- Esther
Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast. I'm Esther.
- Melanie
And I'm Melanie.
- Esther
And today we're talking about practicing going live. Should we now just wing it?
- Melanie
Well, suppose you could. There's absolutely no harm in winging it. It certainly makes you more authentic.
- Esther
Does, doesn't it? Get you don't realize we wing most of our podcasts.
- Melanie
Shhhh
- Esther
Oops. The secret is out. No, that's not true. We do talk about stuff before going live. So does that help?
- Melanie
Well, maybe for a couple of minutes.
- Esther
But it helps to get the ideas flowing, right? So if you're going to be pressing the button and recording a live, it's better to, you know, at least know what you want to say or have an idea.
- Melanie
In fairness, we can kind of wing it now because we've been doing this a while and we haven't always got it right. We've had to redo a few podcasts because there's been errors or we were recording properly as it was sound issues, where they didn't save.
- Melanie
But nine times out of ten, what you get out of us is, as it happens, you know, we just bring it.
- Esther
Yeah, "laughs" good and bad, "laughs".
- Melanie
Yeah.
- Esther
Yeah.
- Melanie
But going live is almost completely the crux of promoting your business now. And you can go live on every single platform. What platforms have you gone live on?
- Esther
That's the sound of crickets in the background. You made me go live one day, "laughs"
- Melanie
I did.
- Esther
But that's about it. No, that's not I know I have a fear of video. And if somebody just shoves a camera in my face, I automatically shut down. So that's my problem.
- Esther
Where do you live, Mel?
- Melanie
Oh, crikey, I've gone live everywhere. I've gone live on Instagram, on Facebook, on Periscope, on LinkedIn and on YouTube, more than once, normally as myself under my profiles. But I have gone live on other people's profiles as part of being a journalist, several times on Irish Tech News who I regularly freelance with. And it's a good laugh. Well, it is!
- Melanie
It's a good laugh, especially when you can kind of prep the person you're with or if you can do a walkthrough just beforehand of a new location and sort of work out what the sounds like, especially if you're out live somewhere, which is what I do a lot of.
- Esther
Yeah, but it doesn't have to be perfect right?
- Melanie
No
- Esther
Because that's what a lot of people have a fear of. You know, that their hair is not sitting right or their makeup's not right or their voices sounding a bit croaky or, you know. Is it possible to get everything perfect?
- Melanie
Well...
- Esther
Is it necessary maybe is the better question
- Melanie
I don't think is absolutely necessary.
- Melanie
I mean, between filters and a bit of prep, you can fairly cover most things. I'll be honest with you, it wouldn't be the first time that I've used certainly Instagram or Snapchat filters to do short videos or go live. And, you know, I don't wear makeup very often. So if I want to put something up, I just put on a filter and there I am glowing with beautiful eyes, my hair, lipstick.
- Melanie
And why not? You know, is almost a done thing these days.
- Esther
Yeah
- Melanie
Using one or two filters. But most of the time I won't do anything. I'm raw, "laughs".
- Esther
OK, so you at least have some Post-it notes or like a short layout of what you want to talk about, yeah?
- Melanie
Well, to practice going live, which is what the podcast is about, and we really should wander onto that at some stage is... "laughs"
- Esther
Eventually, Eventually. I mean, we are winging it "laughs".
- Melanie
Totally
- Melanie
But now, what I would recommend you do is if you, it doesn't really matter which platform you're going to end up on, there is one place that you can practice under all the same circumstances as you would do on every other platform.
- Melanie
And that is if you've got a personal Facebook profile. So if you have a personal Facebook profile and you've got a phone that you can use it on, go onto your personal profile, open up and hit the live button.
- Melanie
Once you've gone into that, click into your audience, which is at the top left-hand corner of your phone, you can then select out of the drop down menu. You may currently be on specified friends or friends only or public. You can select "only me" out of the drop down menu.
- Melanie
Once you've selected that, you are then only, only filming to yourself unless you share it out again afterwards. And when you're doing the "only me" you can check your lighting, you can check the sound, you can check the strengths of your recording, because it may be perfect in every way, but is very, very poor quality.
- Melanie
So, this is your chance to check and see if your position dries as well. If you've got your hand up or down, people that want to see your chin, they don't want to see too much backgrounds. If you're supposed to be the focus and it gives you a chance to practice how to tap the screen as well, to change it from facing you to facing the other way or vice versa, of course.
- Melanie
So, I mean, I've done workshops on this, several times and they tend to do quite well.
- Melanie
It's just knowing the innards of how to do a live and practice it and keep practicing it. Oh, and one more useful tip. If you're doing your first Facebook live, don't be afraid to hold something to read from or or if you're going to use something behind your phone, make sure it's a card and not a slip of paper.
- Esther
"laughs" Yeah, I've heard I've heard horror stories, but not horror, but yeah.
- Melanie
Funny stories.
- Esther
Funny, funny stories of... Yeah
- Melanie
My first Facebook live. Very first Facebook live. Thankfully it was on my personal one, not on my business one. And I had a piece of paper and I was on there. It was prompting me, you know, say hello, say what you want to say. Thank people for listening at the end. And as I was getting towards the end, the fliping piece of paper, fell over the top of my phone covid my camera and I disappeared behind a wide screen.
- Esther
Yeah "laughs"
- Melanie
it was mortifiying.
- Esther
"laughs"
- Esther
But lives can always be deleted after they have been live, right?
- Melanie
Oh absolutely.
- Melanie
They can be deleted. And the great thing about the "only me" is that can also be deleted immediately. Or you can do maybe a Facebook live to a small group of friends and went really well and then you can share it. But obviously, it's not live then and is pre-recorded.
- Esther
No, Yeah. And another, well top tip would be to look at the camera because a lot of people look at the screen, but looking at the camera is key. Yeah, I do it all the time. Just look at the screen, I look at the screen or look down or look around. But if you practice going live then you'll get to know where the camera is on your phone or on whatever it is that you're recording on, because you can also go live from the computer, right?
- Melanie
Yeah, absolutely.
- Melanie
It's a lot harder, certainly for the newbies to work out how to do going live from your laptop. But it is there if anything, it's actually got slightly harder to find since creative studios come in. But it is there.
- Esther
Yeah. And there's like there are those that have preferences as to whether you record or go live horizontally or vertically.
- Melanie
What would you do?
- Esther
Well, the photographer in me would say horizontally, but the marketer in me says vertically, so I get conflicted and just don't do either "laughs".
- Esther
Well, obviously you don't.
- Esther
Obviously.
- Melanie
I do a lot of recording that I share on different platforms, and I find it looks more aesthetically pleasing if I record horizontally because then it shares beautifully on Facebook, on Instagram, ok, it doesn't take up the whole screen. But I think it looks awful when you got these two black sections.
- Esther
Yeah
- Melanie
On either side of the screen,
- Esther
especially if you share it on to YouTube after.
- Melanie
Yeah.
- Esther
And it not only has the black section, but it's sort of like is a mirror image then besides. Yeah.
- Melanie
It reproduces you. It kind of draws your eye away from the main focus, doesn't it.
- Esther
Yeah.
- Melanie
So, you know, I prefer to go horizontal, although I've been told because Facebook and Instagram stories are very much the avenue for sharing content these days, really you should do its portraits, but maybe you should do one just to be shared in stories and another one to be shared everywhere else perhaps or in shot, you have in shot?
- Esther
No
- Melanie
"laughs"
- Esther
Enlightening me.
- Melanie
That was very honest of you. So in short, can actually change the shape of your video and put it into the rights template size. One of the best people to teach me about that was Marie Claire Bayard's of Now Media. She's brilliant. And she she actually got me really onto in shorts. So I'm not going to spoil it, I'll bring her on Monday and she can tell us all about it.
- Esther
Yes, that would be brilliant.
- Melanie
so who's going to try it first. Who's going to try it?.
- Esther
You "laughs"
- Melanie
That was nothing new, is it?
- Esther
No. "laughs" You're the guinea pig, Melanie.
- Melanie
OK, well, absolutely. So let's go live. But hey, guys, if any of you are going to go live, can you make sure you tag us? Because we are on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and LinkedIn. You can tag us anywhere. OK, just tag us on any of those platforms and we will share you. Will contribute and let us know where are you going to go live and we'll come along
- Esther
And will come support.
- Esther
Yeah.
- Melanie
Totally
- Esther
we'll come and support you.
- Esther
OK, thanks for joining us again today, guys. We'll be back next week for another episode of the Monday morning marketing podcast. As Melanie says, you could find us on all those social media platforms and also on our website, the Mondaymorningmarketing.com.
- Melanie
See you then.