In Part 1 of my Go Live! series I talked about how to use live video on Facebook to quickly find clarity and nail your message even if you’re a brand new entrepreneur (if you missed that post, you can check it out here).

Today, we’re moving to the next level…

In this post you’ll learn how to build an engaged tribe with FB Lives (hey, that rhymes!).

If you’re like most people, you probably think the camera doesn’t love you or that no one’s gonna watch, so you resist doing Lives.

But it’s absolutely worth your time, energy and effort because in addition to helping you get clear on your message, consistently hitting that Go Live button can help you rapidly build your business and grow your tribe 🙂

Out of Nowhere

Let’s start with a few quick questions…

How many people are currently in your friend network on Facebook?

100? 500? 1,000?

Here’s my next question… do you know what gets them up each morning?  

How about what fills them with hope and joy?

What brings them to tears?

If we’re being totally honest, most of us have no idea who we’re connected to on Facebook.

Having thousands of Facebook “friends” on your profile and “likes” on your business page, means nothing if you’re not cultivating authentic connections with those people.

When they’re all just numbers, names and faces to you and you don’t know who they really are, it adds up to a big, fat zero in your business.

But consistently getting in front of the camera can change everything.

People get to know the real you and you get to know them.

They’ll get the chance to connect with you. They’ll start to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it when you consistently share your message and your mission.

And here’s where it gets really interesting…

Awesome opportunities to move your business forward will crop up out of nowhere and your tribe will start to grow in ways you can’t even imagine right now.

You Never Know Who’s Watching

When I was doing Facebook Lives every day, at different times throughout the day, I was catching a range of people in my network in a way that I’d never done before.

One of my Lives even went a little viral!

I had a mini rant after a negative interaction with email marketing provider Infusionsoft and my 7-minute “Why I Hate Infusionsoft” Facebook Live got a lot of attention.

My video reached the company and they flew me out to their headquarters to get to the bottom of the issue.

They even made my video mandatory viewing for all 800 of their employees and offered me a free lifetime account worth thousands of dollars.

But that’s not the best part of this story…

My unexpected viral Live put me in front of thousands of new people who’d never heard of me before (my video got over 4,000 views and a ton of shares).

People could relate to what I was going through because I wasn’t afraid to be controversial or to share my honest viewpoint and I know some of them turned into loyal fans, followers and customers.

So before each Live, I’d like you to think about what you can say to inspire your audience to not just watch but to share or tag a friend in the comments.

When you approach your Lives with that thought, you’re basically creating a powerful virtuous cycle of using your existing audience to grow your audience.

And just to be clear I did NOT rant on FB Live just to be controversial and I didn’t plan to “grow my tribe” but that’s the nature of the beast…

You never know who’s watching and what’s going to come from it… 🙂

Virtual Water Cooler

So what are some specific methods you can use to grow a community of loyal fans, followers and customers with FB Lives?

One simple, effective way is to reframe your mindset…

Go beyond looking at Lives as a way to “share content on video” and start thinking of them as a virtual “water cooler.”

Look at how you can spark conversations and engagement by asking interesting, compelling questions in your area of expertise.

If you’re a photographer, you could ask people to share their biggest challenges in taking beautiful, meaningful photos and then answer their questions.

If you’re an internet marketing expert you could ask what’s the best — or worst — sales and marketing message they’ve encountered and start a conversation around what works and what doesn’t in online marketing.

You could even use your Lives to share values and beliefs that are important to you in business… and in life.

For instance, if you’re a copy expert and you believe copywriting isn’t just about “selling stuff with words” but more about inspiring and motivating people to make powerful choices that could potentially change lives, don’t be shy… talk about your beliefs in a Live.

Another super simple yet powerful way to grow your community is to invite people to check out your opt-in gift — your masterclass, quiz, eBook, whatever it happens to be — on your website or Facebook group, at the end of each of Live.

And speaking of Facebook groups…

If you have your own group, use your FB Lives as an organic channel to grow it. All you have to do is invite people to join during each Live and make sure you share the link to your group.

And if you want to add a memorable personal touch to your Lives, consider sending a Private Message to each person who comments.

 

Keep your message simple — thank them for commenting and let them know that you’re there for them if they have questions or feedback. I recommend including a qualifying question in your Private Messages to get a conversation going.

For example you could say something like, “I’m curious… are you part of a program or mastermind? How are you taking your business to the next level?” or you could say, “I’m curious… what’s the best thing you’ve done to grow your business?”

This could easily lead to “accidental sales conversations” (and yes sales too!).

Something else to keep in mind…

Growing a community with Facebook Lives isn’t a one and done type of thing.

A great way to fan the flames and create ongoing engagement and growth is to create weekly themed Lives.

This is essentially a series of Lives around a specific topic that would be highly valuable and meaningful to your tribe and relevant to your business.

And if you go with topics that you love and that are also related to your products and services, you’ll never run out of things to say AND you’ll inspire your audience to buy from you 🙂

For instance, I love talking about starting the right business… a business that’s both profitable and aligned with who you are and how you want to show up in the world.

This would be a great theme for a Live series because I’m passionate about the topic AND I’ve built a powerful, step-by-step program around starting a business you truly love, that aligns with your strengths AND pays well 🙂 

The program’s called Start With You and you can check it out here!

And here’s one more smart strategy for ongoing growth and engagement…

Reach out to experts or influencers and interview them or have a conversation around a topic you know your audience will love, then stream your Live to their audience as well…

This way, you get to double (or more!) your audience reach with every Live you do — I’m sharing the techniques and tools to do that are in the next blog in this series — look out for it next week 🙂

The 2 Keys

When it comes to building an engaged community with FB Lives, it’s not about being perfect, it’s about using the power of consistency to grow a strong, loyal following.

This means you need to show up again and again and again.

People need to know they can rely on you. People need to know you’re there for them — ready to share your best insights and serve at the highest level — not just “when you feel like it” but consistently.

And that’s the first key to successfully growing your audience with Lives… consistency.

The second key? Quality content.

So many entrepreneurs avoid Lives because they don’t know what to say or they think they’ll run out of ideas.

But there’s an easy solution to this…

Sit down and create a targeted content strategy for your Lives ahead of time (here’s my play-by-play post on how to create a powerful content strategy). This way you’ll never feel like you don’t know what to say or end up scraping your plan to do a Live because you can’t think of something good to share.

And don’t worry too much about other details like how long your video should be especially if you’re attempting Lives for the first time.

The 2 keys are what matters most when it comes to growing an engaged tribe — consistency and sharing quality content…

And that means content related to your products, programs and services so you’re growing an audience interested in who you are and what you do…

An audience who’s likely to buy!

Flip the Switch

Vulnerability, intimacy and transparency are the true currencies of the world we live in right now.

And if you feel scared, uncertain or awkward about getting up close and personal on camera like so many entrepreneurs out there, I don’t want that to stop you.

Your message is more important than your fears, doubts and insecurities so here’s what I want you to do instead…

Flip the switch.

Forget what you look like on camera.

Forget what you sound like.

Forget about yourself for a few minutes and think about them…

Think about your audience.

Think about what you can do for them.

Think about sharing insights, ideas and tips around your zone of genius.

Think about how you can help them, connect with them and get to know them.

Aim to be of service. Aim to create authentic connections.

Aim to make friends.

And I promise you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how quickly you’ll get over your doubts and fears as you grow an engaged community of fans, followers and customers…

People who are more than happy to work with you and buy from you.

The truth is that FB Lives have a 10x higher reach than shared YouTube links on Facebook, they’re viewed 3x longer and have 10x more comments than uploaded videos.

Plus, going live can connect you to a massive audience — 78% of all online audiences are already watching video on Facebook.

So if you want to reach more people and grow your audience on this platform, live video is clearly a no brainer!

I hope I’ve motivated you to start hitting that Go Live button BUT if you’re still on the fence here’s something that can help…

Ask yourself: What’s one thing you can do to consistently share quality content on FB Live?

Maybe you could connect with an accountability partner who’ll keep you honest and committed?

Or how about pairing up with another entrepreneur — a friend or peer who’s also having a hard time doing FB Lives — so you can cheer each other on?

Go ahead and share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below… I read and respond to each one 🙂

P.S. This is the second of a 3-part series on leveraging Facebook Live to build your tribe — so stay tuned for next week’s Go Live! Part 3: 3 Facebook Live Tools that Will Multiply Your Reach and Skyrocket Your Engagement