FACEBOOK LIVE HAS LAUNCHED! SORRY PERISCOPE AND MEERKAT BUT LIVE STREAMING JUST GOT AWESOME-R

It was mid March in Austin, Texas and as I went from SXSW event to SXSW party people were buzzing about the release of two new live streaming applications: Periscope and Meerkat. Ever the rebel, I instantly fell in love with Meerkat over “the man” of Periscope, which was owned by Twitter. I began following Meerkat creator Ben Rubin and live streaming all over Austin. It was the perfect party and audience to celebrate new technology in the social media world. However, after the first few weeks my love affair began to fade. For the brands that I work with- exclusively entertainment and restaurants- the vast majority of their audience isn’t available on a moment’s notice to tune in, so I kept hearing about how Periscope saved the streams for 24 hours, allowing for more engagement after the live stream. Alas, “the man” and his fancy technology won out. In early April I moved all of my brands and myself over to Periscope. Having happily landed on Periscope, I thought I would stay there for much longer and I do think it is brilliant. However, Zuckerberg and his team at Facebook have CHANGED THE ENTIRE live streaming game with their Facebook Live feature. Why? If you have a verified account on Facebook (they are doing a slow roll out, so I expect this will grow to include everyone over time), you can use the Mentions feature to live stream what is going on right now in your life. Here’s the clincher and why brands are going to FALL IN LOVE: it does’t save it for 24 hours.Facebook Live saves it forever ever on your Facebook page as a post, so your fans can like, comment, or share it. Yup, mic drop. Facebook Live just took the world’s largest social media platform and gave it the functionality of live streaming. The future has arrived! If you haven’t fallen in love with live streaming, here is why I adore it: *It is the ultimate in authenticity. For the chefs in the kitchens of the restaurants I work with it empowers them to share behind the scenes moments and answer questions from around the world. The access is incredible and people love it. Live streaming has become the new television. *It is the ultimate in community. You are building a channel and community just like YouTube, but you have all of the lovely features of social media that we adore. You get real time engagement PLUS you get the commenting and sharing that can happen after. *It is the ultimate in access. At the Emmys in September I will be taking you along as I meet some of television’s biggest stars and, rather than me asking them my questions, you will get to ask them YOUR questions. It isn’t all love and magic. The tough part is that the existing audience is fairly technologically and social media savvy. My grandpa isn’t on live streaming. He just mastered how to accept friends on Facebook, so I anticipate it will be slow to grow to the older generation that was already struggling to adopt new technology. Also, I don’t get dudes asking me to show my boobs on Twitter or Instagram everyday, but every time I live stream I get at least 2-3 morons that I have to block because they say disgusting sexual things. If you are a hot female you should be aware of that. Today I am live streaming my entire day on my Facebook page. Check it out and join me here. Happy live streaming my friends!