Recently, Facebook trialled a new feature called “Premiere”, which rolled out to everyone a couple of weeks ago.
The new feature is for Facebook Pages and appears under the Videos section within Publishing Tools.
“What’s it for?” I hear you ask. Well quite simply, it allows you to upload and schedule videos on your page. Many companies, ourselves included, used third-party tools like OBS Studio to show pre-recorded video as a Live Stream to take advantage of the viral impact of Facebook Live, where followers are notified of a page going live and people are notified when their friends are watching.
Is it a direct replacement? Yes and no.
The Pros of Facebook Premiere
Saves ‘Live’ errors
If you’ve been keen to try a Facebook Live video, but been put off by the errors that could occur when ‘going live’, Facebook Premiere is for you. It plays in a way that allows live engagement from those watching, but without the worry that any filming errors, or bad wi-fi connections, will plague the broadcast. Premiere videos have no fast-forward or rewind so play like Facebook Live videos.
We know from experience that some clients are understandably worried that a dropped connection, a forgotten line or even something like bad weather could negatively affect a Live video, so this is a great option to provide peace of mind and a more polished video.
Allows for engagement
Any reactions or interactions with the pre-recorded Premiere video will happen in real time - including those floating emojis when someone likes the post - just as it would for a Live video. This is particularly good news for Facebook creators, or small teams who would otherwise not be able to engage with the audience while filming.
This helps allow for more interaction with fans while the video is airing. A live Q&A can still take place in the comments, even if the video isn’t live!
Reminds users to watch
One of the benefits of Facebook Live has always been that Facebook sends a reminder to users to watch the video, and pushes videos it thinks users may be interested in.
Similarly, once a video is scheduled for Premiere, a post is pushed out letting followers know, as well as page subscribers getting a reminder 20 minutes before the Premiere starts, as well as being notified that they can join the ‘broadcast lobby’ three minutes before the video begins, allowing for conversation before hand.
This extra push can help drive more users to the video.
The Cons of Facebook Premiere
No live sponsored post options
Sadly, just as with Facebook Live, you cannot sponsor a Premiere video while it is ‘premiering’. You can, of course, sponsor a post in advance to invite people to join, and sponsor the post afterwards to drive further traffic, but not while the video first airs.
Can only be scheduled from a computer
In this day and age, we were quite surprised that Premiere videos can only be scheduled and published from a computer - and doesn’t allow mobile scheduling.
While this isn’t a big deal for us, it may be more difficult for smaller creators, who use a GoPro and and iPhone for content.
Doesn’t remind users QUITE as much as Live
We’ve previously mentioned how Premiere encourages page subscribers to watch a video, which is a plus.
However, unlike Live, it doesn’t provide quite as much promotion and is a bit less viral. You may have seen notices pop up on your Facebook when a friend is watching a Live video, this doesn’t happen for Premiere, or at least, not that we have seen.
Six tips you should know about using Facebook Premiere
We’ve recently been trialling Facebook Premiere for a client and we’ve come up with five tips that you should know:
You can schedule between seven days and 10 minutes in advance
Videos have to be between 30 seconds and 4 hours long
You can only choose the Premiere option when your video is first uploaded: you can’t go back and change an already live/scheduled post
You can schedule more than one Premiere for the same time (except for multiple languages, we don’t know why you’d want to do this though)
Similar to Live a ‘Premiere’ button will appear in the top corner, and users will be able to see how many people are watching
You can swap out a Premiere video for another. So you could in theory upload any video several days in advance and swap it out 30 mins before go-live. Ideal for late changes...
