You too can use Facebook Live
If you follow my Facebook page, hopefully you have viewed and subscribed to one of my live feeds on Facebook when I’m out and photographing and am able to do a live feed.
For awhile, Facebook had limited who could to do this to a small group of users via Facebook Mentions app and then released it to more users on in the Facebook app on iOS devices.
But now, Facebook Live is available to everyone on both iOS and Android devices. Currently only works on the mobile device app and not on the web browser version of Facebook.
When you go to create a post there will be a new icon at the bottom of your post. See the below picture to see what it looks like and where it is on the screen.
If you do not see this icon, chances are you need to update your Facebook app on your mobile device. Once you get the latest version of Facebook installed, this icon should appear.
If you have a Facebook Page or an Event Page, you can do live video there as well.
On the Facebook Page, when you click Publish you should see the icon at the bottom of the Publish Post just like above.
Now when you click the Facebook Live icon….
Your live video screen will open and prompt you to enter a short description of what your video is about. This description will show in the Facebook feed just above the video.
If this is your personal Facebook page, you can limit who will see the live video. To do this click on the “Public” icon and select one of the friends lists you have created to have the live feed just showing to those users. For Facebook Page published posts, it is “Public” only. I haven’t tested an Event page live feed yet, but I’m assuming it is limited to users associated with the event. Note: if you have selected a friends list, the next time you open the app it that friends list is still selected. So just remember that you may need to change who you are broadcasting to the next time you open the Facebook live feature.
Your all set, go ahead and click “Go Live”. You will be given a 3 second countdown and then you are live.
When you are live you will see the below. A few things to know when you are live. By default the app will use your rear camera (the one facing away from you), but you can switch for the forward facing camera by clicking the icon in the top right. Click it again to go back to the rear camera. Below your live video (which is black on the image below as I had my phone on my desk so the camera wasn’t showing anything) you will see who has joined your live feed and any comments or Facebook Reactions they have posted to your live feed.
Facebook has plans to add other features to the live feed screen. On my iOS Facebook app it seems that the filter feature is available now. Try it out to see if you have it by swiping left or right on the video section of the screen. The filters that are showing up for me are; Pop, Classical, Country, Funk, Acid, and the default of No Filter. Each gives your video a different look so give it a try to see if it is working on your Facebook Live feed and to see what each does.
When you are ready to end your Facebook Live feed, click the finish button. After you click finish, you will see the “Ending Live Video” screen where you have a few seconds to cancel the “Ending Live Video” if you clicked it by mistake. (One other note, if you accidentally switch to another app or your devices home screen while doing a live feed, as long as you didn’t close the Facebook app, you can go right back to it as it would have automatically been paused. Just click the pause button to go back to being live)
At the end of the live feed depending upon wither this was a personal Facebook page or a Facebook Page live feed you will see screens shown below that give you details about your live feed. For the Facebook Page live feed you will get stat information about live video. Also at the bottom there is the option to save the live feed video to your device by activating the slider. It is off by default, but in my example images I have turned it on.
After clicking “Done” you will see your Facebook page and the live feed posting in your Facebook feed as shown below. This is also the same view folks will see in their Facebook feed when you are live. They just click the Play button to view it live when you are live or for playback when you have finished your live feed.
Your followers can subscribe to your live feeds. I can’t say for Android devices, but when I’ve watch other users live feeds on my iOS and Mac, the subscribe button shows up at the end of the live feed that I’m watching. So at the end of your live feed remind your users to click the subscribe button so they can get notified when you do your next live feed.
Now go out there and have fun with this new feature of Facebook that is now available to everyone.
If you want to test things out before going live to your friends or the world there is a way. When you have clicked on the live feed and are on the screen to enter your description and the group you are broadcasting to, click “Public” and select “Only Me”. When you select “Only Me” the Facebook Live post will only show up in your Facebook feed. Once you have completed testing you might want to go to your Facebook Page and delete the testing live video post.
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