How to Livestream Webinar on Facebook?

Livestream Webinar on Facebook:- With streaming video through Facebook Live gaining much popularity these days, new and better conference tools or software are being offered to the marketers. An exciting and helpful development here is the option to stream webinars straight to groups and pages through Facebook Live. 

Continue reading to understand better what this means for a marketer and how one can begin streaming webinars on Facebook. 

What do you mean by webinars?

Webinars are an incredible sales-generating and lead nurturing tool for marketers. They facilitate streaming the content on the host’s desktop, which generally features an array of slides or tabs. 

Typically, this implies creating landing pages and lead forms to attract the visitors into entering an email address.

This way they can reserve their spot and attend the webinar at the pre-decided time. Successful webinars generally end with many qualified leads as well as sales if you’ve pitched your product/service in the end. 

Advantages of streaming webinars through Facebook Live

There are numerous built-in benefits of streaming webinars through Facebook Live:

Users don’t have to install additional software

That’s a huge thing. A few people don’t like installing new software on their laptops or computers. Some tools need constant updates and may take some time to install. 

Besides installation, there are a few other problems involved in hosting a webinar elsewhere. For instance, a few webinars depend on the users receiving an email containing a unique URL for attending the webinar.

That is often a problem, be it the emails going to the spam box or the email notifications getting delayed. 

Reduced hassles for the users

The users don’t have to enter any email address. As nearly 1.8 billion people use Facebook actively, they can access the webinar through their Facebook profile itself. 

Chances for virality

That’s a big deal for a marketer. It costs around $1 or above to have a registrant attend a typical webinar conducted on some other platform. And only a certain percentage of those registrants are likely to attend the webinar. For many marketers, that means investing more money and effort for only a moderate turnout. 

However, on Facebook, one has a lot more potential to reach many people. It certainly acts as an added benefit if you already have a proper built-in audience. In such a case, the users get notified in their news feed when you begin your webinar.  

Option to comment

It’s observed that webinars conducted through Facebook Live are more social and interactive than a typical webinar. The host gets to answer the audiences who comment. The others who are streaming the webinar can communicate with each other as well. 

No attendance barrier

A few webinar hosting tools have a cap on the no. of people attending the webinar. However, the same is not the case with Facebook Live as there aren’t any such restrictions. One can have 1,000 or even 100,000 people stream their webinars at a time. 

Streaming Webinars on Facebook Live-Few Things You Should Know

Before going in-depth with how to stream your webinar using Facebook Live, there are certain things that you should know. 

Lack of stability

Facebook could be unpredictable with regards to its Live video performance. The video and audio quality can go out of phase, which can be annoying for everyone involved in the webinar. And sadly, there isn’t much you can do here except to ensure that you’ve got a stable internet connection and bandwidth.  

Marketers can’t capture the email addresses of the participants

While not having to register using an email address is an amazing factor for the user, it is less impressive for the marketer. You won’t be able to capture the email addresses of the webinar participants on Facebook, which is ultimately a significant tradeoff. 

But to counterbalance, you could make a custom Facebook audience that consists of people who have watched your webinar for either a couple of seconds or half of it.

That way, you can involve them in your upcoming retargeting advertising campaign to either sell your product/service or gather the email addresses that you could not collect initially.   

Less attention span

The participants of your Facebook Live webinar might not have actually meant to stream your video. They may likely have started watching it at the middle, end, or beginning.

They might watch it for a few minutes, lose interest and jump elsewhere on their Facebook feed. So, even though you might have more participants, you may not get better attention. 

Lack of control

Facebook Live does not offer you better control over privacy, design, and other such settings while hosting your webinar, which is a major turn-off. 

Can’t follow-up

You may likely wish to follow up on the product/service associated with your webinar or notify those who have missed the live webinar that they could see the recording. You can do all this in a typical webinar, which involves email registration but not under a Facebook Live webinar. 

Unavoidable trolls

Trolls can greatly affect your webinars while you are streaming through Facebook Live. A typical webinar set-up is well-shielded. The ones watching it would jump through any hurdles to attend it and be there. However, with Facebook Live, they might likely be watching it as their friend is participating. The unmotivating troll comments could be an essential disruption. 

Won’t be able to monetize the webinar

Last but not least, you won’t be able to monetize the webinar. But, if you’re just starting your entrepreneurial venture, you will likely not be in the position to demand a registration fee from the webinar participants anyways. You will first have to prove your worth and create your authority and demand a webinar attendance fee then. 

Now that you are aware of the things you should know for hosting webinars through Facebook Live let’s look at the steps to live stream a Facebook Live webinar. 

Live Streaming from Facebook

It is now easy to live stream from Facebook account, thanks to Facebook Live.  Using it, you can live stream events, gatherings, videos, performances, and more on Facebook. 

Moreover, the viewers get the option to watch the live stream from a computer, connected TV, or a mobile phone. Besides, Facebook Live also offers comments, reactions, shares, and different interactive features that allow the host to engage with their audience. 

To live stream from Facebook Live, all you have to do is follow a few simple steps, which are as follows.:

• First, you need to click on the Create a Live Video option from your profile publisher. 

• Next, you need to click on the Schedule a Live Video option located on the screen’s top left-hand side. (If you want to stream your webinar at the very moment, you can do that just by clicking on the Go Live Now option.) 

• Later, you need to set the time and date to stream the webinar or any event. 

• Once you are done with these steps, you need to decide whether you want to share to a page you manage, share in a group, or share to your timeline.

• The next step is to create a short description and give a title for the webinar. After doing that, you also need to decide if you wish to crosspost to other pages or groups. 

• If you want to restrict the participants based on location or age, you can do that by going to the Audience Settings option. 

• Don’t forget to customize your live webinar. You can add an image to your webinar. If you don’t add an image, it will automatically use your Facebook page’s cover photo. Once done, just click on the Schedule Live Video option located at the bottom. Now, you are all set to live stream your webinar. 

When you are about to start your live stream, visit the live video option and then select the Use Camera option to let people see you. 

Want to make your live webinar streaming more interesting? Include a poll that would display your webinar. 

When you are ready, click on the ‘Start Screen Share’ option. 

You can even share the entire screen, browser tab, or PowerPoint slides with the audience. 

And voila! These were the steps to live stream a webinar from your Facebook page. 

Going Live on a Facebook Page, Event, or Group

Based on your requirement, you can go live on a Facebook group, page, or event. However, going live on a Facebook page will allow you to use more tools as well as features than going live through an event or group. 

In case of event and group live streams,

1. You can’t crosspost to other pages. 
2. You can’t access detailed insights in the Creator Studio.
3. You will not be able to restrict access to the live stream to a specific age demographic and geography on Facebook.

Instead, by posting your stream to a Facebook page, you can easily share it to an event or a group later.

Live Streaming Using Third-party software

You could also use third-party software for streaming your webinar to Facebook. A benefit of doing this might be the additional features you get that are not available otherwise on Facebook Live. Some of the helpful software or tools you can choose between are: 

BeLive

BeLive is a free screen capture as well as a streaming tool that comes with some valuable features. For instance, the software can bring all the participants’ comments on your Facebook Live session into the BeLive’s interface.  Then, you can click through your presentation and answer comments quickly. 

Zoom Webinar

It is one of the best tools to stream events or webinar live on Facebook, create online conference rooms, invite people, and more. However, you can’t preview the broadcast.

So, before going live, ensure that everything is working fine. When you are all set to go, just click on the Live on Facebook option. The entry-level package for a Zoom webinar starts at USD 55.

BlueJeans

BlueJeans is more or less the same as Zoom Webinar; however, it comes with the added advantage of allowing you to preview your broadcast before going live on Facebook.

Wirecast

By using Wirecast, you can easily go live with just a webcam, or you can connect multiple cameras, graphics, remote guests, scoreboards, and more. Wirecast makes it easy to stream high-quality pre-recorded and live videos to Facebook Live, Twitter, YouTube, and other supported platforms. 

Conclusion

Well, after the broadcast or live stream, what do you want the participants to do? Visit your page for a coupon code? Subscribe to your live video channel? Share the stream or video? No matter your goal, always ensure that you end your live webinar with something actionable for the participants to do.