The Benefits of Facebook Live for your Church

Live streaming has come a LONG way! First there was Meerkat (now basically extinct). Then, there was Periscope (still very viable). Now, there is Facebook Live.  All of these have gone a long way to help churches reach more people with the message of Christ.

Of all these advances, I believe that Facebook Live arrives at a great time and has some amazing advantages that will benefit your Church in a much greater way.  Watch this video to why:

1. It stays on your page. When you use Periscope, the video vanishes after 24 hours. But with Facebook Live it stays on forever.  Literally, forever…until you don’t want it there anymore.  That way, more people can see it for a longer period of time.
2. It has greater reach.  Periscope is great but it is tied to a social network that is much smaller than Facebook.  I have talked about this before but now that you can use Facebook Live on Church pages, not just personal accounts, that is an even bigger deal because it is not linked to a person.  Every live video you post is linked to your Church or ministry which gives more support to your Church.
3. You can edit your video.  After your video is posted, you can go back and edit it.  In addition to naming it, you can add tags so it can discoverable on Facebook.
4. You can repurpose it.  Once you are done shooting the live video, save it to your camera roll and you can post it on other social networks.  This option is available with Periscope as well, but repurposing it is definitely a benefit.

Live streaming is going to continue to advance over time.  Periscope is just over a year old and Facebook Live has been around even less.  But with the support of two of the biggest social media networks around (Twitter and Facebook), I believe both of these are going to be around a long time. Periscope has been around longer, but Facebook, as stated above, definitely has a advantages as well.  It will be really cool to see how Churches and ministries use Facebook Live to reach even more people in the weeks, months and years to come.

So what do you think? How are you using Facebook Live and what benefits you are seeing in your church from using it. Share your ideas below or on social media using #ymsidekick and join the conversation.