You’re likely using social media in some capacity to boost brand awareness, build trust and grow your business. But are you making use of live video?

People love live video, and therefore Facebook and Instagram love live video. Live videos almost always get more engagement than preshot videos, and they allow businesses to interact directly with customers and respond to their questions and comments in real time. 

There are a lot of great opportunities for live video that your customers would love to see pop up on your Facebook or Instagram. To get started, give these ideas a try:

Introduce Yourself

Imagine a potential client is trying to decide whether or not your business is a good fit for them. They have one main question: Can you help me?

You can answer that question in a Facebook or Instagram live video by briefly going over your main services, your main service area, who you help and why you’re trustworthy and capable.

Let them know if and when they should hire you — and of course, don’t forget your why. If you have certifications, experience, offerings, guarantees or equipment that your competitors don’t, let your potential customers know.

Discuss Pricing

If you just got the chills thinking about going live to talk about pricing, you’re not alone. But listen, this really works. 

Whenever our clients have been transparent about pricing on Instagram or Facebook live videos, they’ve found their customers trust them more and they get fewer calls from people who can’t afford them or just want the cheapest guy in town.

Here’s the best news: You don’t have to give exact prices for each service, although you can. Instead, give a ballpark idea of what people can expect to pay when they call for the most common services. 

If you charge more than the industry standard, let them know why. Potential customers will respect that transparency and are willing to pay more if you give them good reason to. 

This can also be a great opportunity to let them know what all is involved in some of those services. If you have to use big, expensive equipment or the job could be disastrous if done wrong, let your potential customers know. 

They aren’t experts, so the more they understand about what goes into the work you do, the more that higher price will make sense. 

Share Your Story, Background

Why do people read books? Why do people watch movies? Because people love stories. Go live, share your story and create a connection with your potential customers. 

A couple questions you may want to answer:

• How did you get into the business?
• What did you do before you started your business?   

Nobody wants to do business with some faceless company run by God-knows-who. What your customers want to know after they know you can help is: Who are you and why do you do what you do? That’s what makes you different.

Don’t be afraid to insert a little emotion and personality into this type of live video. If you’ve had a funny, heartbreaking or crazy journey, share the details. It’s entertaining, endearing and makes you look a little more human, which is good.

Interview Your Team

These live videos don’t have to be long, but they’re great for introducing your office staff and technicians, and showing your customers and potential customers how trustworthy and likable your team is. 

To keep the videos concise and help your team feel more comfortable going live, you may want to come up with a quick list of questions to go over during the video. For example: 

• What’s your favorite part of the job?
• What’s your typical day look like?
• What do you do for fun?
• How long have you been in the industry? 

Make it fun, and remember, the point is to help your customers connect to your team, even if they haven’t hired you yet. 

Show How Things Work

People love knowing how things work, or at least having a little bit better understanding, and your live videos can help.

Show them some of the tools you use, explain what goes into doing a popular service, or let them know why a specific service is so important and what can go wrong if it’s neglected or done incorrectly. Even just going through some of the services you offer that they might not know about can make for an interesting live video.

Plus, if people have questions while you’re live, you can answer them right away and get them even more engaged.

Highlight Team Habits, Rituals

This goes back to humanizing your business and building trust with your potential customers. 

Are there certain things you do as a team every morning? Are there certain activities you do together? Share that with your customers. 

The customers with similar interests or values will enjoy seeing a behind-the-scenes look at things and will be more likely to engage and feel an affinity for your brand.

Do Live Customer Testamonials

This one can be a bit challenging because not every customer will feel comfortable sharing their experience. But find the ones that do, ask them to do a quick live testimonial, introduce them and let them fly.      

People will love hearing honest, live, unscripted testimonials from customers who have worked with your company. If you tag the customer in the testimonial, they’ll likely share it to their page, and their friends and family may even share it to their pages. 

The result: a broader reach and greater post engagement. 

Interview Others Who Provide Value

Whenever you provide value that’s not directly related to your business or the services you offer, you build trust with customers. Find someone in your community who can provide value and ask if you can do a live interview. This can be another service provider in your area or someone involved in community work or politics. 

For example, to prep for voting season you could interview an elections board member on the top five issues people need to familiarize themselves with before election day. Or, as winter approaches, you could interview a chimney sweep on the top five ways to get your fireplace ready for winter.  

The more value you provide and the more relevant it is — not to your business, but to your customers — the more they’ll love it. 

Tell Them What to Expect

People who have never worked with your company before don’t know what to expect. So, answer their questions. 

The more confidence and peace of mind you provide, the less hesitation potential customers will have when they need to pick up the phone and schedule a service.

So, there you have it: Nine great ideas to get you started with live video on Facebook and Instagram. We’re sure you can come up with a ton more once you get started — just have fun.

About the Authors: Carter Harkins and Taylor Hill are the co-founders of Spark Marketer, a Nashville, Tennessee-based digital marketing company that works primarily with service businesses. They’re also the co-hosts of the "Blue Collar Proud (BCP) Show," a podcast that’s all about having and living the blue-collar dream, and the co-authors of the book Blue Collar Proud: 10 Principles for Building a Kickass Business You Love.

They're also co-creators of the award-winning app Closing Commander, which helps contractors close more estimates effortlessly. Both regularly speak at service industry trade shows and conferences across the nation.

Visit www.facebook.com/sparkmarketer, www.facebook.com/bcpshow, www.facebook.com/groups/bluecollarproudnation or www.facebook.com/closingcommander.