How to use Facebook Live Producer to go live from your desktop

 How to use Facebook Live Producer to go live from your desktop

Do you want to broadcast live to Facebook? Wondering how to live stream without third party tools?

In this article, you will learn how to set up a live broadcast with Facebook Live Producer. You'll learn how to enable valuable features that improve sharing and manage live broadcasts, and learn how to customize your Facebook live video thumbnail.

To learn how to live through Facebook Live Producer, read the article below to learn how to do it easily or watch the video below. To learn how to live stream through the Facebook mobile app, watch the video at the end of this article.

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#1: Prepare your technology

Before you go live on Facebook, make sure all your technologies are fully functional, because the last thing you want to do is plan for this big event and realize that you can't go live.

Facebook Live Producer, Facebook's built-in live broadcasting studio, only works with certain browsers. I recommend using Firefox or Chrome. You also want to reduce distractions as much as possible. This means closing tabs you don't need and disconnecting any apps that might be trying to use the internet, like Google Drive and Dropbox. Also turn off notifications so you can focus on your show.

One of the mistakes newbie live streamers make is that they don't check their download speed on the internet. For successful streaming, you must have a minimum download speed of 5 Mbps. To run a test to see your internet download speed, go to Speedtest.net. If possible, it is better to have a solid connection.

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#2: Create a Facebook Live video post in Facebook Live Producer

To start Facebook live streaming on computer without any third-party application, you can use Facebook Live Producer. You can get there directly by going to facebook.com/live/producer. Or from your Facebook business page, click the Live button.

Once you open Facebook Live Producer, you'll see the Go Live Now option that allows you to go live. But before that, you need to set up your live broadcast.

In the image below, you can see that I am ready to go live on my business page. You can change this to your Facebook profile or group by clicking on the dropdown menu. A caveat to going live at your party is that some features will not be available, such as trimming your live video.

The next step is to add a title to your live video. Tell people what your program is about so they know why they should adjust it. Write something that catches their attention.

Below the title, add a description. Descriptions are important. Remember that you are competing with all the other content in your news feed, so focus on the best part of your live broadcast.

At the bottom of the description box, you'll find a few more options to include in your post. From left to right, these icons are:

• Check-in: Check in to let people know where you want to go live. Is this from a weird place or a fun lecture?
• Feeling/Activity: Tell people that you are very excited about your show.
• Fundraising: If you're fundraising for an organization, give people the opportunity to participate and donate to your cause.
• Sponsor Brand: Identify a sponsor or brand you work with.

Below the description you will see a section for games. If you don't play, you can skip it.

Then choose your video thumbnail if you have an image you want to use. It should be 1200 x 675 pixels. If you don't have an image, you can fix that after streaming, as I'll explain later in this article.

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The Crosspost to More Pages feature is something not many people know about. It allows you to go directly to your Page and another Brand Page. Simply click on the Crosspost to More Pages option and a window will appear with all the different pages that you can publish at once at no additional cost.

If you are an admin of a Facebook group, you can choose which groups you want to access directly. This means that you can broadcast live on your page and automatically share the broadcast with your Facebook groups.

One thing to note is that if you publish your broadcast and share it with a group, the comments of viewers in those destinations will not appear on your homepage.

If you want to grow your Facebook group, you will definitely love the add group feature to promote it. This lets you choose which group you want to promote as a call to action (CTA). This way, when you go live, Facebook will automatically promote that group.

Now let's move on to audience settings. This means that if you want to limit the reach of your broadcast, you can tell Facebook that you want only people of a certain age or geographic area to see your video. But from a human perspective, you want to be in front of as many people as possible, so I recommend not adding restrictions.

Pro Tip: When it comes to live streams, it's always a good idea to test, which is the purpose of releasing as a test streaming feature. When this box is checked, you will have a test broadcast that no one else can see so you can be sure that your audio and video are working perfectly.

#3: Set up Live Broadcasting in Facebook Live Producer

Now let's go to the Broadcast Setup tab on the right side of the page. This is where you will find a direct link to the Facebook Live. If you need to promote your software, this is the link you will use. It will be www.facebook.com/yourpage/live.

To start playing live video, you can choose from three options: use a broadcast key, use a camera, or use associated encoder. Stream Key and Pair Encoder options both require the use of a third-party platform, so forget about them for the purposes of this article. Alternatively, select the option to use the camera. This will allow you to use your built-in camera or an external camera such as a webcam or DSLR (which I like to use).

As for configuration options, I always select Use persistent stream key. There's no reason for me to change that. The second option is to use a backup stream. I don't need it because I know Facebook will always provide me with a recording that I can download in the future.

Manage live streaming settings

We will now look at the options in the Settings section.

If your internet connection is poor, I would say don't do live filming - but sometimes you might need to. Go to streaming settings and uncheck the box to end live video if streaming stops. Otherwise, if you encounter a poor internet connection during the broadcast, Facebook will start the broadcast and end the broadcast. You don't want that to happen.

If you want people to join your live stream outside of Facebook, that's easy to do. Simply copy and paste the embed code to share it on your website. Even if people can't watch the live stream, they can still watch the replay.

Another feature you might want to take advantage of is unpublishing your video after the live stream ends. It can help you create a fear of losing the FOMO effect. When I go live I tend not to check this box because I want people to share the replay.

Under View, you'll find another underutilized feature: allowing viewers to rewind live video streams during live streaming. This gives viewers the ability to follow what you share online.

The following setting will allow Facebook to create captions automatically. This works well if the speaker is talking because Facebook's AI will be able to give you a copy. However, if you are in a noisy environment, you can leave this option unchecked to avoid problems.

The Comments section allows you to change the way comments appear in your live broadcast. I don't use any of these settings; However, if your brand page tends to get a lot of trolls, these options can be useful. Here's what they do:

• Follower: Only followers of your Brand Page are allowed to comment.
• Slow: When viewers are watching, they can only comment every 10 seconds.
• Discussion: Only viewer comments longer than 100 characters will be shown. It can help you have a more engaging conversation, but if someone just wants to say hello, that comment won't appear on the screen.

These last two settings help you deter spammers or trolls from commenting on your broadcast.

• Restricted: No Facebook user with an account less than two weeks old will be able to comment on your broadcast.
• Protected: With this setting, commenters must follow your page for at least 15 minutes. If they don't follow your page, they won't be able to leave a comment.