Pioneering Facebook LIVE
Just over a year ago, my co-worker at Campus Recreation & Wellness and me were approached by East Carolina University Creative Services inquiring on making a video to show off our Student Recreation Center. We worked with these lovely content creators by being the hosts during the tour. We loved creating video so much we worked on developing our own video platform right around the time Facebook and a few other social platforms were giving their users a new tool to engage with their audience by going live from their social media accounts. With this new tool at our disposal we first went live on Facebook to show off an under valued and under used area of our facility, the Wellness Center on Wellness Wednesday. This first experiment, though a bit awkward, received over 400 views, quite a triumph a year ago, and staff and audience seemed to enjoy feeling like they were a part of growing our social presence.
StartFragmentThis outlet gave us an advantage over other areas of campus, other recreation centers, and a reason to make, not just our departments at CRW, but the entire campus feel a bit smaller. We loved working with this medium and wanted to continue working on Facebook Live to see what would happen. We invested in lighting, wireless mics, a phone holder, made signs, created sets, but most importantly reached out to other areas of CRW in order to have content to share with our audience. I think one of the most valuable outcomes in beginning Facebook live is how it opened communication between my department, Marketing, and the 7 other departments within the facility. My coworker and me worked with personal trainers, fitness instructors, local doctors, and people really began to notice. Whether wanting to be a part of the action themselves or running the other way when they saw two babbling students and a phone coming their way, people saw the difference on campus and the social impact we were creating.
StartFragmentToday I am still shooting but my coworker moved on. I create the #WellnessWednesday Weekly Facebook Live segments by planning the topic, coordinating the people, curating the content, directing the short film, and promoting the clip each week. I work with one intern, I was lucky enough to recruit, who has prior experience vlogging and another employee who records us every Wednesday. Back when we began, 400 viewers was great, but most recently we drew 4,000 viewers to Campus Recreation & Wellness's Facebook page all interested in three friends and me taking the Polar Bear Plunge, an annual Pirate tradition. I now think of these videos as very valuable to CRW's social media plan. Be sure to check out the ongoing collection here.
