Social Media Tracker: Is Facebook live streaming an underutilised marketing tool in egaming?

In the egaming world, there are many tools that are used to increase engagement. Social media is a vital tool in this industry, despite the fact that many casino and bingo brands are not using it to its full potential.

One of the more interesting tools that can be used on Facebook is the ‘Live Video’ tool. While some brands like Sky Bingo are using this tool a lot more recently, others could be doing more. Here, we look at Facebook live videos in more detail and discuss whether it is underutilised in the egaming industry.

What is Facebook streaming?

Facebook live streaming has been around for a few years now but has started to gain popularity with bigger brands more recently. Essentially anyone can ‘go live’ on Facebook as long as they have a personal page or even a branded company page. They simply set up their camera and mic then they are broadcasted live onto the newsfeeds of their followers and friends.

The great thing about Facebook Live videos is that they are in real-time and so anyone watching can interact. This opens up the possibility for this tool to be used for Q&As, competitions and more. While live videos can be used on other channels like Instagram, Facebook is where it all began.

Why does it matter?

For those who aren’t already using live videos on Facebook, the next question might be ‘why is this important to me?’ The truth about this is that in 2018 alone, Facebook live broadcasts reached 3.5 billion. Another important statistic to know about is that Facebook Live videos tend to produce six times more interactions that the traditional kind of video.

According to 99Firms, Facebook Live videos are watched for three times longer that a video than has been pre-uploaded. This shows that while you might put a lot of effort into your video content, the truth is that a live video on Facebook is going to be seen more by your target audience. This is something which is crucial to know in the egaming industry.

Sky Bingo: Case study

One of the biggest brands in the egaming industry right now is Sky Bingo and it is leading the way with great content on its social channels. It currently has over 51K likes on Facebook and it regularly updates its page in order to reach its players.

While the content on the Sky Bingo page is varied between branded images and regular video content, it is also using Facebook Live videos to reach a wider audience. The way in which Sky Bingo is achieving this is through live competition broadcasts. Their Facebook live videos consist of a host who interacts with their Facebook followers.

To enter the competition on Sky Bingo, players must comment on the post with a pre-determined hashtag. The host will then spin a video slot game and then burst a balloon which decides the prize for the winner.

The Sky Bingo competition is simple and a bit of fun for players but it has managed to reach a lot of people. This live video alone generated 994 reactions, over 94K comments and 250 shares. The video managed to get 35K views which speaks for itself.

To understand the impact of the live video, we can compare this to a pre-recorded video posted by Sky Bingo the following day. This video only had 71 likes, 13 comments and six shares. This indicates a demand for this kind of content and shows just how powerful it can be for a big brand like Sky Bingo.

What can we learn?

Sky Bingo is just one brand that is using Facebook Live videos to bring in new players and engage those who are already along for the ride. They often ‘Go Live’ more than once per day on their social media channels and this is quite impressive.

While some brands might not have the budget to create this kind of content consistently, they can certainly take a leaf out of Sky Bingo’s book. With such a cluttered timeline, players are finding it hard to see the content that they are interested in and Facebook Live videos can be the answer to this.

For those not using Facebook Live streaming right now, we suggest that it is something which is seriously considered in the future. Your players will receive a notification that you are going live and they will be there waiting for you to begin. This tool is massively underused by casino and bingo brands which is disappointing when there is so much to offer in this form.

With noticeable brands like Sky Bingo using this tool, we expect smaller brands to take note and start incorporating this into their social marketing strategies in the future. Hopefully, it will no longer be an underutilised tool.

Sharon McFarlane is the managing director of Crystal Content – a digital marketing agency that specialises in igaming. She has eight years’ experience in the industry and has contributed regularly to industry magazines and conferences sharing her expertise on all things digital marketing. Her company (www.crystalcontent.co.uk) offers an outsourced solution for igaming businesses when it comes to content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.