by Bethany Jett, @BetJett

The livestreaming community went into a state of momentary shock when major player Blab.im said “buh-bye for now” and went offline two weeks ago. According to their farewell blog post, they’d “gone from 0 users to 3.9 million users in less than one year.”

3.9 million users in less than a year. Amazing.

Livestreaming changes everything and this is a chance for the Christian community to jump in on the ground floor. Let’s claim the livestreaming space by sharing uplifting, encouraging, and edifying content.

Let’s. Go. Live.

While Blab goes back to their “sandcastle” drawing board, what are some options for users who want to stream live with their friends or coworkers?

Major Livestreaming Platforms:

• Facebook Live
• Periscope (owned by Twitter)
• Firetalk
• Zoom
• Skype
• Google Hangouts (soon to be absorbed into YouTube Live. Check out the article here.)
• Blab — coming back soon

Which one is right for you?

For many of us, our audience is already on Facebook, so it’s an amazing place to start. If you’ve never done a live broadcast before, it’s a relatively painless arena. You’re talking to your friends or people within a Facebook group of which you’re an admin. Either way, people know who you are, so you’re not talking to strangers.

Get Started with Facebook Live

To broadcast, you’ll need to use your phone’s Facebook app. Livestreaming won’t work if you use the internet browser to log in.

1. Open the Facebook application.
2. Locate the video camera icon next to the word Live under the search bar.
3. Click the Live button.
4. Describe your live video…You won’t be able to change this, so type in a quick “what this is about.” If it’s your first video, say that. No wrong titles here!
5. Next to your picture is your name, and under your name is a drop down bar. It will say Public, or Friends, or whatever your privacy setting is. You can change it now to your desired audience.
6. At the top right corner is a circle with two arrows. This turns the camera around. If you want to be in “selfie-mode,” click it before the video starts.
7. Once you’re ready, click the blue Go Live button at the bottom left and start talking!

Best Practices

1. Be prepared to stay in the live feed for a few minutes.
   A notification will go out to your friends that you’re live. Give them some time to stop what they’re doing and head over to your wall.
2. ENGAGE!
   This is the #1 rule of livestreaming. You are there to talk to the people who come into your broadcast, or “room.” Welcome people as they come in. Sometimes there is a delay and you can’t see the comments or the likes and hearts…keep a smile on your face and share your message! The main advantage of livestreaming are the in-the-moment moments. If you ignore the people who join you live, you’re just filming a regular video, and that’s not the point of this medium.
3. Share whatever you want.
   You can livestream for 10 minutes every day at 10 AM and call it the Daily Devotional. Or you can randomly livestream when something cool is happening in your life. One small group leader is using Facebook Live to keep in touch with her small group during the week before their meetings. Another friend uses Facebook Live every morning for about fifteen minutes to deliver a devotion, which has received such great response that he’s turning them into a book.
   There are millions of wonderful ways to use this feature — go for it!
4. Keep going, no matter what.
   More people will watch the replay than watch the live stream. If you “mess up,” no worries. There is a lot of grace for live broadcasts. Remember that the replay will show every time you say, “Is this on? Can you see me? Can you hear me?” Don’t do that. The people who are live will comment if something is going wrong. So just keep swimming….err, keep streaming.

As a Viewer

1. Give lots of love.
   Next to the comment bar are the thumbs up, hearts, haha-face, and other emojis used with Facebook. Click them and they will pop up on the broadcaster’s screen with a little pop of explosion. It’s awesome. Let the broadcaster know you’re cheering them on and that they’re doing a good job.
2. Comment.
   Let them know you’re there. Tell them they’re doing a great job. Engage with them so they’ll feel comfortable — it’s hard to broadcast without engagement from the audience.
3. If you’re watching the replay, let the broadcaster know they did a good job. Give lots of positive reinforcement.

[reminder]Have you used Facebook Live before? What do you (or will you) broadcast about? [/reminder]

Bethany Jett is an award-winning author of The Cinderella Rule, speaker, ghostwriter, and founder of JETTsetter Ink, a consulting and editing company. She has written for numerous publications, created the My Moments Planner, Serious Writer Companion, and is the founder of Serious Writer Academy and the Build Your Brand Program.

Bethany is a military wife and all-boys-mama who is addicted to suspense novels and all things girly. She writes on living a brilliant life at BethanyJett.com. Connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest,  Instagram, and Twitter.