Should I Simulcast My Podcast on Facebook Live?

Today, let’s talk about doing Facebook live feeds with your podcast. This is something that I believe a lot of podcasters think is going to be the make or break for them when it comes down to their podcasting. So let's go over a couple of the nuances of doing a Facebook live feed with your podcast.

SIMULCASTING YOUR PODCAST ONLY IF YOU PLAN TO INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE

The other day, I was in my feed on Facebook, and I saw a friend of mine doing his podcast on Facebook Live. As I saw the video pop up, I noticed a quadrant of four guests. It was the host, then three of his guests, and they were all talking.

During that entire conversation, they were recording the podcast to release in the iTunes for the following week. But, on the Facebook live feed, they were just talking with each other, not interacting with their audience.

Now, in that particular live feed, they had listeners/viewers joining in.  In fact, I noticed that these viewers/listeners were commenting and looking for reaction from those in the live video. After watching for nearly 5 minutes, the host was not really addressing too much of what was going on inside of the live feed comments. He was solely focusing on the people that he was on camera with. I want to go over, and kind of clarify what you should do when it comes down to deciding whether you wanna create a Facebook live feed in tandem with your podcast.

ENGAGING YOUR AUDIENCE TO TEASE YOUR CONTENT, NOT SPOIL YOUR CONTENT

One thing that you have to remember, is that when you are starting a Facebook Live on your page or profile--preferably I’m hoping that you’re doing it on some type of brand page--is that you have some type of follower that is going in there. 

Whether you have 600 people on your Facebook page, or you have 1,000, or you have 11,000, doesn’t matter. As long as you have some people on that page, you’re able to garner some type of the interaction on your Facebook Live. 

Now, when you do your Facebook Live, you have to treat this as a means or a way to tease the content of your podcast.

What I’m asking you as the podcaster to do, is that you just tease a part of the content that you are creating for your podcast.  The whole idea here is that you wanna get downloads to your podcast.

Although it sounds like a cool thing when people are able to see the recording of your podcast happen, leave a little to the imagination for your audience.  If your podcast listeners consume the entire podcast on a live feed, you may run the risk of not getting that download.  To me, it seems counterintuitive.

You wanna get the download from iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play, or wherever you’re getting your podcast.

Treat your Facebook Live as a driver of traffic to your podcast.

EXAMPLE OF TEASING CONTENT

Let's say you have a special segment that is on your podcast that you normally do every week that is highly entertaining.  When you go live on your Facebook Live feed share only a part of that segment, or a quarter.

If you have an audience already watching, you can tell them, “You know, if you wanna catch the rest of it, you’re gonna have to tune in into the podcast next week.” Always try to drive traffic to your podcast if you’re doing some type of Facebook live feed.

Now, the same is going to be said if you are doing a podcast.

If you do a podcast, you want to say, “Hey, we are doing a Facebook live coming up this Thursday at 7:00 PM. We’re gonna play a special game where we talk about the craziest celebrity sightings.... Tune in to Facebook Live on our page this Thursday at 7PM.  If you need more information, go to our website.” Then that's when you give the website name or the link to where they can find your Facebook page.

Use each platform as a means to drive traffic to each other. The one thing that I really wanna press you on here though, is that, if you’re going to do a live feed, you have to engage.

You can go to my Facebook page and see that anytime that I have done a Facebook live feed, I am constantly engaging with my audience. When I’m engaging with my audience, I’m building a community of people who will come back and follow what I am doing. Engage with your audience.

WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE A LARGE AUDIENCE ON FACEBOOK?

Maybe you're saying to yourself, “There’s, like, five people that show up to my Facebook Live feeds.  This isn't worth it.”

I'm going to tell you that it doesn’t matter how many people watch, try to get people engaged.

So you have to start asking yourself, "How am I going to get people to comment?" 

As questions to those people who are watching in the moment and also later.  You should say something like, “Hey, for those of you who are watching this on replay, answer this question: Who was a better Hulk: the CGI version, or was it Lou Ferrigno? Put your answer in the comments below, and we will go ahead and get back to you even if you’re watching this as a replay.”

You wanna be constantly driving engagement to your Facebook Live post.

This now leads to my next big point...

FACEBOOK CHANGES ITS ALGORITHM AGAIN IN 2018 - LIVE VIDEO STILL FAVORED

There was a post that came out from Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook today where he’s talking about the lack of engagement that pages will be getting on Facebook.

As you already know, Facebook Pages aren't getting too much traction when you create a post. You may get a couple of people who are following your page who see your posts, but for the most part, page posts don't get very much traction.

But, if you do live video with great interaction, Mark wants to reward those brands that are creating community around their live video.

It’s important that you understand that you’re creating some type of community and engagement within that live video.  Fostering some type of community will not only help you from a brand standpoint, but it also seems that it will benefit you from an algorithmic standpoint. You can read that blog post here and see the beginning half of Mark's Facebook post here:

I guess if there's any type of advice to take from this post:  brands are going to see less engagement and less visibility in the news feed

You will start seeing more content that is more about people connecting with people, not brands.

If you want to try and muscle your way in with your brand, it’s going to be a lot harder, but I feel as though if you’re gonna be doing it, do it through a live video.

DON'T BE PASSIVE.

BUILD COMMUNITY.

INTERACT WITH YOUR COMMUNITY.

THAT'S HOW YOU WIN.