I had been doing Facebook Lives for a few months now, but they were always making me nervous. My voice would shake and I just wouldn’t look forward to them. But I wanted to do them! Both because Facebook’s algorithm puts them high up on people’s news feed, but also because I like interacting with my followers.
One day, after my voice shaking yet again on a FB Live I had had enough.
Like a confused knight, I challenged myself to a duel. I would conquer Facebook Live. Or at least do them for 14 days straight and hope I got less nervous.
Well, it worked. I’m still a little nervous when making them, and my voice sometimes still shakes, but it’s NOTHING like before.
Here are 14 tips on making the most of Facebook Live.
1. Talk to one person. If you’re like me and you get nervous at the thought of talking to a big group, pretend like your camera lens is one person. I’ve talked to other introverts who don’t like Lives because they don’t like the idea that nobody is watching. If that’s the case with you, you may want to put a really small picture of someone next to the camera or just behind the camera but still in your line of sight, and pretend like you’re talking to that one person.
2. Cover the viewership numbers with two post it note slivers. Again, I get nervous when I talk to groups. I haven’t been able to Jedi mindtrick myself into not being nervous in front of a group, so by covering up the viewership numbers I can pretend like I’m only talking to one person because I can’t see how many people are currently watching.
3. Write a short list of what you want to say on a post-it note, and place that post-it note by the camera. People are hard-wired to see faces. There’s been several experiments about this. One, if I remember correctly, found that placing an image of two circles and a line (which vaguely looked like a face) near a cookie jar at an office prevented people from stealing the cookies. By placing your post-it note list by the camera, people scrolling past will be able to see your face more clearly, versus if you place your notes on your lap.
4. Have something visually interesting. Picture yourself scrolling through Facebook. What would be more likely to make you stop scrolling – something typical, or something unusual? By having an unusual hat on, a bright wig on, strange glasses, etc., people are less likely to scroll past your Live. It’s not a replacement for good content, but I found wearing a strange hat helped with the viewership numbers.
5. Use your hands. Live videos that auto play will be more noticeable to scrollers the more movement there is, so don’t be afraid to move your hands around as you talk to stop people from scrolling past.
6. Optimize. For most of my 14 videos I was just concentrating on not freaking out. Instead, what I should have been doing in each video is optimize the beginning. Start with an Intro (Hi my name is Thea and I’m a visibility adviser), a Greeting (thank you for watching this Live or recorded), and a request (I’d love it if you could share this with your friends). And then end with a call-to-action.
7. Break the cycle by doing it somewhere different. One of my least nerve-wracking videos was when I was hanging out somewhere different and recorded my video while rocking on a rocking chair instead of sitting formerly on a stool. So if you routinely get nervous, try going somewhere completely different to get out of that pavlov cycle of “ok, I’m getting ready to record, time to freak the hell out.”
8. You don’t have to be perfect to do a Live. Don’t want to wear makeup? Then don’t. Think you need to lose 10 pounds before you can make videos? Hell no, do them now. Want your hair to be super perfect like Marie Forleo’s? Good luck, my friend. Make the videos anyway. Have you seen the first viral Facebook Live – the Chewbacca lady? Her video went viral because she was real and authentic, not because she had makeup on.
The next few tips are variations on the don’t-give-yourself-time-to-freak-out theme:
9. Get everything set up first. Like put on your outfit and set up the tripod, and then decide what you want to talk about.
10. Prepare your outfits ahead of time. When I first started doing videos it took me an hour to get my makeup on, my hair slightly less messy, my outfits chosen. And that meant that it was such a complicated procedure that I barely did any videos. Now I’m mostly makeup free and I have go-to video outfits so that I don’t have to spend my energy thinking about what to wear. By the way, it’s said that Einstein had multiple grey suits because he didn’t want to spend his time thinking about what to wear. #belikeEinstein
11. Practice your Live once, if that.
12. And right after you practice it once, if that, go live! Don’t draw out the time between when you start thinking of doing a Live and when you actually do the Live.
13. Do it when you get excited about something – don’t wait until the “right moment” to go Live because your enthusiasm peter out, and enthusiasm is infectious.
And lastly,
14. Keep going!! If Facebook Lives make you nervous but you want to do them, then do them! They do get easier.
Which lessons are you going to use?
