If you don’t feel comfortable on video but still like the sound of your own voice, you will love this: Facebook is now letting you go Live with audio-only content.
Going live on social platforms is definitely the new big trend. I have little doubt that live broadcasting will explode in 2017. But here is the thing… we are not all very comfortable with showing our faces on video. That’s why Facebook is now launching Live Audio.
Podcasting is still a growing trend, and radio is still definitely “a thing.” So it makes perfect sense for Facebook to let people go live, just with audio.
Radio publishers like the BBC World Service, LBC and HarperCollins, have been selected to test out Live Audio for now, but the feature should be extended to more people in early 2017 – probably starting with verified profiles, before becoming available for all.
The feature was first announced in a blog post by product specialist, Shirley Ip, and software engineer Bhavana Radhakrishnan:
[quote]We know that sometimes publishers want to tell a story on Facebook with words and not video. We’ve even seen some Pages find creative ways to go live and reach audiences with audio only by using the Facebook Live API or by adding a still image to accompany their audio broadcast. Our new Live Audio option makes it easy to go live with audio only when that’s the broadcaster’s preferred format.[/quote]
What do you think of Live Audio? I think this will definitely make me want to start my own podcast in the new year!
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