Today on The Connected Yoga Teacher live show, Shannon talks about her own fears and success around making Facebook Live Video. She shares how to get started and the many “mistakes” she made along the way.

There is a video (to the left) that will walk you through this and also many notes below for you to have so that you can begin to create your own Facebook live videos for sharing your yoga message.

Also watch the video to find out about our Facebook Live Challenge for yoga teachers. If you would like to join us – click on the button below.

My Facebook Live Fears

Okay the first time I ever hit the GO LIVE button, I was so nervous. It was in a private group of 40 business women. It was part of being a member of the group and I was so scared to jump on and say hello. I scribbled out some notes to say and just decided I needed to do it.

Fast forward to today — I now host a weekly Facebook Live show for yoga teachers.

The quick story — I started because I wanted to get word out about the podcast. It worked so well! So I want to share this with you so that you can take the notes and create live video to share your yoga offerings.

To here the full story of why I started the live show — listen to Episode 5 of The Connected Yoga Teacher Podcast.

Facebook Live Is Working Well Because…

1. The Facebook algorithm gives them a prime spot in the newsfeed.
2. Your audience gets to know you and your personality as a yoga teacher.
3. Your students may feel more comfortable coming to class because they feel they know you from your videos.
4. You can get a lot of information across in a short time.
5. It is free, easy and available to you as a great marketing tool.
6. You can share what you are passionate/curious about while showcasing your skills/expertise.
7. The videos don’t have to be perfect. People appreciate the non-polished video.

Equipment Needed

A computer, tablet or phone with a camera, good access to wifi and the option for Facebook live.

Other Optional Equipment

• Ring light
• Ear buds or microphone
• 3rd party software like Wirecast or the BeLive app
  (Example — Vicky’s Mompreneur Show with a split screen showing a guest – click here to see that)

How to Do a Facebook Live Test Video

If you are wanting to try out Facebook live, but you are afraid to jump on live where everyone can see you — it is a great idea to create a test video. To read more about this – click here. I wrote this before you could use your desktop computer to create live video, so it has already changed in the past few months.

Know Your Why Before You Go Live

Before you go live to your audience ask yourself what you would like to offer to them and what your main goal is. For example if you have a weekly class and you are going to be doing a session on Yoga for Sleep, then you might share a pose and a breath practice and talk about how people can register for your upcoming session.

If you can look at your calendar and see what workshop/retreats/classes you have coming up – this will help you to create a Facebook live schedule that compliments it.

During Your Live Video

• Introduce your topic first, then yourself
• Start right away – don’t wait for people to be there live
• If people are there live – you can say ‘hi’ and ask them questions for them to answer in the comments, then get back to your content
• Share a chunk of content, then answer a few questions, then a chunk of content again
• If no one is there live – talk about questions that you often hear

Facebook Live and Yoga

A great example of a beautiful yoga class hosted by Rosslyn Kemerer via Facebook live is available for all yoga teachers who are members of The Connected Yoga Teacher Facebook group (to be a member — you just need to be a certified yoga teacher (or in a 200-hour YTT) and request to join. Click on the image below to watch the video.

Notice how Rosslyn stays with the camera for the entire practice. This is one option. The other is to demo the poses and another is to do a combination of both.

After Your Facebook Live Video

Once your video is complete, you will want to go back to it and reply to the comments from those that attended live and/or watched the replay. This helps to keep people returning to your video.

Last week I was watching a live video where I left a comment. That week I got a private Facebook message about the video, which reminded me to go back and watch the full thing.

You can post links and notes in the comments. You can also share this video from your Facebook page to your personal page or to a group.

Upload Your Video to YouTube

It is pretty easy to save your live videos and upload them to YouTube. I did this mainly because then I could embed them into our show notes, but I am seeing more benefits now as people are finding out about the work that I do with yoga teachers via youtube.

Thanks for this video Daniel Latto 🙂