Going live in Workplace
Learn how to create an engaging internal broadcast with Live video.
Workplace’s Live video gives you the tools to reach everyone in your organization, no matter where they are, with communications that are personal, engaging and accessible. Go live to broadcast anything, from company announcements to panel discussions with executives or external guests—all you need is your phone or computer.
This guide outlines 8 tips to help you go live from Workplace. For even more in-depth resources on Live video, including interactive demos, live training, technical resources and more, visit the Live video resource hub.
1. Choose your device1. Choose your device
Going live from your phone makes it easy to touch base with your team and share updates across the company. We recommend going live from your phone for short communications, like recognizing team members, broadcasting end of year and holiday messages from leaders and keeping everyone up to date on company announcements.
To engage your audience and leverage more advanced Live video features, go live on desktop with Live Producer. Live Producer allows you to:
- Go live with multiple hosts
- Schedule broadcasts in advance
- Share your screen
- Engage your audience with Live Q&A and interactive polls
- Monitor the health of your live stream with key metrics and event logs
- Make your video more accessible with auto-generated captions and translated captions
- Monitor real-time views and engagement
2. Create an event in Workplace
Creating a Workplace event allows you to:
- Share important information like location, event description, agenda and more with attendees
- Send invites through Workplace notifications and third party calendar invites, including Google and Outlook
- Track responses to invites in Workplace
- Engage attendees in the lead up to the event with polls, posts and more
- Notify attendees in Workplace when event updates are made
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Follow these steps to create an event in Workplace:
- Click on Home in the left menu, click on See More and select Events
- Click +Organize Event
- Add a name and description for your event
- You can upload your own cover photo or choose from a few templates available. For guidance on cover photo sizes, check out this guide
- Add a start time and end time. You have the option to schedule multiple events
- Add a description and an Event Schedule, then click Next
- Choose whether you’d like to broadcast the event to Workplace, add an external link if you’re broadcasting to another platform, or add a physical location where your event will be hosted. When you’re done, click Next
- Choose who can see and join the event. You can select the whole organization, only people who are invited or members of a specific group you’re a member of
- Add your co-hosts if you have any
- Toggle on if you’d like to send invites to people’s calendars
- Check the box at the bottom to send out invitations, then click Create event
3. Set yourself up for success
If you’re going live to broadcast a company event like a Town Hall or Q&A, practice a full dry-run to help you prepare for the unexpected. Running through the entire event will allow everyone to plan for timing, troubleshoot technology, and identify any potential issues that would otherwise catch you off guard. Test out transitions, microphones, video software, and make sure executives practice on camera so everyone feels comfortable on the day of the event.
Here are a few other helpful tips to ensure your live stream goes smoothly:
- Facing a window will give you a beautiful source of natural light, and make you appear clear in your video frame.
- Sound is as important as lighting. Make sure you are wearing a microphone, either the headphones that came with your device or a wired microphone.
- Make sure your network connection is good. You don’t want to lose connection halfway through your broadcast.
- It’s a good idea to restart your device about 1 hour before you are due to go live to prevent your device from crashing or forcing an update during your broadcast.
- Disable all Workplace notifications and alerts on your device using Do Not Disturb so you’re not interrupted with calls, messages and notifications during the broadcast.
4. Go live
When you’re ready, you can go live by navigating to the Event you created in step 2. You can do this by going to Home > See More > Events. Once you’re on the event page, follow these steps:
- Click on the Set up live video button
- Toggle on Include Q&A if you’d like to gather and respond to questions during your broadcast
- Choose the device you’ll be going live from
- If you will be going Live with others, toggle on Broadcast with other hosts. You will get an invite link that you can copy and share with your co-hosts on Workplace Chat
- Adjust your camera and microphone settings
- You have the option to give your Live video a title and description
- Click Go live now. If you’re going live with other hosts, this button will read Meet hosts. You will be taken to a room, where you can meet your co-hosts and, when you’re ready, go live using the button at the bottom of your screen. Note that only the Live video creator will be able to see and click the go live button.
You can also go live to a group by clicking on the post composer and selecting the Live video icon.
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For a full walkthrough of the Live video experience, check out these interactive demos.
Managing a Live video with multiple participants
Enlist one person to create the Live video and act as a moderator. They will be able to monitor the health of the broadcast, manage Live Q&A and publish polls during the event.
If you are hosting a Live video with someone from outside of your Workplace, you will need to copy the invite link and share it with them manually. Once you are in your room, you will need to click Edit and select Anyone can join using this link. Don't see this option? Contact your system administrator to update your access settings.
Incorporating visuals
Consider using a variety of mediums like videos, slide decks and infographics to deliver a visually engaging message. Anyone in the Live video can share their screen throughout the broadcast, but it’s a good idea to review visuals in advance and practice sharing screens during your dry-run.
5. Engage your audience5. Engage your audience
Live Q&A
Your Live video is a great opportunity to hear and address employee questions in an open forum. To gather employee questions in real-time, toggle on Include Q&A before going Live. Once you start recording, employees will be able to ask questions and upvote questions shared by their coworkers.
Questions will appear in your side panel and those with the highest number of votes will appear at the top. The Live video creator will be able to mark questions as answered as they're addressed.
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Polls
You can also encourage your audience to chime in by publishing polls throughout the event. Your audience will see the poll overlaid on the Live video and will be able to click on the options to vote. For that reason, be mindful of when you share the poll. Don’t publish a poll when you’re making important announcements or sharing a presentation that requires your audience to pay close attention to visual elements on screen.
6. Reduce common barriers to video consumption6. Reduce common barriers to video consumption
Video captions
With automatic live captioning you can be sure that your live video broadcasts are more accessible than ever. Workplace automatically detects the language spoken and transcribes your video in real-time. Live captions are available for speakers in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German.
Live captioning is turned on by default, but you can disable it when setting up your broadcast. Just go to Advanced settings > Viewer settings > toggle off auto-generated captions.
Captions can also be regenerated, translated and edited after the Live video is posted. This allows you to ensure captions are accurate and increase the reach of your video content. Learn more about translated captions in the Workplace Help Center.
Learn more about Workplace video captions by watching the video below.
Want to share this video with your Workplace community? You can download it here.
Video chapters
Create video chapters to allow your viewers to skip ahead to parts of your broadcast that are most relevant to them. Video chapters make your video content easier to consume, especially for people who have limited free time in their work day. Learn how to create video chapters in the Help Center.
7. Track video performance and broadcast analytics7. Track video performance and broadcast analytics
Scroll down to see your stream metrics and become aware of any issues quickly. You can find technical specifications and streaming recommendations in the Workplace Technical Resources.
8. Analyze views and engagement8. Analyze views and engagement
You’ll be able to see real-time engagement metrics during your broadcast, such as views, comments, reactions, shares and more. Once the broadcast ends, dive deeper into the data in your post insights by clicking on the three dots at the top right of your post > Post Insights. You’ll be able to track views, engagement and drop-offs across your entire broadcast.
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