Painting Contractors: 7 Facebook Live Tips: Before, During, & After Broadcast
Years ago in order to advertise a business, the only options available were not very cost-effective.
Facebook Live launched in the spring of 2016 and lets you, as a painting contractor, connect with people face to face… and it’s free.
Facebook Live videos produce 6 times as many interactions as regular videos.
There are so many ways you can take your painting business to the next level using Facebook Live!
Here are 7 Facebook Live Tips for Painting Contractors: Before, During, & After Broadcast.
1. Promote Your Broadcast Beforehand
It’s 2020, are you still communicating with your customers through e-mail alone?
Plenty of people regularly check their e-mail but a lot of e-mail gets deleted without being read.
Before you go Live on Facebook, make sure that you promote the broadcast well in advance so that people will know to “tune in” on time.
You can use any means of promotion to let people know, be it e-mail, social media, etc….
Here’s a useful video tutorial on how to promote Facebook Live:
2. Remove All Distractions That May Be Present
The last thing you want during your Facebook Live presentation is your 4 year old running in to chase the dog with his new light saber.
Distractions come in many forms from things that make noise to just anything that isn’t related to your broadcast.
Remove anything from your broadcast space that might make you lose your train of thought during your broadcast.
Getting distracted never results in anything good…
3. Regularly Remind People What They Are Watching
Just like live TV, you never know at what point during the show a viewer will chime in.
Someone on the show periodically will say, “So if you’re just tuning in…” and remind people what they are watching.
So too it is with Facebook Live — sure, it’s great to think that your audience is there from the get-go but sometimes that’s not the case.
It would be good during your broadcast to periodically say what you are talking about, where you are in the process.
[Related: Painting Contractors: 7 Ways To Utilize Social Media To Get Leads]4. Respond To Comments During Your Broadcast
One of the big buzzwords that comes with social media is “engagement” as in how much your audience is actually connecting with you.
A good way to boost your connection with your audience is to make an effort to respond to the comments they leave.
Just as an example, you might say, “Alright, so it looks like Ron wants to know what kind of sandpaper is good for kitchen cabinets…” and then tell everyone.
When you respond to your comments you help people, which makes people want to come back for future broadcasts.
Most importantly, once they appear as a viewer, be sure to say, “Hey [first name] thanks for joining…” or something along the lines.
And if you’re stuck not knowing what to say next, ask your audience a question.
5. Write A Good Description For Your Broadcast
Imagine if you wanted to see a movie and all you knew about it was from the listing, and it said, “Man goes to space to fight bad guys and save a princess.”
If I told you that I just gave you a really bad description for Star Wars, would you believe it?
Since your broadcast description appears prominently on top of your video, you’re going to want to make it good.
Make your description something that will really capture the eye of the potential audience so that you have one watching.
If you have to, you can always go in after the fact and make changes to your description to make it more appealing.
[Related: 9 Facebook Growth Hacking Tips For Painting Contractors]6. Do A Few Test Runs
You can practice going live by restricting the audience to only yourself and then seeing how your video looks afterwards and what you may want to change.
By restricting your privacy to “only me,” you are going to be the only one who will be able to see the video that you make.
- Start by clicking the button to make a new post, and then click on “Go Live”
- Select the “Friends” privacy option at the bottom of the screen.
- Select “Only Me”
- At the end, review the video and see what you would like to change for when you actually go live!
7. Follow Up With Watchers After The Broadcast
Lastly, make sure that you follow up with the people that watched your broadcast; let them know you appreciate their support.
Go back and reply to all of the comments left as well.
Quick Recap:
- Promote your broadcast well in advance through an email sequence and social media.
- Remove all distractions that could throw you off your presentation and set a clean environment.
- Periodically give a reminder of the topic throughout the broadcast since you never know when people are chiming in.
- Actively respond to comments during your broadcast, in order to keep your audience engaged, using their first name. If you get stuck, ask them a question to make conversation.
- The Facebook Live post will remain on your page so it’s important to write a good description for your broadcast to inform people why they should watch it, even a few months later.
- To get comfortable with going Live, go Live using “Only Me” privacy settings to do a few test runs.
- To help convert some of those watchers into future customers follow up with viewers after the broadcast to thank them for their support.