As part of an assignment for the social learning community for BlogPaws, I decided to do a Facebook live event. At first, I didn’t invite anyone; I just made a brief announcement at the bottom of a Facebook post. But as the day grew closer, I felt bolder and invited my followers. I didn’t have that many, so I thought no one would really attend—wrong!
I had step-by-step directions on how to post it, which I reviewed before the event. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/facebook-live-guide It seemed straight forward, and I didn’t realize I could do a trial run and then delete it, which I should have done. There is also a setting where you can have it set to “Just me” instead of “Public.”
I quickly reviewed the information I was to present and had the books I was going to discuss available to show during my post on “Books for Dog Lovers.” With only a few minutes to spare, I set it up on Facebook Live and hit “Go Live.” To my shock, my nephew and his wife showed up in the attendee list, then partway through a friend did. This flummoxed me for a moment. Don’t think if you do a live event that no one will show up!
Within a few minutes, a wheel popped up on the screen showing a disruption in the internet connection. I was sitting right next to the router and everything seemed okay. It disturbed me for a moment, but since it said I could stop or keep posting, I pushed ahead—bad idea!
After twenty minutes, I finished my presentation, which I thought went well. I covered everything and only stumbled a few minor times. No one had posted any questions, so I thought okay, I’m done.
Then I looked at the replay—a disaster!
- The video showed me talking but didn’t have any sound. I had used this laptop for call-ins to webinars, so I knew it worked. But here I had a whole broadcast with no sound. I tried redoing it and still had no sound. I wished someone had typed in the chat box that he or she couldn’t hear me. My husband showed me that the default microphone was not the one that my laptop was using. Problem solved.
- About a minute into the video, it showed pixels and stayed that way. You could hear me talking (on the second version), but the video stayed jumbled for most of the presentation. From what I can determine, my internet connection is too slow. The only way to fix this is to record the video where there is a better internet connection.
My solution was to create a video and then post it to my Facebook page. I lacked the interaction, but at least the post shows all the way through. See my Books for Dog Lovers video.
My main lesson learned is to practice and do multiple test runs well ahead of time.
Have any of you tried to do a Facebook live? What was your experience?
The first Facebook Live is always a learning experience…even when things go well. I don’t look at who is there now because I do my Lives on my phone and it is not convenient to swipe the screen. I have had people call while I am doing lives so now I set it to “Do Not Disturb”. Sometimes Gusto gets in the act too when he shouldn’t be around…lol. Just a tip for you. There are Apps called Just Broadcaster for Mac or OBS for Windows that allow you to prerecord your Live as a video and then when you use these apps, it appears as though it is live. This might help you with your slow Internet connection. Be blessed.
Thanks for the tips Amelia!
Boy I don’t feel so bad now! I planned to do it going down the red carpet at BlogPaws. But my cell phone wasn’t set up correctly yet. Not to mention I had a very talented video person, Susan Nation, in front of me and she couldn’t even help! I finally got it working somewhat but I held the phone facing the wrong way so I recorded what was behind us. I think what you tried was very brave and very successful! Sandra and Dolly
Thanks, Sandra. I figured it would be easier to do on my laptop than my phone. I did record the video on my phone until it ran out of memory. I have an iPhone 5 from my work, so it doen’t have enough memory for videos more than a few minutes.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I have not tried Facebook live. I ‘m too chicken. LOL I had no idea you could do a “Trial run” first and then a do over. That’s encouraging. Reading about your experience may sway me to try it in the future.
I found out from my computer savvy nephew that anytime I record a facebook live, even if I don’t invite anyone, my network will be notified. So even my trials after my scheduled live event could still be watched! I think until I get a faster internet connection, I’ll stick with making youtube videos.
Oh, you’re so much braver than me! I’ve been wanting to try Facebook Live, but I know next to nothing about doing it and I panic when I think about it. Thanks for posting about your initial attempt and advising others to do a few trial runs. Your mishaps can be a valuable lesson to the rest of us as well as encouragement to try Facebook Live for ourselves. You survived and so can we! BTW, your final video was great!
Thank you Lori, for your encouragement!
I’ve only done one FB Live with the girls. It was quick and basically showed the girls activities one evening. My goal for 2018 is to do more with videos and FB Live. I’ll definitely do some practice runs in advance.
Yes, practice, practice, practice! My first video that didn’t go well, was probably my best! After that I kept stumbling over my words or my dog would bark, or something would happen!
Ah, live video – I didn’t even gather up enough chops for any kind of video! Awesome that you tried.
Thank you Jana! I only did it as a requirement for the BlogPaws 2017 social media challenge. That gave me the courage to try it.
Good for you for getting it out there and doing it – I have yet to get over that fear! Keep on doing it and don’t give up!!!!!! Thanks for your real story and sharing so we can learn!
I admit to being a casual user of Facebook. This past year for the first time I created my first group, my first event invite, and first poll. The last two have involved a lot of trial and error. I have never done a live event and didn’t know that this existed. Our local community college offers non-credit classes in Facebook for businesses and I plan to take them after I finish with my credit classes. I have a feeling I’ll learn a lot!
I never thought about checking my community college for facebook classes – that’s a great idea. Good for you to do your first group, event invite, and poll. There is so much to Facebook and it can be a really good tool.
Oh how frustrating! Nope, I’ve not tried this–and a bit fearful to do one. I have done google hangouts live, and those make me crazy, too. Glad you got the video up finally, and at least now the first one’s done, you know better what to expect and how to do it. Good for you–brave to try, and even braver to ‘fess up here. I’ll be better prepared now if/when I take the leap, so THANK you!
Thanks, Amy. I have not tried google hangouts live. I need to try a few more Facebook live events to get the hang of it.
This is really helpful – giving us all a heads up about what could go wrong and what to think about. Thank you!
Yeah, just about everything that could go wrong – did!
Facebook expects you to hold your ‘phone in portrait mode and I spend half my time telling people I teach to hold their phone sideways so ensure they get the full wide view. Not Facebook, they assume everyone is going to hold it like making a call. I wasted time on my FB live because I set it up for the horizontal landscape until people told me I was sideways.
That’s a great tip to know!
Oh no! I’m so sorry to hear that you had problems. I also struggle with Facebook Live usually do to technical glitches. Video is something I consistently need to improve upon. I love the idea of going with a video and then posting it. I do that as well in a pinch. Better luck next time.
Well it sounds like you learned a lot and I think you get an A for effort. I haven’t tried a Facebook live yet and am impressed that you gave it a go – 20 minutes and only a few stumbles is great (even if no one could hear it, still good practice! Hope you get the sound and microphone issue resolved.
I think I eventually figured out most of the problems, except the slow internet connection. My next live event will either have to be from work or from my phone until I get better internet.
I haven’t been brave enough to try Facebook Live yet. In 2017 I posted a few YouTube videos that I talk in instead of just featuring my pets and even that was a bit nerve wracking for me. Despite trying to maintain somewhat of an online presence through my blog/social media I’m really quite a shy/introverted person. Next year I’m hoping to step up my video game. Perhaps eventually I’ll give FB live a try!
I’m pretty shy too, except that a few years ago I joined Toastmasters and that has helped a lot. I’m interested to find out more about your video game.