This past Saturday, Publix hosted a 8-hour Facebook Live almost to complete perfection. Why almost? We will tackle that in a bit, but first let me geek out on ya and showcase major highlights from this recent Facebook Live campaign that brands, businesses, and even online entrepreneurs can learn from to emulate similar results for themselves.
I would like to introduce to you a general overview of what I call the LIVE Masterclass Launch Method™. Over the past year, I have studied and broken a part hundreds of Facebook™ “LIVES” and have been able to develop a specific formula to stimulate a “launch” using live video that will captivate, engage, and most importantly make sales directly from streaming online SIMULTANEOUSLY (yes, all at once). And of course, I have exercised this formula to generate 5-figure+ sales not only for myself, but also for clients.
The following is a bird’s eye view of the Facebook LIVE Masterclass Launch Method™:
As you can see from the diagram above, the core of this formula stems from executing an extended Facebook™ Live over a series of days in the form of a masterclass. They key nugget here is that you are killing two birds with one stone by creating an asset that you can later re-package as a course (that you can sell instantly), a lead magnet aka freebie to give to viewers/potential customers (which will lead to future sales), and the list goes on. You can do this for a course by temporarily keeping up the Facebook™ replay streams up and then delete/hide (recommend hiding) them. You can do this for a freebie by embedding the streams onto a website or upload the downloaded replay streams to your website.
Why would you even consider doing something like this?
By providing value over a Facebook™ Live for an extended period of time, instantly makes you stand out above everyone else:
- The sweet spot of a Facebook Live is 15 minutes and not too many brands/businesses/entrepreneurs or people for that matter are streaming for this long. Fifteen minutes is a sweet spot because it allows Facebook ample opportunity to search for a good amount of eyeballs who are on the platform to view your content. Therefore, the longer you stream, the longer the window is open for Facebook™ to find viewers to come check you out.
- By going live for an extended amount of time where you are providing value and entertainment for free
subconsciously tells your viewers that you are an expert. And if you are able to share value for at least 1-4 hours, then people will naturally be curious to see what else you have to offer.
- Did I mention no one is doing this?…. As in your direct competitors? This speaks directly to the concept of creating your own “Blue Ocean” from the book
- Facebook wants you to use Facebook Live (it’s the highest ranked content on their algorithim above Facebook videos and visually appealing pictures) and by going live for a long period of time where you are receiving consistent engagement, tells them to rank your content pretty high in the newsfeed of your friends and followers.
To get started with the LIVE Masterclass Launch Method™, there are general steps on what to do before, during, and after you go live. I am going to show you the top 3 steps on what to do during a Facebook Live “Masterclass”.
Back to Publix.
Publix’s executed a condensed version of the LIVE Masterclass Launch Method™ by streaming for 8 hours in one day, which is what makes this system so great! You can take pieces of each of the phases shown in the diagram(s) above and still receive excellent results no matter what you choose.
Let’s look at what they chose for their 8-hour Facebook Live stream:
Awareness Phase
Goal: Create Awareness About Your Upcoming “Masterclass”
Create a Facebook event that gives people ample notice of your huge upcoming live event that includes a thorough description. I love how Publix tagged the collaboration partners/brands that will be included in their streaming campaign!
You can always re-share your event later as it gets closer to the event.
Why Use Facebook Events for Facebook Live?
One simple word. Community.
This gives a brand or organization a chance to build up excitement around the upcoming stream, poll/ ask questions, provide updates, and gauge the potential turn out.
And most importantly, encourage viewers and fans to engage while the event is going on.
Take advantage of prime Facebook™ real estate and create a cover video about your Facebook Live event. I think this was genius by Publix! Not too many people are taking advantage of the relatively new feature of converting the cover photo area into an actual video. This is something you would want to consider because as soon as anyone lands on your fan page, the video automatically begins to play and will immediately grab their attention.
A great point to bring your attention is that when you upload a Facebook Cover video, it also appears on the timeline. Therefore, be sure to include a great description and point back to your Facebook Event like Publix did below.
The point here is that you want to bring as much attention as you can towards this extended Facebook™ Live and it all boils down to being creative with the amazing resources that Facebook provides within their platform.
Acquisition Phase
Goal: Position Yourself as an Expert and Hook People In
Top Tip #1: Create a Path for Your Live Masterclass + Engage Your Live Viewers with Pinned Comments
Publix did an excellent job of creating pinned comments during the entire stream to
Top Tip #2: Create Branded Commercials for Breaks during the Live Masterclass
Publix was extremely creative with it… (cue Get Jiggy With It music)
- Repurposed live content that was recorded earlier
- Behind the Scenes Access
- Combined Mini animated trailers + Break Placeholders
Top Tip #3: Acknowledged live viewers by reading out their names and the comments he/she posted. **Extra brownie points to show the actual comment on the screen**
Why is this important?
So, I listed a lot of things that Publix did right, however, they missed a major step that I strongly believe is leaving so much on the table….
- Not taking advantage of the “replay game”
- Not able to conduct analysis of the data collected on the Facebook Live that is shown in Facebook Insights
- Wasted their large organic ranking in the Facebook algorithim: the large amount of shares, comments, and reactions.