Facebook Live has been expanded to Android and more countries as of February 26th, 2016. As of the end of 2015, Facebook Live has been made available to verified Pages with blue badges. This is important to note because there is a lot of news this week about using Facebook Live for marketing, but the vast majority of small business will not be able to benefit directly.
Facebook Live: Marketing for the Marketed
Why? Because the blue badge 
is reserved for celebrities and public figures or global brands and businesses or government officials. Good old Sunflower WIFI, although aspiring to be a global brand, will likely fall short of the qualifications as will many other small businesses.
Live Streaming for the Rest of Us
There goes my dreams of small concert venues interviewing their acts prior to live shows or the lovable hostess at the local restaurant live streaming the lunch specials prior to lunch or is it? There are many other well established live streaming apps that already exist, such as Periscope, Meerkat, and MeVee that you can leverage. You can also use Facebook Live from your personal account and link it to your Facebook page just like any of these other services.
Facebook likes to promote their new features, so Facebook Live will reach more users than other traditional posts. At least for now, until the subscription feature takes off in the live function.
The tricky part of this is your Facebook personal account is likely private. There is no need to clean up your personal account to expose it to the world. Instead, simply set your Facebook Live post to public and share the link on your business page.
Get Noticed
This weeks news is an exciting reminder that the revolution may actually be televised. The news of the Facebook Live expansion kickstarted my creativity on how small businesses can leverage this to engage their audience. It is exciting, new and, if done properly, an enjoyable experience for your users. Think of content that will engage your audience.
Brainstorming
This concept has gotten me pretty excited in thinking of ways that business can create genuinely interesting live content for there users. It may be my inner child screaming out as I always liked trying to make interesting videos. Here is a short list of Live Streaming Ideas that are both beneficial and interesting to your users.
Gyms
- Live stream a class! Inspire people to take part of fun and exhilarating exercise.
- Live stream a short healthy smoothy or a healthy lunch cooking segment.
Restaurants
- Interview the chef on the evenings courses
- Live stream the days specials! Tell your customers to mention a keyword for a discount!
Concert Venues
- Interview the act earlier in the day to promote attendance!
- Interview people online to venue to capture their excitement and share it. Cultivate FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)!
Share!
Do you have an idea on interesting topics to live stream to engage your audience? Share it below!