Facebook Live and Zoom are two popular platforms for hosting live video events and webinars. By integrating the two together, you can leverage the massive reach of Facebook Live with the robust webinar features of Zoom. This allows you to broadcast your webinar to a huge audience on Facebook while still having full control over your presentation and interaction with attendees through Zoom.
In this article, we’ll walk through step-by-step how to set up and execute a Facebook Live Zoom event. We’ll cover:
- The benefits of a Facebook Live Zoom event
- What you need to get started
- How to connect Zoom and Facebook Live
- Best practices for hosting a seamless event
- Marketing tips to maximize your reach
- Post-event follow up
Let’s dive in!
Benefits of a Facebook Live Zoom Event
Hosting a Zoom webinar directly on Facebook Live provides the following advantages:
- Reach a massive audience – Facebook Live allows you to tap into an existing audience of over 2 billion monthly active Facebook users.
- Increase engagement – The live video format creates a sense of urgency and scarcity that boosts engagement and sign ups compared to an evergreen pre-recorded video.
- Low barrier to entry – Facebook users don’t need to download any additional software to watch your live broadcast, just a Facebook account.
- interact with your audience – Zoom’s webinar platform makes it easy to take questions, run polls and get feedback in real-time.
- Production quality – Zoom provides a professional, polished look and feel for your live event vs just using your phone’s camera.
- Analytics and leads – Zoom’s robust reporting provides registration, attendance, engagement metrics and lead capture options.
The bottom line is that going live on Facebook with Zoom allows you to tap into a massive audience beyond just your existing email list or community. It’s a proven formula to attract new followers, showcase your brand, and generate qualified leads.
What You Need to Get Started
To get up and running with a Facebook Live Zoom event, you’ll need:
- An internet connection – A minimum of 1.5 Mbps upload speed is recommended for Zoom.
- A Zoom account – This provides the backend webinar technology and is free for events under 40 minutes for up to 100 participants.
- The Zoom mobile app – Install on your smartphone device to connect with Facebook Live.
- A Facebook account – With permissions to create Facebook Live broadcasts.
- Optional: a computer – If you want to manage the presentation and chat from a laptop.
- A webcam – Zoom mobile supports your smartphone camera.
- A microphone – Built into most smartphones, or you can use a headset.
For optimal performance, connect your computer and mobile device to the event over Wifi to avoid competing for bandwidth. Beyond the basics outlined above, having the right set up and presentation will take your event to the next level.
How to Connect Zoom with Facebook Live
Linking Zoom to Facebook Live takes just a few clicks:
- In the Zoom mobile app, swipe from left to right to open the Meeting Details screen.
- Tap More Meeting Options.
- Select Facebook Live.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to connect your Facebook account and allow permissions.
- Tap Go Live. Your event will now be broadcast live to your Facebook page or profile.
And that’s all there is to it! As soon as you click go live in Zoom, it will automatically begin streaming to Facebook.
Now you can run your entire webinar presentation, interact with attendees, and utilize Zoom’s full range of features while broadcasting out to Facebook.
Best Practices for a Seamless Event
To deliver a smooth, professional live stream event, keep these best practices in mind:
- Test your setup ahead of time – Do a trial run to check your video, audio, and streaming quality.
- Use an engaging thumbnail and title – This helps draw viewers into the Facebook Live stream.
- Promote the event ahead of time – Market to your audience to build excitement and maximize live views.
- Engage with your audience – Ask questions, run polls and reactions to keep the audience actively participating.
- Manage the webinar from a computer – This allows you to control the presentation, chat, registration lists from a dedicated screen vs just your mobile device.
- Have great lighting and branding – Position yourself in front of professional lighting and branding elements.
- Deliver compelling content – Well designed slides, demos, Q&As that teach and inspire your audience.
- Avoid technical glitches – If issues occur, apologize quickly and troubleshoot to recover smoothly.
- Record the session – This allows you to repurpose the content after the live event.
Executing flawlessly takes practice, but following these tips will help you deliver an impactful broadcast.
Marketing Tips to Maximize Reach
Promoting your Facebook Live Zoom webinar is key to getting views. Here are proven marketing tactics to reach a wider audience:
Promote Across Your Own Channels
Leverage your owned marketing channels to share event details and registration links:
- Website banners and popups
- Blog posts
- Email newsletters
- Social media posts
Send regular reminders leading up to the event day to build buzz.
Run Facebook Ads
Create Facebook event ads to reach interested users beyond just your existing audience. Target by interests, behaviors, demographics and lookalike audiences.
Share in Facebook Groups
Engage with relevant Facebook groups and pages to share your event posting. Make sure to provide value to the communities rather than just spamming.
Invite Influencers and Partners
Reaching out to partners, influencers and VIPs to attend and share your event can help attract their networks. Offer exclusive bonuses for them to incentivize promotions.
Word of Mouth
Satisfied attendees are one of the best ways to organically spread the word. Ask happy participants to share about their experience.
Retarget Past Registrants
If you’ve hosted events before, reconnect with past registrants to invite them to new events. These already familiar leads convert at a higher rate.
Leverage LinkedIn
Post on LinkedIn and engage with LinkedIn groups relevant to your target audience. LinkedIn Events is also an option to create an official event listing.
Post-Event Follow Up
Your event marketing shouldn’t end as soon as the live broadcast finishes. To continue deriving value:
- Send a thank you email to all registrants and attendees.
- Share the recording on your website, blog and social channels.
- Monitor social media for added buzz and testimonials to tap into.
- Analyze attendee engagement metrics to improve future events.
- Conduct polls and surveys to collect feedback.
- Offer special replay only bonuses to drive more conversions.
- Direct viewers to take a desired action like visiting a landing page.
- Follow up with high value attendees for continued nurturing.
- Repurpose clips into smaller snippets of content.
The more you can optimize the pre-event promotion, live delivery, and post-event follow up, the more effective your Facebook Live Zoom webinar will be.
Conclusion
Hosting webinars directly on Facebook Live using Zoom’s platform opens up a whole new audience at massive scale for your brand. It allows you to tap into the reach of Facebook with the production quality and interactivity of Zoom.
By following the tips in this guide, you can seamlessly connect the two platforms and deliver a polished, engaging event. Promote across channels, focus on high quality content, and properly follow up for maximum impact.
Facebook Live with Zoom breaks down the barriers so anyone can host webinars like an expert. Attract more viewers, nurture leads and grow your business by going live today!