The world's largest social network is rolling out a live-broadcasting scheduling feature tomorrow for publishers, in an effort to attract larger audiences.
Facebook introduced the mobile live-streaming feature earlier this year and says it has seen incredible adoption and engagement with the new format. Previously, when a user started live-broadcasting, all their friends or followers received a push notification to say they were live. Therefore, those who could tune-in, did so after the broadcast had already started.
The scheduling feature gives publishers a link they can share up to a week in advance. The link will take audiences to a blank video page which will go live at the predetermined time. By gathering audiences beforehand, they have a larger audience to begin with, rather than relying on people to be free to watch when they receive a randomly-timed notification.
The term 'live-broadcasting' refers to a mobile user or company live-streaming over video to a private or public audience.
Last year, numerous apps (such as Meerkat and Periscope) dedicated to live-broadcasting were launched - highlighting a changing trend in how audiences are consuming news: instantaneously and in real-time. Live-broadcasts provide the viewer with a first person view of the person or event.
The Facebook scheduling feature is currently only available to verified pages which live-broadcast video via the Facebook Live API. It is expected to be rolled out to all pages within the next few weeks. It is not clear if the feature will come to personal accounts.
"Scheduling a live video makes it easier to build anticipation and buzz with your audience before your broadcast begins, so you can start strong with an audience already assembled," explained Peter Roybal, product manager, and Brian Lin, software engineer, in a blogpost.
"When you schedule a live video, an announcement post will be published to News Feed letting your fans on Facebook know that the broadcast is coming. People who see the post can opt in to receive a one-time reminder notification that will alert them shortly before your broadcast begins."
Lin says there will also be a 'lobby' on the page three minutes before the live-broadcast takes place so audience members can interact.
A detailed explanation of how to schedule a post is available here.
Share