Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. Videos

Lights, smartphone, action! How to master Facebook Live streaming

Luria Petrucci
By
Mobile live streaming is all the rage these days. You can go live to your social media followers from your mobile device from anywhere and at any time. And you can chat with people in real time. Something exciting happen? Share the video and get people’s feedback immediately!

Periscope is a great platform that has people all over the world sharing their experiences with others from their phones. But recently Facebook got into the game by rolling out their Live video to all users in the United States. Of course, this is huge. It’s Facebook for goodness sake! The potential for a large audience is massive!

Recommended Videos

So… how should you use Facebook to engage with your followers? Let’s dive in!

Related

If you have a personal profile (you do have a Facebook profile, right?) then you should have access to live stream. If you don’t see the option, either you’re on your page which might not be verified, or they may still be finishing the roll out, so just hang tight and keep checking back.

Pro tip: You don’t need to be on Wi-Fi to go live on Facebook, but it certainly helps make the connection that much better.

Step by step instructions:

  1. Log into your Facebook app.
  2. Click on the Update Status box.
  3. Type in a title for your video. What are you showing people? What are you talking about? Be specific with your title and let people know what they’re watching!
  4. At the bottom, you’ll see “Live Video”. Click that.
  5. The status update you just typed in will automatically fill itself in on this screen.
  6. You can choose to make this private or only to friends if you want.
  7. Choose if you want to broadcast from the front or rear camera, you can change this while you’re live.
  8. Use landscape mode if you want. Because of how the video is displayed in the Facebook streams, it’s always going to be boxed. Not landscape. Not portrait. Just kind of… boxed. So it doesn’t totally matter if you’re in portrait or landscape mode when you broadcast live… but it does actually make it nicer for you to read comments in landscape mode!
  9. Once you’re ready, click the Go Live button.

Your followers will begin to see your live video in their news feeds. And here’s the cool thing, the longer you’re live the more chance people have of catching your livestream! Facebook actually places your livestream higher in the algorithm so people are more likely to see it than say… a text post.

What I love about Facebook live video is that you can scroll back on comments so if you missed something you can see the comments that have left the screen. You can’t do that on Periscope. I also love that this live video… along with all the comments and the likes… immediately becomes part of your newstream. It’s right there available for people to watch after the fact if they missed it. And the comments continue like it was a regular ol’ post.

Now… don’t forget to talk to people as they join! This is a live stream. Engage with your followers and get them involved in the action. Keep the conversation with your followers going.

Are you already doing mobile livestreams? Which ones do you watch? What would you like to learn how to do that I can help you with? Leave a comment below, and use the links above to share this video on your favorite social media site.

Download for iOS

Download for Android

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Luria Petrucci
Luria Petrucci
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Luria Petrucci is a pioneer in the podcasting world. She has 2 million social media followers, and has been producing and…
Learn 14 languages: Get $449 off a lifetime subscription to Babbel
A person using the Babbel app on their smartphone.

Learning a new language no longer requires you to make time for formal classes because there are now several language learning apps that you can tap. One of them is Babbel, and you can currently get a lifetime subscription to the online learning platform for only $150 from StackSocial. That's $449 off its original price of $599, but we don't know how much time is remaining before the offer expires. If you want to take advantage of the 74% discount, it's highly recommended that you complete the transaction immediately.

Why you should buy the Babbel lifetime subscription
A lifetime subscription to Babbel not only unlocks the possibility of learning one or two new languages, as the platform encompasses a total of 14 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Indonesia, Norwegian, Danish, and Russian. You'll be learning your new language of choice with lessons that only take 10 minutes to 15 minutes each to complete, so unlike classes with a rigid schedule, you can learn at your own pace and at any time you're free through Babbel. The lessons cover real-life topics, and they use speech recognition technology to help you master pronunciation. You'll then test yourself through personalized review sessions that will help make sure that you retain all the information that's being taught to you.

Read more
This one Apple Fitness feature completely changed how I exercise
Someone holding an iPhone with the Apple Fitness app open, showing the Custom Plans feature.

I have a confession to make: I'm not good at sticking to a workout routine. I love running, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), strength training, etc. In the moment of those exercises and in the post-workout euphoria, I feel amazing. But when it comes to waking up early in the morning to do these things before work? Well, that's where I really struggle.

This has been a problem for a while now. I go to bed with the goal of waking up early and going to the gym, but as I groggily open my eyes to snooze the alarm on my iPhone 15 Pro Max, I end up falling back asleep. And I've been repeating this over and over and over again.

Read more
You can pick up the Google Pixel 7 Pro for only $500 today
The Pixel 7 Pro with its display turned on, showing the home screen.

 

If you've been holding out on buying a new phone for a while because prices are still expensive, then you may want to consider going for one of the older flagship phones. For example, while the Pixel 8 Pro is out, the Pixel 7 Pro is still a powerful and viable alternative, and even better, it has quite a few great deals on it. In fact, you can buy a brand new and sealed Pixel 7 Pro from Woot for just $500, rather than the usual $1,100, and that's for the 512GB version of the phone, so you get a lot of storage with it as well.

Read more