Live is LIVE!

If you spent 2015 building a following across the latest and greatest live streaming platforms – Meerkat and Periscope – you should have remembered the old adage (that I just made up):

“If Facebook can’t buy it, they will build it.”

And in line with other product roll-outs and updates, including check-ins (sorry, Foursquare), privacy settings (sorry, Google+), FB for Business (sorry, Slack), Facebook has done it once again with today’s roll out of LIVE!

What is Facebook Live?

Zuckerberg says that, “Live is like having a TV camera in your pocket.” It gives users the ability to share a live video of what they’re doing at any moment with their Facebook friends.

In addition to being featured on the News Feed and through user notifications, Live video will also be featured in a separate section in the Facebook platform. This will allow users to view live streams from their Facebook friends or join a “Live with Friends” group.

Other fun features include filters (watch out, Snapchat – you’re next!) and reactions (“haha,” “wow,” “sad,” “angry”). Because video without a weird filter or smiley emoji is like a social media marketer without buzz words.

Impact to Marketers

With news feeds and streams becoming more crowded than ever, this update brings new challenges to marketers. Not only will we have to learn how
to compete with the influx of live video content that will receive prominent positioning by Facebook, but we’ll also need to learn how to support that content ourselves. If you don’t have someone on your team who’s comfortable filming video and/or appearing live on camera, you’re going to want to find that person soon, because Live video is here, and it’s here to stay.

That is until Facebook figures out what’s next.