How YouTube Live & Facebook at Work isn’t as Bad as You Think
Use Youtube Live & Facebook at Work, for Work
Internet usage during office hours are likely monitored or limited, since using it for non-work-related stuff can affect one’s productivity. This includes social networking sites like Facebook, streaming sites like YouTube, or even aimlessly searching using Google’s search engine.
But through the years, these sites have been improved and are now offering features that could actually be useful in a work environment.
You can safely open Facebook and YouTube, and confidently say that you’re just doing your job. Let us explore some of the ways that you can use these sites for productivity.
Facebook’s Workplace – a total communication tool suitable for any office
Facebook is undoubtedly the biggest social networking platform today, but unfortunately, it is also the biggest productivity-killer for many office workers. One could spend hours just browsing friends’ profiles, playing built-in games, or messaging contacts.
Just from these features alone, you’d be sure that most employees would spend their work hours doing anything but work. That’s why for most companies, Facebook usage is limited to breaks. Some find a way to sneak a glance using their smartphones, which will then lead to limiting mobile device usage.
However, when used properly, Facebook brings a lot of upside for modern businesses, especially those who are just starting up and with limited budgets.
Facebook is known throughout the globe, and can be accessed virtually anywhere, by anyone with a decent internet connection. With that in mind, Facebook has the potential to become a tool that transcends the typical four-walled workspace. Perhaps that’s the reason why the Menlo Park-based tech giant came up with the Workplace.
Facebook Workplace is a communication and collaboration tool that puts some of the best features of the social networking platform into a nifty, web-based productivity tool.
One of the highlights of Workplace is its communications features, based on the simple yet robust Facebook Messenger. For Workplace, this feature is called Work Chat, which is packed full of Messenger’s goodies, including instant messaging, voice calling, and video calling. What makes the Work Chat sleeker and more productivity-focused is the integrated capabilities that enables users to create events, send invites, and even share files.
Everyday tasks can be automated through bots, so you won’t have to spend a lot of time worrying about repetitive duties.
Now if you’re already using some of the most common productivity apps for work, the good thing about Workplace is that you can integrate it in your workflow. Add apps like Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive, so that you’ll be able to do more within the platform.
You have all your tools within reach, so you won’t have to switch between programs just to get your tasks done.
YouTube Live – boost your brand using videos and livestreaming
YouTube is the biggest video-sharing website today, and almost all modern internet users have visited and used the platform to watch or upload videos online. But for years, the platform was treated like a novelty, a video-sharing site where visitors can waste hours of their day watching cat videos and DIY tutorials. But as YouTube viewership grew by the millions, companies saw the potential to use it as a marketing platform.
Brands scrambled to upload short video clips that could go viral, and use it to subtly showcase their products. Businesses were built around YouTube marketing, and in a way, it opened up a new advertising channel.
Eventually, YouTube became saturated with different marketing campaigns from all types of companies and products. It is hard to find anything fresh or creative, because with the millions of users uploading videos to the platform every day, it’s highly likely that the idea has been used before.
This is why they came up with YouTube Live, a new way for businesses to use the platform more effectively.
Livestreaming is not a new concept, it has been around for quite some time now, but it was more of a novelty back then. But with the spread of quality mobile devices and the availability of reliable Internet connection, livestreaming is finally gaining ground as a useful tool for marketing.
YouTube Live, as the name suggests, is the livestreaming feature of the video-sharing website. It is open for all the verified channels in YouTube, with no livestream restrictions. Obviously, it is not available to everyone (again, channel should be verified) so creating an account solely for this purpose is not going to work.
But for brands who are already verified and are quite active in video sharing, this is an opportunity that they should not pass up. Livestreaming has very minimal requirements, just a suitable computer/mobile device with a camera, and a stable internet connection and you’re ready to go.
Brands can use YouTube Live to stream and record their product launches, set-up question and answer events online to entertain their customers’ questions, as well as other engagement projects that they can think of. Unlike creating videos for the purpose of making them viral, livestreaming is less costly, and the results you get is instantaneous.
You get to see how many viewers are available, and you get to read their comments as you stream. It is a great way to interact with your audience, and you also get real-time feedback about anything related to your brand.
You can also use it give back and reward their loyalty through live raffle draws and other events to give away prizes.
Who would have thought that there will come a time when Facebook and YouTube are actual work tools that you can freely open and access while you work?
But as the Internet evolves, we get to see such sites adapt to the needs of the users. This is true with other web-based concepts as well, like how we are now using the cloud to power enterprise communications, or how e-commerce drastically changed the way we shop.
The Internet is indeed a gift for the modern man, and it will continue to evolve in order to satisfy our modern wants and needs.
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