Like AI, live video is nothing new, but it’s growing exponentially. Everyone wants a piece of Facebook Live.And, it isn’t just popular with marketers. People love watching live video too. In fact, 80% of users said they’d rather watch a live video than read a blog post, while according to Facebook, live video gets 3x more views.
Here are a few tips for getting started with live video:
Whatever you do, make sure your employees and any customers who are in your business at the time are aware that you’re filming to avoid any mishaps. It might be better to film a live video during off hours, though, since you can’t edit live video and people will see everything as it happens.
If your website, and your marketing strategy more broadly, isn’t optimized for mobile yet in 2017, 2018 is the year to start. Put simply, search engines will penalize you if your website isn’t mobile-friendly.
Besides, it’s no secret that consumers spend much of their lives staring at their phones. In 2018, mobile video consumption is expected to grow by 25% (and video consumption is supposed to decline on laptops and desktop computers for the first time ever), so get ahead of the competition now by planning a mobile video strategy.
Local: everybody’s doing it and so should you. No, really. The digital landscape is making it easier than ever for local businesses to interact with consumers. Google Posts rolled out to all businesses in 2017. Facebook Local gives consumers a more localized social platform.
And those Local Service Ads make it easy to prove you’re trustworthy. Let’s hope we see more of this local focus in search results and social media in 2018 and beyond because this gives local businesses the chance to compete with even the biggest brands for consumer attention.
With all these local advancements, I’m predicting that big brands will focus on local marketing – getting all their locations ranking in the local pack in search results, local events, local social media pages, etc.That means local businesses will need to be more on top of it than ever. You might be able to compete with big brands, but you’ll have to fight for it in 2018. So, make 2018 the year that you build your best digital marketing strategy. Think local and digital and you’re off to a good start.