We did this as an experiment, broadcasting the segment using Facebook Live Video (meaning that some people tuned in while our meeting was under way). I thought might capture the attention of some of the morning people out there who would be looking for something interesting during our meeting time — and therefore might be more likely to stop by one of our meetings.
The Facebook Live Video service is built into the Facebook mobile app. If you tap the status icon, you will see “Go Live” as one of the alternatives to typing a message.
The app uses your smartphone camera. I toggled it from the default selfie view to use the back-facing camera and secured the phone to a tripod using a cheap clamp I bought a couple of months ago (see below).
One thing I have found a little tricky is that with my Android phone the video only works properly if I position the phone vertically, whereas my instinct is to turn it horizontally (for a widescreen more TV-like video). However, Facebook actually squares off the picture, so you don’t get that vertical video effect that always looks funny to me.
Club Awesome uses a WordPress-powered website that makes it easy to add video (see my WordPress for Toastmasters site). To embed the video into this post, I just pasted in the link for the video into the WordPress editor, and WordPress automatically embedded the video player (similar to the way it works with YouTube video). The easiest way to find the link for the video is to click on the timestamp of the associated post.
Our club officers are talking about doing this more often with the speeches of the more confident members. Meanwhile, we will continue with our practice of routinely recording video of member speeches. The difference is those are shared privately for educational purposes, albeit with the possibility of publicizing some of the best, with the member’s permission. When you do Facebook Live Video, you’re committed! There is no opportunity to review the video before it is broadcast, and Facebook provides few editing controls.
If you are really unhappy with how the video came out, you could always delete it so it won’t continue to be available for replay. But Toastmasters are supposed to be brave! Live a little and Go Live with Facebook.