Fear of Facebook Live? How to get over it (and get tons of exposure)

At this point, it's impossible to ignore: Facebook Live is a game-changing feature for the social media behemoth. Millions of live stream videos are posted each day, and stats show that people spend triple the time watching live stream videos than traditional video posts. Plus, Facebook is doubling down on helping their users get more views by automating alerts when a friend or page goes live.

In short, Facebook Live is only going to get bigger — and so is your opportunity to use it as a free brand-building tool! If you're too scared to try it, we have a few easy exercises and best practices to get you started in private.

1) Practice to an audience of one

To give the feature a test, head over to your personal page. On this page, you can practice a live stream by setting it to stream only to yourself. Click on the "Live" button in the top left, just below the search bar. Immediately select "Only me" as the audience for your video, then give it a test!

Once the post is up, watch it a few times to see how you did.

2) Quick tips

If you've ever recorded videos in selfie mode, you likely know these tips. But just in case:

• Record from slightly above if possible, or straight-on. No one looks good when being recorded from below!
• Memorize a few bullet points in your head so you can look directly into the camera the whole time you're recording
• Give a quick intro and be sure to end with a brief sign-off so it doesn't look abrupt

3) Ready for the big reveal?

Once you've tested your live stream to yourself and feel comfortable, you can go live to your whole network! Remember, click to share with friends if you are using a personal page or automatically go public with a business page.

Facebook has this great tip sheet on specific live streaming best practices, but here are a few of the most important ones:

• Tell everyone in advance that you'll be live streaming. That way, when they get the alert that you are live, they are more likely to tune in right away
• Be sure to have a strong wifi signal so you don't get cut off halfway through your live stream

What should I post about?

If you're not sure what to say, we'll be back soon offering tips on how real estate agents can share market information, community tips and more.

To view the original article, visit the Tech Savvy Agent blog.