2019 Facebook Premiere for Marketers

Facebook Premiere is one of the newest features from the Facebook platform, and it allows you to schedule and upload videos which you have previously recorded so that you can broadcast them live from your Facebook page. This allows you to take advantage of all the considerable benefits that you might derive from a Facebook Live video, although you would be using a previously recorded video rather than a live one.

Once you schedule a Facebook Premiere, a post gets published immediately to your Facebook page, which will include a button labeled Get Reminder which viewers will be able to click on, so they can receive a notification before your broadcast date. All subscribers will receive these notifications approximately 20 minutes before your Premiere is broadcast. Then about three minutes before the broadcast, subscribers will get a follow-up notification which will allow them to join the broadcast lobby, so that they can comment, share, and like your video before it actually debuts.Users will also see a clock which counts down the time running up to broadcast, so they can keep track of available time. At the broadcast time, your video will begin to air with a red badge labeled Premiere, which is very similar to what you might see during a Facebook Live broadcast, which always shows the Live badge.One of the big differences with using Facebook Premiere is that the page administrator need not be present during the broadcast, whereas obviously in a live broadcast, the administrator would be the host during the airing. As viewers react to your video broadcast, emojis will appear on the screen, and if you are present, you can respond to viewers with comments while the video is being broadcast.Following the Premiere, the video will automatically be converted to a normal post on your Facebook page. At that time, it will function like any other video, and all the user comments, likes, and shares will be saved directly to that post. Anytime a new viewer accesses the video post, they'll be able to see all the previous user interactions and add their own to them.

Advantages of using Facebook Premiere

People who have avoided using Facebook Live because they don't feel comfortable about being in front of the camera in a live situation may find Facebook Premiere much more to their liking. Because it's not a live presentation, you have the time to prepare a more professional and more polished video well ahead of time, while still benefiting greatly from the live engagement with your users and followers.Another major advantage of using Facebook Premiere is that it relieves you of your hosting duties so that you can actually interact in real-time with all viewers of your video. Developing a Premiere will also allow you to build up some buzz about the broadcast well ahead of time, so you can use it for many different possibilities such as promoting sales, sharing details about a contest giveaway, or launching a new product. You'll also have a number of distribution channels, such as your Facebook page, your news feed and Facebook Watch, which will allow you to expand your audience greatly.

Setting up and scheduling a Facebook premiere

Any time you are planning to schedule a Premiere, it has to be a minimum of 10 minutes before the time you intend to broadcast your video. While 10 minutes is the minimum scheduling time required, the maximum would be up to seven days, and you will be allowed to schedule multiple premieres for the same time slot.

After you've already scheduled a Premiere for a certain time slot, Facebook will allow you to swap it out for a different premier video, right up to 15 minutes before you air the video. This will build in some flexibility for you, in the event that any last minute changes are necessary before airing your broadcast video.Any video which you're scheduling for Facebook Premiere has to be a new video which you have never previously uploaded to the platform. It also must meet specific technical requirements including all of the following. Any video which you schedule has to be at least 30 seconds in length, and it must be 30 frames per second or less, while also being no larger than 1920×1080p.The file size of your video must not exceed 10 GB, and the recommended video format is MP4. If any of these technical requirements are not observed, the display is likely to be corrupted or faulty in some way, and that will, of course, ruin the intended effect you had for your video. Scheduling any video for Facebook Premiere begins with uploading a video, just like you would normally upload any other kind of video to the platform.

• First, click on the Photo/Video button on your Facebook page
• Select the Upload Photos/Video option, and then navigate to the specific video you wish to upload to the platform
• After selecting the video, a window will pop up where you will have to enter a title and description for your video
• Optionally, you can enter tags so as to improve the discoverability of your content by clicking in the Tags field, and then browsing through all tag categories to find the ones you're interested in. After you've made your tag selections, click on Next.
• At this point, the Publishing Options window will be displayed, and on this window, you have to select the Premiere option, then provide a date and time on which you prefer to schedule your broadcast. You can upload a custom image at this time by clicking on Add Image, and this will be used in your news feed post
• After having made these selections, click Publish in order to schedule the Premiere, and to get an immediate announcement post to your Facebook page.

At the time the broadcast has been scheduled for, your video will air with a Premiere badge appearing in the top left corner of the video display. All users will be able to see how many others are viewing the video, and when the broadcast ends, it will then be posted to your timeline. At this point, users will be able to continue interacting with your video by commenting, sharing, or liking it.