Tips for Promoting Your Next LIVE on Social Media

You probably know that the social media algorithms are putting a big priority on video these days, which also means that there's more pressure to go live, whether that's on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or LinkedIn. And, if you're taking the time to go live, you want people to show up live! It's always more fun to have people tune in while you're speaking. You get immediate feedback, they can contribute to the conversation, your attendees can invite friends to join, and there's a lot more energy for you to feed off of as a speaker. 

Here are some ideas for how you can HYPE YOUR LIVE before it's time to go live.

First things first: if you shuddered a bit at the thought of promoting your live, you should ask yourself why you're hesitant to promote your content. It could be one of three things:

1. Mindset– Are you worried about what people will say? Do thoughts like this run through your head? ... My coworkers/friends/partner will laugh at me....  I don't know what to say... No one will show up... Who do I think I am to talk on this topic... then you need some mindset work to get you showing up regularly!
2. Value- Are you only showing up because someone told you that you need to? Do you feel like you don't have a lot of value to provide? Is it part of a sales strategy you haven't fully bought into yet? Then you might not be showing up because you aren't delivering value. Or maybe it's a combination of value + mindset.
3. Time- Or are you not hyping your live because you don't have time? This is totally understandable. You got into business because there was something you wanted to teach, do, or sell. You probably didn't start your business so you could get bogged down in marketing. If you don't have time to promote your events, you are missing out on opportunity. (HINT: Hire help! At Iris Digital Media Group, we help small businesses develop a strategy, create systems, and generate content!)

Let's Make Your Live Video Promotion Game Stronger!

• Use Instagram Stories—Take advantage of the stickers within Instagram Stories. You can create a countdown—which will give people the option of getting a reminder or adding the countdown to their story. You can also use the polls and questions to ask your followers what they want you to cover. The quiz feature will allow followers to test their knowledge of a subject before going to your live.
• Share a tip— Use your story to provide one tip they will learn on your live and then encourage your audience to watch the live to receive the remaining tips.
• Reels— You could also do this in reels, which are hot and Instagram is rewarding—but it has a longer life than a story, which would make the CTA at the end less relevant. So if you are going to share a tip in Reels, end by telling the viewer to go to the link in your bio to get a link to the replay or to pick up a checklist of tips shared on the live. If you don't like the link in bio option-- ask them to DM  a code word and you’ll send them the file that word corresponds to.
• Your feed— You could create some workbook slides to post in the hours leading up to your live with fill in the blank statements and questions so they have to attend the live to get the details. After the live, you could change the caption and tell them to go to the link in your bio to watch the replay and download a PDF of the workbook.
• Schedule events on LinkedIn and Facebook— Create an event on social media, invite people, and post graphics and polls leading up to the event. When the event goes live on LinkedIn, you can also take advantage of the chat feature that is inside a LinkedIn event. (We still love this idea for making a Clubhouse room more interactive since there's no way for listeners to communicate in Clubhouse unless you've invited them to the stage)
• Post Q&As, quotes, audiograms, and video clips of yourself or your guests/speakers leading up to your live— Share just enough information to pique your audience's interest and leave them wanting more. 
• Involve your community in the creation of the event— Let’s say you have a Facebook group, get them to provide tips, testimonials, and content that you share in the event – or ask them to be guest speakers. This builds connection in your community, and it gets people to attend your live because people love to contribute and to see their ideas shared.
• Promote it in advance to your email list— And then also email your list five minutes before going live (reserve this for things where you reallllly want your people to attend. Use this too much, and it feel like the boy who cried wolf.) Right before going live, post in your groups and on social media reminding people that you’re going live in 5 minutes… and highlight the top things they will learn when they show up.
• And, don't forget paid promotion— If you want to hand over money to good old Mark Zuckerberg, you can also do ad campaigns that retarget people who view all or a portion of videos you share, people who interacted with your event page, people who interacted with your Instagram profile, and of course, people who visited your landing page. How you use these options depends on the reason you're going live (is it to make a major announcement, or to launch a course, vs just getting on to jabber about what you ate for breakfast).

At Iris Digital Media Group, we do not believe in old school funnels that have you spamming your clients, prospects, and new connections. We do believe in building relationships —and content is part of the relationship-building process. Whether that's posting quotes, tips, and statistics to educate and inform, using live video to establish yourself as a thought leader, or video clips to inform or entertain, the right content at the right stage of the relationship will help you connect, engage, and eventually convert the people you interact with to paying customers. 

People buy from people, not from funnels. So get out there, and be brave! Promote your event and then GO LIVE to show the world your big ideas! When your audience gets to know the real you, you'll attract the types of customers you want to work with and who will appreciate the your contributions.