As Facebook and Instagram host a whole plethora of features and aspects to help your brand and business grow, reach, engage, and monetize, your brand should be using all features in order to hit these goals. And Facebook Lives and Facebook Premier are two ways channels can help push their content out, organically. Facebook wants its users to utilise the features it provides, particularly since live streams help Facebook keep consumers coming back for fresh in-the-moment content, so when we use these tools, the algorithm will push this content out to more followers organically. In this instance, it helps to play by the rules.
So what’s the difference between a Facebook Live and a Facebook Premier? Well, they’re both video options within Facebook but one is (yep, you guessed it) live and the other is scheduled, though still with some of the benefits and functionality of live broadcasts. When you go live on Facebook, whatever device is set up to your channel will start recording and its contents will be shared straight onto your channel. Once you’ve stopped recording your content and the Live has finished, the video will remain on your channel for audiences who didn’t quite make it in time to watch again (unless you choose to remove it).
Facebook Premier differs slightly in that users have the option to prepare a polished, professional video ahead of time as you schedule your video to go live at a certain time. This triggers a pre-post to go live on your Facebook wall to let people know that your video content is going to be published at that exact date and time. Then when that time comes around, and you’ve built anticipation with automatic notifications to your subscribers, the broadcast goes live in real-time as if the video is a Facebook Live, with real-time engagement opportunities for fans. Once the video has finished, similarly to a Facebook Live, the content stays as a post for other audiences to see.
When comparing our client Premiers to Lives, the peak live viewers were often higher for the Premiere videos. But from all other data points (likes, comments and shares) Facebook Live performs better. Reach and comments are crucial for success on Facebook. Comments trigger the algorithm and cause the person that commented to see more of your future posts. In short, Premier videos are great for when your internet connection isn’t stable or you need full control over the content of your video, but Facebook usually favours in-the-moment live content.
Whichever you choose for your brand, both avenues will encourage organic engagements, which might be the secret weapon needed for your engagement strategy.
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