instagram or YouTube or Twitter live video… for a very specific reason.
When you begin a live video on Facebook, Facebook will “build your audience” by notifying your Page followers and placing your video into the feed of an increasing number of people whom Facebook believes may be interested in your content. And as each new viewer tunes in and begins to engage with your show, they increase the potential for that video to be seen by others.
If I react to or comment on any Facebook post, the people connected with me on Facebook may see that activity, and therefore the post itself, in their feed, even if they aren’t already following the original Page or profile that created the post.
Which means the more people you get watching and engaging with your Facebook video, the more people will be able to see it. This is a virality factor that either isn’t present at all, or not as effective, on other platforms. Getting likes and comments on your YouTube video will not bring you more viewers, and sharing videos within YouTube still isn’t a thing. Same with Instagram. Twitter is somewhat better, but still lacks the concurrent usage of Facebook. In other words, can you assume that a good portion of your audience is actually using Twitter at the same time you are?
(Remember, Twitter currently reports 326 million active monthly users, whereas Facebook sports 2.27 billion.)
The other brilliant reason for broadcasting live to Facebook that my friend and colleague Stephanie Liu teaches involves the use of Facebook Ads. As you get more and more people to view your videos, not only are you building a captive audience for your lives, you’re also building an audience that you can target with Facebook Ads. If you’re utilizing live video to build Know, Like & Trust (and you should be), targeting those audiences with relevant ads and offers is a brilliant play.
“People want to feel as though they’re part of something bigger. It’s all about the experience.” – Kim Garst
So that covers the strategy behind using Live Video + Facebook. If you want help with the tactics behind a successful broadcast, Stephanie Liu has a tremendous resource for you. What we’ll be covering through the rest of this article is 100% tactical after your Facebook Live.
Note that for the purposes of this article, I will assume that you’re going to do a regular weekly Facebook Live video, and that you are going to interview a guest expert each week. You may choose to broadcast less often, broadcast by yourself or with a co-host, or even have a panel of people. They’re all viable options.
“Shows are the way forward.” – Andrew & Pete
Tactic 00: Featured & Crossposted Videos
Ah, well, there’s a couple of things I forgot to mention which technically aren’t additional pieces of content – they still leverage that original Facebook video – but, damn! These are cool.
First, every Facebook Page has a Videos tab that will list all your most recent videos. Just like on YouTube, you can also organize them into playlists so consider the kinds of videos you are creating and how your audience might benefit from having them organized in what way. But there’s one other really cool feature and that is, well, Featured! Featured Video, I mean.
At the top of your Videos tab you can choose to display a single video the full width of the column. Take advantage of that real estate! Sure, you can put a video about your business there that’s super boring. Or, you can rotate in some of your most exciting live videos!
Second, you can leverage partners with other Facebook Pages and crosspost your videos to those Pages.
Crosspost is not the same as Share. When a video is crossposted by another Page owner, they essentially create a new post with that same video on their Page. In addition to getting your content in front of their page audience, you also get the benefit of aggregated metrics. As the video owner you can see the combined statistics for views and engagement!
Videos can be crossposted both while live and after the broadcast – it just depends on what the other Page owner wants to do and wants to let you do. When we broadcast one of our 360 Marketing Live videos, we automatically crosspost the live broadcast to each of our respective Facebook Pages, adding exponentially more reach and potential!
“Live video will help businesses develop more engaged communities.” – Michael Stelzner
Tactic 01: YouTube
Once that broadcast is finished, download the video file and upload it to YouTube.
Every other week, Stephanie, Jenn Herman, Amanda Robinson and myself have a live broadcast we call 360 Marketing Live. Once it’s done, I grab the video file and log into YouTube and our 360 Marketing Squad channel. There’s an upload button in the upper right that I can click, select my video file, and begin to upload.
A 30 to 60 minute show is going to generate a rather large video file, so be patient here.
While the video is uploading, you can change the title – don’t use the default file name – as well as enter a description. Typically, the title of your Facebook Live and show description will work just fine here!
Select tags for your video that are appropriate for the content (TubeBuddy is a great help for this!) and, when the video has finished uploading, select a thumbnail image. This is a single frame from the video that YouTube viewers will see before they begin watching. It’s a good idea here to upload a custom graphic that has the show title on it. I always create such a graphic to pre-promote shows and use them when creating Facebook Events. The same graphic works great for the YouTube video.
You can choose to add the video to an existing playlist, and even tweet it out for some additional exposure, then click on Publish!
PRO TIP: Go into your video settings, go to Transcripts, and review the automated captions that YouTube created for your show. You can then download the entire text of the show as a text file! You can probably guess how we’re going to use that later.
That’s your first major repurposing.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1
Tactic 02: Slideshare
Y’all know that Slideshare is owned by LinkedIn, and is one of the most effective platforms for sharing and driving business. Ana Hoffman used Slideshare to drive a quarter million views, and you can too!
The trick with Slideshare is that your content needs to be an infographic or a presentation file, like Powerpoint. “But wait, Mike! I thought we were talking about video!” You’re right, Barbara, we are! Here’s how it works.
Open your Google Drive account and create a new Google Slides file. If you’re going to do this regularly I would absolutely recommend customizing a template for yourself so you can keep your presentations branded easily. (Note you can absolutely use Powerpoint or Keynote for this step if you prefer.)
Create at least two slides for your presentation – an initial Title slide and a closing slide. Feel free to add more if you wish, but your video is going to exist between two distinct slides, so you do not need more than two. Save your presentation as a PDF file.
- Sign in to SlideShare.
- Click Upload and select your new PDF presentation file.
- Fill in the relevant details and publish it.
- Click Edit under the presentation you wish to add the YouTube video to.
- Click the Add Youtube Video tab at the top of the page.
- Enter the URL for your YouTube video.
- Select the placement of the YouTube video within your presentation.
- If you wish to insert another video, click +Add another video.
- Once you have inserted all of your videos, click Insert & Publish.
The videos will now appear in your presentation.
To select the correct URL to insert into a presentation, copy the YouTube video URL from your browser’s address bar (when you’re on the “watch” page on YouTube) and paste it into the given space.
If you have a specific call to action within the video, that last slide is a great place to reinforce that, particularly if there’s a link you wish them to follow. (Quick Tip: if you use Google Slides and save to PDF, links will still work. If you’re using PowerPoint you’ll need to edit the PDF using Adobe Acrobat.)
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1
Next, pull that video file into iMovie or Camtasia or whatever you prefer to use for video editing, because you’re going to work some magic now.
Tactic 03: Podcast
Save the audio as a separate MP3 file because you can use that to power a podcast! You can start a Libsyn hosting account for as little $5/month and begin to upload your audio files there. For most Facebook Lives, the audio will require minimal editing. It’s great to have an “intro” and an “outro” for your podcast – standard bits of audio that you’d splice onto the recording that add branding and standard information to every one of your podcasts. You can also choose to edit out any technical issues or unnecessary conversation that might have occurred, and then you’re done!
You can actually launch a podcast and make it available on iTunes, Stitcher and Google Play with as few as one, single episode. However, I recommend that you have at least 4 episodes “in the can” that you can release weekly or even drop all at once, ensuring constant activity. Podcasts, like Facebook Lives, benefit greatly from a regular schedule that your growing audience can rely on.
When you set up your Libsyn account you simply create a feed for your podcast, including the title & description of the show (the entire show, not just one episode), and then set that feed up to distribute new episodes as soon as you upload them!
This tactic actually results in 3 pieces of content thanks to the use of multiple distribution networks.
Not sure where to begin? This article details exactly how to set up your podcast hosting service, create podcast content, and start publishing episodes.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 3
BONUS Tactic: Alexa Flash Briefing
Once you have a podcast up and running, you can easily add that content to Alexa as a Flash Briefing! I will add more detailed instructions soon.
Tactic 04: Audiograms
Are you familiar with Audiograms? You might have seen them on LinkedIn where they seem to be extremely popular right now. They’re essentially videos but instead of using actual video footage, there’s usually a static graphic with an audio wave line moving in accordance with an audio clip of someone speaking.
Here’s an example, a clip from an interview with Mark Schaefer.
In this typical audiogram, we have a relatively audio short clip plus whatever information we want to include on the graphic. People enjoy listening to the recording and you can provide them with a link to the Facebook Live or blog post or wherever you wish to drive traffic. And these audiograms can be uploaded to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and even Pinterest!
The beauty of audiograms is that they are incredibly easy to make. You can create audiograms for free using Headliner.app.
- Upload your audio file (up to ten minutes of audio – I prefer to edit out the clip I want to use before uploading)
- Select the audio you wish to use.
- Choose your aspect ratio and select a background image (which I just make using Canva).
- Customize with different wave appearances, automatic captions, and more.
While most audiograms are made square, you can choose landscape or portrait for use in, say, Instagram Stories! In fact, once you finish your audiogram and download it, you can easily convert it into another version and size to easily repurpose the same audiogram elsewhere.
With Headliner, you can pull out one or more clips from your Facebook Live and share them out as quick segments. These might be quotes, answers to questions, or even funny moments from your show. The possibilities are endless! Let’s assume that you find one great answer from your guest and create a one minute clip and audiogram. You can upload a square version to Instagram, landscape versions to Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, and portrait versions to Facebook Stories (personal, Pages and even Groups!) and Instagram Stories (if you splice the Instagram Story video using app like Clip).
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 8+
Tactic 05: Twitter Videos
If you can upload an audiogram video file to Twitter, you can certainly upload regular video! In fact, Twitter supports up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds of video content. That’s a golden opportunity to find a great soundbite, intro your interview, or share a funny segment.
Again, your video editing software is your friend here, as it will make it super easy to select the clip you want to share and edit it out.
But, before you create that 2:20 clip, consider some of the other networks you might want to share that to, as they all have different requirements.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 06: Facebook Feed Videos
We started with a Facebook Live Video, so why am I about to suggest sharing segmented versions of that same broadcast back to video?
First, not everyone tuned into your live broadcast no matter how popular it was, so sharing it or segments of it again just makes good sense.
And it’s possible that you might want to leverage your personal profile, Facebook Groups you’re a member of, or even other Pages you control, to share some key takeaways from that Live broadcast. One masterful technique I’ve seen Stephanie utilize is to schedule a Watch Party for a Facebook Live, after it’s aired, within her Group, giving her audience another opportunity to watch and engage with her.
Plus, there’s a big difference in commitment between watching your one hour broadcast and watching a 60 second clip! Your audience may really appreciate being able to ’snack’ on part of the video before deciding to watch the whole thing.
So while you can technically upload up to an hour and twenty minutes of video, you don’t need to want to here. Just consider sharing whatever video segments you create, and can even spread them out over time. Agorapulse, for instance, will help you to schedule video content to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 07: LinkedIn Feed Videos
The same video segment(s) that you created for Twitter or Facebook will work great for LinkedIn! You can upload up to ten minutes of video to that network so length won’t usually be an issue. Though you might want to test sharing longer segments of your interviews just to LinkedIn from time to time.
PRO TIP: Remember how I mentioned earlier how you can download the captions for your videos from YouTube? Headliner automatically does the same thing for your audiograms, but what about these shorter clips? Headliner can help with those too! Just choose “Video Transcript” instead of “Audiogram Wizard” for your new project.
“Deploying an ideal blend of video and surrounding content is key for visibility, attention and conversion.” – Sam Hurley
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 08: Instagram Feed Videos
So far you’ve created one or more video clips that can be shared to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Since the video was originally recorded in 16:9 ratio (landscape), those segmented versions will work fine on those networks. Now, however, you do need to create a different version of that same clip.
Instagram’s feed is all about the square. Within your video editing software, simply look for the option to change the aspect ratio of the video(s) you created. This will likely give you a selector you can use to make sure the visible area of the video makes sense.
Note that in addition to being limited to 1:1 aspect ratio, Instagram feed videos can be 60 seconds maximum. Be careful to stick to that within your editor as Instagram will simply cut your video at 60 seconds whether it’s finished or not, making for a poor experience.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 09: Instagram Story Videos
Creating video segments for Instagram Stories is a bit more challenging since it’s a 9:16 aspect ratio or ‘portrait’ style (no, you can’t just rotate your video 90 degrees). One option is to use the square version and it will simply appear centered on the screen with colored space above and below. Or, if the original recorded video allows creatively, you can try cropping it to 9:16. This generally only works if there’s a single person speaking who can still be framed within that box.
Either way, this is another great place to share quick segments, up to 15 seconds. If you use the Clip app (or similar) that I mentioned earlier, you can splice your longer video into 15 second segments and simply upload them in order. Instagram followers will be able to watch them in succession easily.
“Savvy businesses and brands need to incorporate compelling short videos for storytelling to draw in their audiences and better engage them.” – Mari Smith
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 10: Pinterest Video Pins
Did you know Pinterest supports native video uploads? Up to fifteen minutes of video, in fact! So while not long enough for most entire shows, definitely long enough for a fun segment.
You can upload any of the versions you’ve created so far, particularly if you managed to create a tall portrait or square version of the video.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 11: Quote Graphics -> Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest
It never fails. When I have a great guest on a show, I’ll ask questions and they’ll start sharing the knowledge that’s in their head and they’ll end up saying extraordinary things. Sometimes those things might be just a sentence or two, yet they’re simply brilliant.
Those statements make for great quote graphics!
As you’re editing and re-listening to your interview, watch out for those one-liners and make note of them. Then you can open Canva and make one or more quote graphics. You can have these templated in advance so that all you have to do is enter the text of the quote and the interviewee’s name. (You can also use the Typography app if you want to make these from mobile with ease.)
I recommend landscape graphics for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, square graphics for Instagram, portrait graphics for Pinterest (and Stories).
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 5+
Tactic 12: Blog Post w/ transcript & notes
So far you’ve already created a tremendous amount of content out of that one video, but you’re about to pull it all together. The blog post is the one piece of content that will live on your website – your property. So it’s remarkably important and worth taking your time on. But fortunately, it won’t take you too long at all!
“As video becomes more accessible and ubiquitous, consumers will more and more expect it to be an option for consuming any content anywhere.” – Mark Traphagen
There are a number of ways you can go with the blog post version of your Facebook Live in terms of what content is actually included:
Easy Option: Use the title of your show, embed the Facebook Live, and copy & paste the transcript from YouTube. Whip up some graphics in Canva and you’ll be all set in a matter of minutes! And there’s nothing wrong with this approach. But if you want your content to perform better longterm, you could spend a few more minutes and try the…
Moderate Option: In addition to everything outlined in the Easy Option, consider adding a summary at the beginning that is based on your initial show description. Explain what the show was about, who was on it, and what you covered. Letting your audience know up front what they’re going to learn and why it’s worth their time is a smart play. It will encourage more people to keep reading and/or watch the embedded video interview. Or you might choose the…
Advanced Option: This choice requires more time and effort on your part, but it will absolutely pay off. Instead of just a quick summary at the beginning, you will walk through all of the major discussion points from the show and draw them out, pull quotes, and share conclusions. You will create a piece of content that could easily be read on its own without the video or transcript and be just as easily understood.
Note here that no matter which approach you take, you will embed the Facebook recorded video, not YouTube or any other. This is because, as readers find your blog post, some will choose to watch the video. Each new viewer may choose to Like or Comment on the Facebook post, which they can do right from your blog post. Remember how we outlined earlier the benefits of getting engagement on your Facebook posts? Well that’s true no matter how old the posts are or where they’re embedded.
Getting readers to engage with your embedded Facebook Live videos will push those videos back Into the news feed!
Again, this goes back to the benefit of using Facebook over other platforms. It’s simply better for growing an audience. And as Facebook Watch develops – Facebook’s repository of videos to watch – there’s even greater potential in the future.
Always include at least one image with your blog posts as well as links to any individuals or resources mentioned in the post. If you’re leveraging the podcast channels, you can also embed the Libsyn player and encourage readers to subscribe to your podcast if they like the audio version.
Once you’ve published your blog post, promote it everywhere!
RELATED: How To Promote Blog Posts
Don’t forget to share the blog post with your email subscribers! Even the smallest list can help drive video views and engagement.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
Tactic 13: Click To Tweet Quotes
One last tactic you can employ within a blog post or even in other places throughout your site is Click To Tweet Quotes. Like this:
You can create months of content out of a few Facebook Lives. And make sure you include a call to action. – Mari Smithtweet this!
A CTT is a quote you pulled from the interview and set up a button that allows your readers to click and have a pre-filled tweet ready to share. They’re really effective at getting additional shares and fresh content to Twitter, and they’re easy to build.
Copy the quote you want to share and go to ClickToTweet – paste in that text, the interviewee’s name, and a link to your post. Click To Tweet will give you a single chortling that you can then apply to some “tweet this” text or button. If you use Social Warfare for your social sharing buttons, you can also use their widget and shortcode.
This is better than just sharing the quoted text straight to Twitter yourself. You certainly can make use of the Click To Tweets yourself, but some will some of your readers!
I recommend using just 1 or 2 Click To Tweet quotes throughout your post. It’s been shown statistically that if you use 4 or more, readers tend to ignore those subsequent tweets.
ADDITIONAL PIECES OF CONTENT: 1+
In addition to the Facebook Live Video itself, and any crossposting you might have done, following these steps will give you TWENTY SIX additional pieces of content!
The YouTube video, podcast and blog post can be edited and published relatively soon after the broadcast, while the additional content and social posts can be spread out over time – months! You can choose to let the social posts stand on their own, link to the Facebook recorded video, or link to the blog post. I tend to prefer to have all roads to lead to Rome the blog post, but that can vary depending on your specific goals and CTAs.
What if you aren’t comfortable yet with your Facebook Live Video production? What if you feel like it needs to get better, or if you haven’t even started yet?
You need to take a look at Stephanie Liu’s Mastermind! While I’ve been creating and appearing on Live Video since 2012, I really am not the expert. When I have a question or need inspiration, it’s Stephanie’s Lights, Camera, Live! Show and resources and courses that I turn to. Since March of 2018, Stephanie has been coaching and encouraging me and even with years of experience under my belt, she immediately saw ways that I could improve both in front of and behind the camera.
If you want to take your live video from boring to badass, as she puts it, consider joining Stephanie for a 6-week intensive mastermind!
“Video is gaining in popularity on all social channels so I feel that it’s going to be a “must” not a choice for marketing projects.” – Peg Fitzpatrick
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