Going live on Facebook is actually super fun but not so much when it’s your first time and you have 10 other things giving up on you apart from the nervousness getting to you.
But chillax! Understanding the things that might go wrong during your live session and preparing to fix them will help lots.
First of all, few basics that you need to tick off
- Make sure you test going live from the Rethink Facebook Page after you receive your Editor access. Sometimes unexpected browser support or FB page/camera/audio permissions issues might arise. It is best to use Google Chrome to go live but if you are comfortable using other browsers, be sure to check before hand that all is well.
Here is our FB Live Handbook to help you setup the live session.
2. Make sure you have a strong internet connection. You don’t want your live video to end up looking like this because of snail pace internet, do you?
3. Ensure that you are loud enough. You don’t want your audience trying hard to listen to you!
4. Select a spot with proper lighting for your talk. Please don’t keep us in the dark! (Quite Literally)
5. As a backup, ensure that you have your mobile phone ready — you can use your phone to go live if your laptop doesn’t seem to work; use your phone as a backup hotspot or as a light source if the power goes off!
Now that you have the basics covered, let’s move to doing the live
It’s always good to know the person speaking to you. As you start the live, you can speak a bit about yourself — Who are you? Where are you from? Where did you complete your schooling/college? What do you do? What’s you favourite cuisine? What’s your favourite book or TV show?
This helps the audience connect with you better. At the end of the live, you might just discover your junior from school or someone who lives two lanes from your place. Who knows?!
Once you introduce yourself for the first 5 minutes, you can move on to the agenda for the day. I’m sure you would have a lot to speak about. You can try to stay on track and not miss out on any points by actually having a piece of paper with your talking points beside you. At the end of the live, you can take few seconds to ensure that you have covered all that you wanted to speak about.
Not to scare you, but the as you speak, questions will come in and the questions will be so welcoming that you will feel like answering the, right away, especially if you have OCD like me. But please stick with what you have to say first and then get to the questions.
Now when you do finally answer questions, it is best to call out the name of the person who question you are answering. Please read the question aloud before you answer it. There are three reasons for this:
- Your and your viewers will be on the same page
- You will be able to understand the question better when you read it aloud. While you are live, there is usually a lot in your head and especially if you are a bit nervous, it is best to read the question aloud slowly and think about it before you answer it.
- It makes the person who asked you the question happy when you take their name and read their question aloud. Believe me 😛
When you comment/reply to comments under your live video, please make sure that you comment as ‘you’ and not as ‘Rethink’. I mean Rethink answering personal questions is just very machine-like.
Now finally, as you come to close your talk, you can convey your best wishes to everyone and encourage them to ask you any questions they might have on your AMA thread. If you are comfortable, you can also share your email address with your audience so they can get in touch with you.
As the last and final step, breathe in and breathe out.
Pat yourself on the back and tell yourself that you did a great job! That wasn’t so hard, was it? 🙂
So go ahead and rock your live session! If this is your first live, it would be a super fun exercise.
I promise!