Welcome to episode 340 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
Hello hello. We’re going to talk about something I have been using to grow my community this year and something that you really need to be using. We alluded to this in the “3 Things You Must Know” episode last week, but we’re going to dive in deeper, and it’s going live.
First thing
I want you to know, going live doesn’t have to be a certain place, a certain frequency, a certain length of time. Going live might look different for each one of you. For me right now, it has really meant using Facebook Live. My community is there, my audience is there, my attention is there honestly. It’s been kind of a no brainer for me to use that.
Then disperse that content in the other places, meaning that Facebook Live episode can go up on YouTube. I can share snippets of it in my story on Instagram and Snapchat. I can really break that out; I can share that YouTube video on Twitter and LinkedIn. I really can use that Facebook Live content in all of the places.
There are some tools that will let you to go live in multiple places, I have not found one yet that I find reliable and quality enough to share with you and give a recommendation. Stayed tuned, I am on the hunt for something like that.
For me, and honestly for a lot of you listening; the great entry point, a great place to get started, a great place to just start taking action is going to be Facebook Live. It really is a simple, simple way to go live. So do it, go live.
I want to talk a little bit about the two big objections I get to going live because I see these all the time when I’m talking to clients, or we’re talking in the membership community about how to go live and if you should do it. I want to combat these two big pushbacks. Number one; it doesn’t have to be brand new content and it doesn’t have to be content that exists only in that Facebook Live, or YouTube Live, or Periscope, or Instagram Live or whatever.
Repurpose this stuff guys. Use your most popular blog posts as a great way to get started on doing video. Break those tips down into a series of videos, and then use that call to action to point them back to the full blog post on the website. You know your audience is interested in that, or it wouldn’t be your most popular blog post. See what I’m saying?
A great way that I have been doing this is taking pieces of trainings, or webinars, or podcast content and just repurposing that into video. By repurposing it, I mean really, really simply saying, “Hey, here’s a little chunk of this content. If you want more, go over here.” Sometimes that’s join us at Hit the Mic Backstage. Sometimes that’s join us on the podcast, sometimes that’s go read this blog post. Whatever it is; it’s taking a piece of something I’ve already created and presenting it in a new way.
The big value point for this guys, is that not only is it a time saver for us, and you’ve heard me sing the praises of repurposing enough times that I don’t need to do that; on the flip side of that, you’re going to allow that content to reach a whole new audience, to reach some people who maybe prefer video or happen to be tuned in and just didn’t see that blog post or that podcast.
You’re giving it to them in another way so that they can connect with it, so they can get what they need. I say this all the time, but it’s our job to get them from problem to solution. If you’re not getting them from problem to solution, you’re not doing your job guys.
Repurposing our content really allows us to present something in a way that’s going to connect with them. Honestly, maybe they read the blog post, they listened to the podcast, but this time is the time that makes the difference. Maybe it’s because there’s the face to face feel with video. Maybe it’s because of the timing; it could honestly be a hundred different things. What again is important is that it connects. Push past this idea that you have to create another thing, that you have to do something else. It’s not necessary.
The other piece of feedback I get, the other little bit of pushback I get to going live, and where I want to spend the bulk of our time today is talking about the tech. I get that it can feel scary if this is something that you have not done before and you’re a tiny bit tech-phobic, as I know some of you are.
It’s literally never been easier to create video for your business. A; live is pretty forgiving, especially since most of us can do it from our smart phones, which by the way have pretty decent little cameras on them these days. Up until like maybe a month ago, six weeks ago, it was the nicest camera I’d ever owned, I was on my iPhone 6s Plus.
I do now have a separate camera that I use for pre-recorded video that’s a little nicer than my iPhone, but honestly not that much nicer than my iPhone. Don’t underestimate the value of your iPhone camera or if you have an Android, your Android camera. Your smart phone camera is pretty damned good.
In the case of Facebook, and in the case of, YouTube’s rolling this out for the mobile app; Twitter, now you can go live from the Twitter app, you don’t even need the Periscope app anymore guys. You can use your already existing Twitter app. You open it up and you hit go live. Same with your Facebook, same with Instagram. Literally all the places and all you need is your phone.
If you want to go super techy you can add a stand, you can add a little tripod. I actually have one and I’ll put the link in the comments, I’m sorry in the resources section of the show notes. I actually have a little, I don’t know, I think this thing is four inches tall. It’s got a little bracket on the top of it that holds my iPhone. It’s got bendy legs that I can hang it around things and hold it if I want to. Again, set this up on your desk, go live. There’s not a big tech barrier.
Now if you want to go a little more pro, if you want to do something a little more advanced; that’s also totally possible. I use a tool called OBS, it allows me to stream from my desktop into Facebook. Some of you may very well have already noticed that Facebook is letting you go live right from your desktop. Again, the barrier to entry is not high here.
I like to use OBS though because I can do some kind of advanced things. I keep it pretty simple. I’ll be honest, I don’t do any super high end production stuff just because I want my focus to be on the content and providing value to you. In the spirit of full transparency, it’s also because that’s not my forte.
I have simple things, but it allows me to really quickly, and seamlessly, and semi-attractively move between maybe a solid photo that’s up in the pre-show, to me on camera, to my desktop and me, or just my desktop; that I can really move pretty quickly into showing you guys something on my computer if I want to be doing that, or again, talking to the viewers face to face if I want to be doing that. That’s why I like OBS.
The other cool thing with OBS is I’m able to schedule a Facebook Live in advance right through Facebook. If you want to know more about using OBS and scheduling Facebook Live and things like that, I actually just released, at the beginning of this a month, a brand new training all about going live inside of Hit the Mic Backstage. We do an OBS walkthrough, and we talk about scheduling Facebook Live and all of that stuff in that training. That would be the place to go to get a handle on that tech.
There you go, I just lowered that barrier to entry for you too. It does not have to be complicated, it does not have to mean a super crazy studio, and built-in stuff, and lights, and cameras, and a permanent structure as part of your office. It can mean that, it 100% can mean that. If that is what you want to do, do it. Don’t let having to have that stop you from doing anything.
In fact, right now grab your iPhone, go live and put together proof of concept. Make sure that this is going to be something that A; you’re going to actually do because you’re going to be really upset you spent thousands of dollars building in this whole live studio when you never go live on Facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube, or Instagram, or anything, so start going live.
Also, I find the best way to figure out exactly what it is I’m going to need tech and gear wise is to start doing whatever it is I’m going to do. In many, many cases I have discovered once I started doing something that I needed something that I didn’t think of. Even more often than that, I find that I didn’t need something I thought “I had to have”. Anybody with me? Everybody sort of shamelessly raise your hands, because I know I’m not alone on that one.
That’s it, that’s what I wanted to talk about because it really is, it’s been a big part of what I’ve done. We’ve shifted this year into doing just one podcast episode a week, and in that it’s not that I’m actually creating less content, it’s that I’m creating different content. That’s because, for the first now, what is it 10 weeks, 8 weeks of this year; since the beginning of January, I have gone live once per week minimum.
There have been a couple of times where I’ve gone live more often than that because we’ve done challenges; we did the podcasting challenge in January, we did the Facebook ads challenge in February. During both of those weeks I went live four times in a week instead of just once per week, which was super fun but I’ll be honest, not something I’m going to commit to doing all of the time, but it was a really good time.
Just start doing it guys, because it has, it’s been a really powerful piece for my engagement. It’s been a really great driver into Hit the Mic Backstage. It’s also been a really great traffic driver to my email list. I found going live on my page as part of the challenges really grew the traffic for those challenges during the challenge.
The ads were obviously done because we’re in the challenge, but I found my list increasing each day I went live because people were seeing live and finding out about the challenge. Maybe they had heard about it but they had forgotten to sign up, or they had heard about it and went, “Eh, I don’t know.” Then they saw a video and they were like, “Dude, I’m totally in” and signed up.
I’m seeing the growth, I’m seeing the numbers and I want you to see them too. Don’t let tech and don’t let fear that you have to create something else prevent you from doing this. All right, you deserve it, your audience deserves it, and your social media and your community numbers will thank you and will grow.
We’re going to talk a little bit about live later in the month too, so say tuned. In two weeks I’m going to talk about some of the mistakes I’ve made and lessons I’ve learned. Make sure that you check that out. Actually no, I’m totally lying to you; that’s next week. In two weeks we’re go into a social media tool review, so stay tuned for that too, all right.
Also, every Thursday, usually on Thursdays … Okay, it’s been on Thursdays always but I know for a fact it’s going to be on a Tuesday coming up, that’s why I’m saying usually, just in the sake of full transparency guys. Once a week you will find me live on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheStaceyHarris. If you haven’t followed me yet, go ahead and like that page, that’s where you’ll find me. Of course, if you would rather watch the replay on YouTube you can do that; YouTube.com/TheStaceyHarris.
Guess what guys, the best place to connect with me, the best place to find out information like this way sooner than you’re going to get it here because I’m in there all the time; Hit the Mic Backstage. If you haven’t joined us yet, fix that. It is the next step after this podcast to get even more value, even more information, and you know what? A little accountability to take actions, because you’ve invested and you’re spending the time there. If you tell me you’re going to do something, I’m going to ask you if you did it.
Come join us at Hitthemicbackstage.com and I will see you backstage.
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