Facebook Live: First-Timer’s Mistakes and Lessons
Last Friday we hosted our first “Facebook Live” event at Asia Insight Circle. We wanted to reach out to members and friends to discuss a hot, trending topic. Here in Hong Kong we’re in the middle of the world’s largest “work from home” experiment. I called on former speaker Diana Wu David to speak about making a success of remote work.
Have you undertaken a Facebook Live? It’s super easy – and that’s what makes it harder! Setting up is super simple. Open a new post, and choose “Go Live.” Before you start you can add a title. That’s it.
Once you start, there is no one watching. Yet remember – most people will watch this in recording. We started with soft introductions and hoped the audience would build.
When we’re good, Diana and I are in a really engaged conversation. When we’re bad, we’re very distracted and jumpy from subject to subject. On replay the video doesn’t always show the full picture. Did you see the three kids working at the same dining table? Did you see the boys crawl – then slide – behind us to get from room to room.
Even without kids, there are distractions on the screen. You’ll see who’s watching and who has recently joined. Wave at them! Say hello. Viewers can post questions. My advice – agree which one will review questions. Both of you distracted isn’t great.
Use the audience questions to build rapport. You can see who is asking what – Hello Kevin Devlin! You can respond to each person’s question and mention their name. It’s wonderful transparency.
Consider the timing, also. We stretched our session to one hour. Perhaps it would be better at 25-45 minutes – like podcasts.
We’re going to try again this Friday, with advice for all us home-bound workers. During the Coronavirus quarantine it may benefit people to learn new techniques and skills.
Do watch the video and if you have further feedback, please let us know. Thanks – Walter
Antony Dapiran is a Hong Kong-based writer and lawyer, and the author of
