Personally, I don’t really like going live on Instagram. I mean, once I go live, I don’t know what to say to the viewers (Well, do I get many viewers anyway?). I seldom even post things on Instagram, though I love posting Instagram stories. That being said, I know what I’m doing when it comes to managing social media for business. As a person who provides social media services for business, I would still state the obvious: using social media for business is way too different than using social media for personal purposes. Here’s what makes social media for business use is different from social media for personal use:

• You absolutely can’t say whatever you want
• Followers’ opinions do matter
• You need to keep up with the trends, which means you need to be online all the time
• Watch your mouth or you’ll regret it!

So, where were we? Oh! Instagram Live. Why did I choose this topic for this week, then? Well, I get asked a lot of questions like this, “How come you almost never went live on your own personal Instagram account, but you often scheduled for a live through your business account?” Well, first of all, let me tell you why it is more effective to go live on Instagram business account than go live for a meaningless conversation via personal Instagram account:

• By going live on Instagram, you can increase your business credibility because people are aware of your real existence, not just some scammer
• Going live on Instagram increases your engagement with your potential buyers and returning customers, but why and how? What do you need to do once you go live on Instagram? Keep reading to find out!

Schedule the time and date but be consistent

I have to admit, people having Fear of Missing out (FOMO) is the best trick to attract more viewers to your live streaming, especially if they are a loyal customer of your business or just a person interested in your products. When you announce about your schedule to go live on your Instagram stories, your viewers want to know what you are up to and find out if that is going to benefit them if they join your live streaming. For that reason, you need to, let me correct that, you MUST be consistent with the time and date and of course, you should make a consistent schedule for that. When you are consistent with the schedule, it should be clear to your viewers that you will constantly go live at the same scheduled time. For example, depending on your country time zone, you will always go live at, say, 6pm to announce something or give more information about certain products or even event. That way, your loyal followers will always be ready for your live streaming so that you will not lose audience and they will not have to worry about FOMO.

Start a QnA session

Starting a QnA session is very important because through answering your viewers’ questions, they get a better understanding of your business and your products. Also, if there used to be something wrong or some misunderstanding happening in your business, you will clear it and give them insights through your answers.

Aside from that, starting a QnA session isn’t always about your products or business. It is also about offline events you are going to launch or maybe announcements regarding your giveaway events – anything that can help your viewers get a better understanding of you and your business and of course, anything that can answer their burning questions.

Showcase your products, offline stores or offices and give tutorials

Sometimes what appears on photos doesn’t always look the same in person. Showcasing your products helps your viewers get a better view of your products like size, colours and textures. Also, showcasing your offline stores or offices can help in gaining your viewers’ trust (for the obvious reason). Aside from that, what is even better is that if you can help your viewers understand how to use your products by giving them the tutorials. Not only this will get them to trust you more, this also shows how much you care about your customers, not just for your selling purpose.

There are many ways you can use Instagram live streaming, but one thing for sure; you are live not just to show off, but to show how you care about your followers genuinely. Once you have this mindset, you are on the right path.