Last week, Facebook announced a major expansion of their “Facebook Live” feature. This Periscope-inspired tool started out simply enough as a way for personal Facebook accounts to conduct a live stream from a smartphone. The tool was then expanded to allow Admins of business pages to launch these streams as well.
Once this latest update has been completely rolled out to Facebook users, you’ll be able to use the following features:
- Use Live within Groups and Events
- This is huge for those of you who are active in local Facebook groups and/or for those who like to create Facebook events for open houses. Rather than bombarding your entire following with every Live stream, you can now stream just to those within a specific group or event.
- A quick suggestion straight from Facebook, “You can even use Events to schedule a live Q&A session.” This could be a good idea for agents who are interested in proving their expertise in a given community, etc.
- Live Reactions, Replay Comments, Live Filters
- As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Facebook recently added multiple “Reactions” in addition to the classic “Like.” These Reactions have now been expanded to Live streams.
- Not everyone will be able to view your stream live, so when you make it available for replay, Facebook will now display the viewers’ comments as they happened. This will prevent you from looking like a crazy person answering questions that no one sees.
- Perhaps least important of these updates, Facebook will allow you to apply a filter to your stream and will soon allow you to write on the screen as well.
- Invite Friends, Live Video Destination, and Live Map
- If you happen to be in the middle of a stream and you think a specific friend or two would really be interested in participating, you can now invite them! They’ll receive a notification and be able to jump right into your stream.
- Soon, in an unnamed section of Facebook’s mobile app, you’ll be able to check out popular streams and videos. This is the main area in which Facebook is attempting to take on YouTube.
- Last but not least, Facebook has created a map that allows people to jump into any Live stream across the world in real time. Check it out at www.facebook.com/livemap!
That wraps up our summary of Facebook’s announcement! There was a lot to sift through, but the underlying theme is Facebook continuing to favor video and advancing their live video capabilities as well. Use this to your advantage! It’s becoming easier and easier to reach the people you want to reach and as for people you’re not yet connected to, it’s easier for them to find you!
Want to read the whole press release? CLICK HERE