Going Live on Facebook?
When Facebook Live became available to general users in April, we began exploring opportunities to take advantage of this new tool at Bowdoin College.
The College already live streams special academic lectures and official college events such as Convocation and Commencement, but we knew Live was best suited for a different purpose. We wanted to invite our community into the experiences of more exclusive, informal, and behind-the-scenes events and activities that wouldn’t normally be covered with official live stream coverage.
Real Page Turners Live on Facebook!
We chose for our first Facebook Live to stream a rare event: the page turning of John James Audubon’s book “The Birds of America.”
Bowdoin has one of only 120 copies that are believed to be in existence. On the first Friday of every month, staff from the library’s Special Collections and Archives holds a small ceremony to reveal the bird of the month by delicately turning to the next page of the book. It’s an event few people in the world have the opportunity to witness firsthand, making it a unique experience to share on Facebook Live. Additionally, the small, quiet, controlled setting made this a perfect opportunity to try our first Facebook Live. This video received nearly 1,000 views and we learned many lessons that prepared us for our next event.
With one Live under our belt, we turned to a bigger event: the unveiling of a new presidential portrait – only the fourteenth since Bowdoin’s founding in 1794. Barry Mills, a president beloved by our young alumni, had stepped down a year earlier and we knew the unveiling of his portrait was a unique event that alumni would want to see. Facebook Live would allow them to watch the unveiling, see the former president’s reaction to his portrait, and leave comments directly on the Facebook post.
In preparation we visited the venue, tested cellular connections, alerted event organizers, and promoted the event ahead of time on Facebook and Twitter. During the live streaming, we saw a peak of more than 100 live viewers and alumni commented about the portrait and sent well-wishes as it was unveiled.
By the end of the day, the video had been viewed more than 6,000 times, and it has the highest engagement (reactions, comments, and shares) of our 2016 Facebook posts. Additionally, through matching with our college database, were were able to identify nearly 50% of the likes and comments came from alumni, students, and parents.
Since then, we have used Facebook Live for additional Audubon page turnings and taught library staff to do it from the library’s own Facebook page.
We also used Facebook Live during Commencement to show graduating seniors marching through the Quad as they prepared to take their seats before the ceremony. This behind-the-scenes view was something family and friends couldn’t have experienced otherwise without being in attendance. We used this pre-ceremony footage as a teaser to then direct our followers to the official live broadcast on the Bowdoin website.
Tips for Facebook Prime Time
If you’re ready to start using Facebook Live, keep these tips in mind:
- Test your Internet connection at the location you’ll be streaming. We discovered better reliability using a data connection versus wifi.
- Make sure your battery is charged.
- Understand the event schedule and logistics ahead of time to provide your viewers the optimal experience without too much “dead” time or uninteresting footage before or after the good stuff.
- Talk with the event organizer and, as a courtesy, alert the speaker(s) if necessary so they know you’ll be streaming live.
- Plan your video vantage point early. Let those around you know what you’re doing and their voice may be picked up on the live video.
- Consider having a second person nearby to keep the video viewing line clear and to answer questions.
For Facebook Live events that will generate comments and conversation, have another of the page’s administrators online to reply and answer questions while the live event is happening. - Be prepared for what you’ll use as the Facebook Live title and text before the event begins. You can edit it after the event to make it more appropriate – especially if it’s something you then want to boost.
Meet the Author: Holly Sherburne
Holly Sherburne is the Director of Digital and Social Media at Bowdoin College. She is also a graduate of 3 Higher Ed Experts’ professional certificate programs in Social Media Measurement for Higher Ed, Web Analytics for Higher Ed and Advanced Web Analytics for Higher Ed.
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