Setting up a Live Event on Facebook Page

This post will demonstrate the step-by-step process required to setup a live event on Facebook page. You will need to do this when you plan to livestream an event via Zoom or through switching hardware or such as BlackMagic ATEM, Roland Switcher, or software such as Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), or online platforms like Restream or any other streaming applications.

Setup a Live Event

Step 1

Log into your FB profile that is linked to the page that will be used for the livestreaming.

Step 2

Navigate to the Page (I have a page called Tinkering Thoughts that I will be using for the demonstration here). If you have editor permission on the page you may need to click on Switch Now to have permissions to the page to create the Live event.

Step 3

Click on the Live video icon

The first two options you should see are ‘Go live’ and ‘Create live video event’.

 

To promote the event prior to the actual event and share with your audience, it would be best to create a live video event. If you are creating the event on the go, use the Go live option. In this case I will create a live video event.

Step 4 Create a live video event.

Select the ‘Create live video event’ by clicking on the Select button. This will now take you to the page where you will add in the event details.  

1. Add an event cover photo

Tip: Canva has some great cover photo and even video templates to promote your event. Check out Canva.

For this event, I have used this Canva presentation templates first page as I liked the design for my cover photo. I just edited the first page with the text I require and downloaded the first page only as a .PNG file and uploaded as my cover photo. 

Note: At times by default the Page cover photo will be used as the event cover photo. While this may be sufficient, a separate event cover photo will improve the visibility and branding of the event.

2. Event name, Date and Time.

Give your event a name and add the Start Date and Start Time

Put in the event description and click on Next

Personalize the event

At this stage, before you go ahead and click on Create event there are few things you need to take note of that will be important for the streaming of the event.

Event Settings

Clicking on the Event options will show you the following options in toggle button form which you can turn on or off:

Show guest list; which will display a list of names of guest in your stream event.

Only hosts can post in event; will do as the name implies.

Posts must be approved by a host; other comments and posts will require host approval on the event.

You can event nominate co-hosts of your event by typing their Facebook names (or handles) in the Co-hosts box.

 

 

 

 

 

When you have selected a co-host and enabled show guest list, your preview should reflect the event options selected.

Settings

The settings option contains the following settings that you can tweak for your event.

• Stream
• Viewer
• Comments
• Live tab

Stream key

Stream key you will need this if you are streaming from a hardware or software encoder. (E.g. OBS or ATEM device or other hardware encoders or even if you stream through Zoom) You will need to copy and paste somewhere to be later brought into the hardware or software streaming device or application.

The various options are self-explanatory, and I usually leave the defaults as they are and copy only the stream key.

Viewer options

Two options here that gives the viewer the option to rewind a stream or turn on auto-generated captions.

 

Comments

You can adjust the comments settings as you see fit for purposes of your event. These settings are important for audience engagement and interaction.

 

Live tab

You will also need to note the Page URL.

Ensure to copy the Stream key in the section Stream keysetup

This is what you will put into the streaming application for the stream key.

You can explore the other setting options however for now the stream key is all we need.

If you would like to share the event page to friends and contacts, you can copy the Page URL.

You can now go ahead and click on Create event

 

You should now see this message.

If you have just created the event and are ready to stream also you can go ahead and click on Set up live video and test the video settings.

Or click on Return home to return to your page.

What to do with the stream key?

The stream key is what we will need if we are to be using a software or hardware encoder to stream your event.

You can use the stream key in Zoom, OBS, Restream, ATEM hardware encoder, Roland switchers, etc…

Let’s say we want to livestream an event via a software encoder like OBS. I am assuming here that you know how to use OBS and will not go into the details of overlays, scenes, sources etc but just go straight to where to enter the key. If you would like some tutorial on OBS please comment below and let me know.

Step 1

Go ahead and start Open Broadcast Studio (OBS).

Go to File, Settings.

Step 2

In the Settings window, click on Stream and change the Service option to Facebook Live.

Step 3

Once you have selected Facebook Live, you can now go ahead and copy paste the stream key in the Stream key field. Ensure to click on Apply and OK.

Step 4

Finally, you are ready to go Live!

You do not need to go to Facebook to start the Live, as long as your OBS laptop is connected to the Internet all you have to do is click on the Start Streaming button and the stream on Facebook should begin.

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