With Meerkat and Periscope starting to make some noise over the past few months, it was only a matter of time before Facebook started to dabble with live-streaming video.
That day has arrived with Facebook announcing that it will be giving people the ability to share live video streams on their social network. Unfortunately for the average Joe, the Facebook live-streaming is only going to be available to verified public figures. Facebook says the app makes it easy for athletes, musicians, politicians, and other influencers to talk with their fans and each other.
You will be able to discover these live videos from the public figures that you follow. The live video feeds will show up on your news feed. You will be able to comment, like or share the video while watching a live broadcast. It will also notify you when other friends and public figures start watching.
This is definitely a different take on the live-streaming video trend. Periscope and Meerkat allow anyone who downloads their app to stream live-video. As of now it is not clear whether Facebook will be implementing this feature for everyone to use but assume it’s in the works. As for now this Facebook offering is called “Live” and is accessible through the Mentions app, which is only available for public figures with verified pages.
Facebook says Live is an immersive and authentic way to connect with public figures you care about, in real-time. If you happen to miss the live broadcast, you will be able to watch the video later on the public figure’s page.
Facebook also says to keep an eye out for live broadcasts from Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Serena Williams, Luke Bryan, Ricardo Kaka, Ashley Tisdale, Lester Holt, Martha Stewart, Michael Buble and more. This variety of athletes and celebrities could attract a large and diverse amount of interest and result in an ample population for this new streaming service.
For the marketing world, unless you are a verified celebrity there is not much you will be able to do here. Knowing there will be a lot of viewers for this type of content, we will see live streams eventually showing up in the advertising-supported suggested video feature that will be coming later this year.
This has the potential to be a pretty cool feature to see what your favorite celebrities do behind the scenes. However, Facebook is powered by user content from the everyday user and this feature should be accessible for everyone to stream their own live video as well.
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