The dark side of Facebook Live

[Josh Chesarek]

I believe this is because they are embeding the stream there and Facebook is not processing the stream. If they are not directly hosting the content I doubt they care.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Josh

That 100% correct They only don't want copyright content on their own site ... as long as you don't embed directly it works fine. To be honest I prefer my video on Livestream anyway as you can create a unique event page that stays put whereas with Facebook is simply disappears down the page so it still needs a link for the viewer. With wedding streams it's a bit impractical to tell a bride she cannot have a DJ at her wedding!

[Steven Davis]

I was chatting with another wedding professional the other day. She said she's tried Facebook Live with two different audiences. When she tried it with her professional business page, very few people watched, but when she did it with her personal Facebook account, she had many viewers. She has a large friends list.

There lies the issue for me, I try to keep my business and personal posts separate, but apparently at the cost of reaching a larger audience.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steven

It seems to be all about family rather than using a live stream to promote business. With weddings we create an event page on Livestream and the bride sends the link out to family and friends that cannot make it to the wedding so they can still be part of the day. It's not streamed to FaceBook at all BUT the link is advertised on FaceBook ... I did a wedding 6 days ago and the bride and groom had family overseas (New Zealand and South Africa) we had 890 people watch it. If we had streamed to FB Live I very much doubt that we would have had that sort of viewings. It was quite pleasing to see that directly after the ceremony, while waiting for the photographer to get ready, I found the bride watching her own ceremony, absolutely delighted with the results. The big issue the way FB works is the feed will appear in the news feed so (depending on how much traffic you have) it can disappear within minutes of a potential client spotting it so I cannot really see the point of casually streaming to Facebook in the hope of picking up new business clients. I don't think I'll find a use for FB Live as any event needs pre-event promotion at least a week before.

[Steven Davis]

Hi Chris,

I bet your solution is so much better. I'd love to know the secret sauce for live streaming. I don't see myself being able to do live cuts. Your bride's reaction is why I think we all do this for a living. :}

[Steven Digges]

Hey Charlie,

Thank you very much for that information. I have often wondered why Radio stations don't utilize the incredible power of live streaming more often. I figure it is a Radio/Broadcast TV thing? Radio wants to be heard not seen?

Those are some great numbers. I am glad it is working out so well for you.

I know you have been around this forum for a long time. I hope you begin posting more often again. You probably know this a great place. I would love to hear from someone helping a radio station using streaming to increase their numbers. Good stuff.

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve Davis

(Just so it doesn't get mixed with my friend Steve Digges!!)

We started having every Tom Dick and Harry that could buy a discount camera calling themselves a "wedding videographer" so I decided to create a niche market. It takes a bit of education for the brides but it's getting really popular now! To compete with high end wedding producers was also getting crazy and if you don't have 2 drones buzzing the wedding, a crane and 3 other operators you simply cannot compete so the operational costs were becoming impractical when you have to spend a week editing a wedding. It's a simple operation (probably made a bit easier cos I was weaned on linear edits in camera in the old days)
I simply got tired of spending exhausting hours editing footage whereas now it's done for me on site. We use just two cams going thru a software switcher and the computer streams out to a hardware encoder.
There still is some basic editing to stitch together bridal prep (as it's not a continuous shoot like a ceremony) as well as the slomo shoot ..but that's quick and easy and I do that as a "delayed broadcast" (upload the next day) 95% of our footage is live edit so the online video is created instantly and also downloaded to USB so the bride gets a hard copy. The whole thing (apart from my fascination with new technology) was a lesson in Work Smarter not Harder.

[Steven Davis]

Thanks Chris,

That's awesome.. Yeah, I'm running into the drone 'must have' issue here. I like the idea of live streaming, I'll have to give that some thought.

If you weren't so far away, I'd run over and be a grip for you to see it in action. Congrats on finding a niche.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

You simply create a niche market but it does take some bride education as well as most have no idea what you are talking about and you have to get past the "I can do that with my phone on Facebook" Probably the biggest advantage for me seems to be the productivity side. You can still do a wedding for much the same price but do it with a LOT less hours of your time so your effective hourly rate goes up a lot! It also allows you to snag those ceremony only shoots during the week as it becomes cost effective. It's amazing how many Monday weddings we are doing now yet previously a Monday wedding was a rare event!