Can’t Live Stream Your Service or Event? Schedule A Premiere To Reach More People with Your Video

Facebook Live is the best way for your church to connect with your Facebook followers when using video. 

Facebook will ensure you get the largest possible audience – notifying all your followers that you’re going live, pushing into onto many of your followers’ newsfeeds and saving the live video for people to watch back after the broadcast has ended. 

Your followers also feel connected, being able to engage with you in real-time and chat with others who are watching the live video. The same is true for YouTube, which allows accounts to go live. 

Can’t Live Stream Your Service or Event? Schedule A Premiere To Reach More People with Your Video

However, there are a number of reasons churches might not feel able to go live, such as unreliable wifi. If this is true for you, you should consider scheduling your video as a Premiere. 

Uploading a pre-recorded video might feel like the safest thing to do, especially for those just beginning their social media journey, however, research shows that 82 per cent of online audiences prefer live video from a brand to social posts and live videos receive an average of six times more engagement than regular video.

So how can you benefit from these perks without having to live stream?

Facebook and YouTube Premiere functionality offers many of the same benefits of live streaming, without you having to broadcast at the moment.

For example, on Facebook, your followers will be notified that you have scheduled a Premiere and be encouraged to subscribe to notifications, meaning they’ll receive another notification when the Premiere launches. Followers who watch your Premiere will also get that same community feel, as it’s content that’s being seen by all viewers at the same time.

In the same way that a Facebook Live gives you increased engagement rates, so does a Facebook Premiere. Remember, once your Premiere has ended, the video will remain on your page for people who missed it to watch at a later date. 

 

How to Schedule a Facebook Premiere:

1. Go to your church’s Facebook page. Click Share photo or video.
2. Click Upload Photos/Video.
3. Select the video you want to Premiere.
4. Click Premiere.
5. Fill out available fields, thinking carefully about that the titles, description and thumbnail you choose. Remember, all of this will be seen by your followers as soon as you save the upload, so ensure that not only it gives people a good idea about what they’re about to watch, but also encourages them to do so!
6. Add subtitles if your video has audio so it is accessible.
7. Click Schedule Premiere.

How to schedule a YouTube Premiere

1. Click Upload at the top of the page.
2. Select your video to upload and enter video details.  
3. On the Preview & Publish tab, tick the box next to Set as a Premiere.
4. Select Schedule for a later date and select the date and time of your premiere.
5. Select Done to complete the upload process.
6. A public watch page will be created. The video will eventually be premiered on this watch page, so you can share this link on social media channels or email it to your church mailing list. 

Things to consider before scheduling your Premiere

• Premieres work for longer videos. Your video must be more than 30 seconds.
• Try to keep Premieres for your most important content, such as weekly services or teaching resources.
• The maximum file size is 10GB for Facebook. For YouTube, 60/vr180 or an output greater than 1080p is not supported for Premieres.
• You must schedule the Premiere more than an hour in advance – try to schedule it a few days in advance to allow yourself enough time to promote the Premiere to your followers.
• You MUST select the Premiere option when uploading your video to Facebook. You can’t change this once you’ve saved the video. If you forget to do this, you’ll need to delete the video and upload again.
• Promote the Premiere across social media and other digital channels. Let people know when the Premiere will be going live to ensure as many people as possible tune in. 

Oudney N. Patsika
Digital Communication Manager

Welcome To Oudney Patsika's Blog: Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World: In today’s media-driven, distracted culture, your message must be amplified to reach a larger audience.

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