Facebook Live is a live streaming video feature that allows you to broadcast a live video out to your audience through your company or personal page. The feature is free, easy to use and easy to access by customers. This makes it the perfect platform to run and share Live Draws for your competitions.

There are lots of blog posts out there telling you how to do a Facebook Live event. But what about a post specifically for competition businesses?

Here’s everything you need to know about running a successful Live Draw on Facebook…

 

Be authentic.

The best Live Draws show the person or people behind the brand.

People tuning into your Live aren’t expecting to interact with a company. They want someone they can engage with and make them excited about the prizes to be won.

Your delivery doesn’t have to be perfect. Above all else, your audience is looking for authenticity. This is important for gaining the necessary trust people need to enter your competitions.

If you don’t feel confident enough in front of a camera, you may want to think about asking a friend or hiring someone who is.

 

 

Have a focused direction and goals.

Live videos are less polished than other forms of promotion, but there’s more planning involved than you might think.

Successful Lives will set out to achieve specific and results-driven goals. This is more than simply touching on improving social engagement or increasing brand awareness.

Focus on how these goals can support your business objectives and convert viewers into paying customers.

 

Promote your Live Draw.

Make sure your customers know about your Live Draws and when to expect them.

Even if people can watch them later on replay, you want to put effort into getting as many people as possible to show up during the live stream.

Before the Live Draw.

There are many ways you can promote your Live Draw beforehand. This includes:

• Sending an email to your mailing list
• Posting on your social media pages
• Encouraging your followers to subscribe to Live notifications
• Doing a short Live before the Draw, reminding your followers to attend.

While you can’t boost a Facebook Live, you might want to think about running an ad campaign to promote your Live Draws. This will help you reach new and potential customers who aren’t already following your page.

During the Live Draw.

You can also promote your Live Draw during the stream by asking your viewers to share it. The more people who share the Live to their newsfeed, the more people you can reach who aren’t following you, and at no extra cost. This is great for brand awareness.

If you are thinking about investing money into promoting your Live Draw, one tactic is to offer a cash incentive or prize to one of the people who shares during the stream. This will encourage more viewers to click that share button.

 

 

Choose the right time.

Choosing a convenient time for your customers is vital to getting a decent amount of people watching your Live during the stream.

One way to do this is to ask your customers for their thoughts on the best time to stream a Live Draw. You can also check when your followers are active through Facebook’s own insights.

Just click on the Insights tab for your page and then on Posts. This will take you to a graph which shows the days of the week and times your followers are online.

 

Check Your Tech & Set Up.

Any tech involved for your Draw must be tested before you go live. This reduces the risk of anything going wrong during the stream (e.g. blurry video or audio cutting out), and losing viewers.

You should also check with your viewers that they can see and hear you clearly when you first go live. Keep an eye out for frequent comments about poor streaming quality as this suggests you are having issues with your tech.

The backdrop for your Facebook Live.

There’s no right answer here, other than you want your backdrop to look professional and won’t distract your viewers.

Good lighting is important, as well as steady recording. You might want to invest in a tripod, or have someone hold and direct the camera for you during the stream. This second option gives you the ability to zoom in and show your viewers the prizes from different angles.

A plain white wall is the easiest and most flexible backdrop. You can wear a top with your logo on it, as well as put up a poster behind you with your company’s name and website. This is the simplest way to add branding to your Live Draw.

 

Write a standout description.

This will be one of the first things people see when your Live appears in their newsfeed.

Include an attention-grabbing headline which quickly lets people know what your Live stream is for. You should also mention your prizes, as well as linking your site.

 

 

Prepare a Pre-show.

Many viewers won’t show up at the start of your Live, so it’s important not to jump right in.

Deciding what to talk about while you wait for a decent amount of people to join your stream is important for keeping your current viewers engaged.

This is a great time to have a conversation with your audience. Check that everything is working. Answer any questions. Introduce the prizes and get your audience excited.

Show your process.

A lot of successful competition businesses like to take this time to talk briefly about how their competitions work, as well as showing how they choose the winners. This offers your customers transparency and is key for building trust.

 

Talking to your viewers.

Lives allow you to respond to people in real-time. This is the closest you can get to your customers without actually meeting them, making it a great opportunity to build a relationship.

Don’t forget to say the name of the person’s comment you are responding to. This adds a personal touch to your Live, even when there’s hundreds or more people watching.

Speaking to your viewers also gives you a chance to get direct feedback on your business. By asking your customers what they would like to see next, you can focus on offering prizes which appeal to them and increase the number of entries for your competitions.

As people can join at any time during the stream, it’s important to recap what’s happening for those joining the Live Draw later. This helps with keeping the viewers who might otherwise leave if they don’t know what’s going on.

A good way to summarise your Live Draws for those late joiners is to talk about what prizes have already been won, and by who, and what prizes are yet to be given away.

 

 

Think about your Live’s ending.

Getting the ending of your Live Draw right can improve your competitions’ conversion rate, as well as your relationship with your customers.

As you wrap up the Draw, this is your chance to show your appreciation for your customers’ support and thank them for joining the live. If you have plans or big news about your company, why not share it here?

Keep the excitement going by letting your viewers know of any upcoming promotions and when they can expect the next Live Draw.

A Call To Action at the end of your video will help you to fulfil those goals you set while planning the Live. Your CTA can be more focused than getting people over to your site too. For example, you might want to ask your followers to sign up to your mailing list. This means you can deliver the latest news about your competitions to more people’s inboxes.