If you haven’t heard the news yet, let me be the first to tell you, that 2018 is the year of video. And if you aren’t doing live video yet, you are about to miss out on some serious traffic, some important visibility steps for your business, and a whole lot more.

If nothing else, stop and think about how you consume content from some of your favorite providers. Most likely it’s either visual, like a food blogger, or a fashion stylist who is taking daily photos of themselves or their meals, or it’s video. Maybe you have one or two copywriters that you really like to follow, and you totally love reading their words. But for the most part, if we’re honest with ourselves, we consume content like most consumers, and we love strong photos, strong visuals, and videos.

So if you can admit that about yourself and your viewing habits, I highly encourage you to step into video in 2018, and especially if nothing else, live video.

With tools like Facebook and Instagram, it is now easier than ever to instantly connect and get feedback from your audience. And if you aren’t taking those steps to be visible, to go live, to share your thought leadership in an on the spot kind of format, you are really missing out on lots of valuable opportunities, to set yourself up for building know, like, and trust factor, and then also sales on the back-end.

So today I want to share with you my top five reasons why you’ve gotta go live in 2018.

First, let’s start with Facebook’s new algorithm.

It’s scaring a lot of people. But, Facebook Live is a quick and easy way to make sure that your engagement is not affected. It’s no secret that Facebook is now competing with Google, to be the leading video platform, right? They’re trying to take down YouTube, and be the go to source for video.

What that means for you, is that if you upload videos directly and you do a weekly Facebook Live, you’re naturally going to see tons of increased engagement from doing so, no matter what changes might come in the future from their algorithm.

The second thing that live video helps you do is show confidence in your brand.

That you are confident to speak about the topics you love, you’re confident to share your message, and that you are confident in your brand and your business, and you’re not hiding behind anything. And if you are confident about you, I am confident about you. If I feel like you’re hiding, or I don’t really know who’s behind this company name, I’m probably not going to buy anything from you.

But if I see you standing out there loud and proud, whether I agree with your message or not, I’m either going to become like a raving fan or a customer, or I might be totally turned off by it. But either way, you’re building a really awesome tribe around you, of people who instantly know, like, and trust you.

The third thing that live video can help you with is boosting your visibility through other channels as well.

If someone can see you speaking off the hip, extemporaneously on a Facebook or Instagram live, they’re much more likely to hire you for a speaking opportunity at their live event. Or, they might want you on their live podcast.

Showing that you are ready to be visible at the drop of a hat, and going back to that confidence of message. Being on Facebook Live is totally great for your visibility. If it gets shared, if you say something amazing, which I’m sure you would, and it gets shared, it’s helping you reach more people.

And also, in the year of video, it just never hurts to communicate your message face to face. We’re all feeling a little bit disconnected these days, so show your face, get live with people, and interact.

The fourth reason that you need to embrace live video, is the benefit of instant feedback from your audience.

There is nothing better than being on a Facebook Live, and sharing your message, and seeing tons of comments, hearts, likes, etc., flow in that people are vibing with your message, that people totally agree with what you’re saying, they’ve been waiting for someone to see that, etc.

It helps validate ideas, it helps validate your best content, if you can come and share it with people live, and get instant feedback. It also allows you to see which of your messages, or which of your content gets the best reaction so you can start to do more of that, and maybe a little bit less of some of the other ones that don’t tend to resonate as much.

And the fifth and final reason that I highly encourage you to go live on video, is that it actually can increase sales.

If you were to go live on a Facebook Live about a topic that you have a product related to, kind of like when we did the content calendar and you had themes relating to your products. If you do the same with your Facebook Live, and you go on every week, and you deliver 10 to 30 minutes of really great content, and you teach something, or you speak about something, or you inspire them to take action. And at the very end you just tack on a small like, “Hey, if you’re interested in doing more, I’ve got a program. Or, an easy download and you can come check it out, I’ll post the comments below.” And then you post that link.

A Facebook Live could get you two to three sales that you might not otherwise have gotten.

So imagine that you can spend 30 minutes just talking to people on video and get three sales, it’s a pretty awesome strategy compared to the three month long launches that I work on clients with.

If you want to increase your Facebook or Instagram page engagement, if you’re ready to show that you have confidence in your own brand, if you’re ready to increase your visibility, if you want instant feedback from your ideal clients, and your tribe, and your community, and if you are ready to make more sales.

You can accomplish all five super effortlessly with a quick Facebook Live video.

Need some help getting started? Download my FREE list of 25 ideas you can use to go live – and keep them coming for a few weeks!

Your Turn

I so hope that if you have been holding back on going live, that this video gives you a little confidence boost. And if you do go live as a result of this video, I would love for you to post a link to it in the comments below, and I will come check it out.