First Mobile Live Stream Fail! - Imperfect Entrepreneur #3

In November, I did my first Facebook live in the group for my blog, Blog + Create. I was so ready to just hop on camera, welcome everyone to the group, and talk about the plans.

Now, this isn't the first time I've ever been live. I did Twitch back when it was still Justin.tv. I've done YouTube live. I've even done a half failed webinar.

It wasn't even my first time going on Facebook Live. The problem came down to it being the first time I actually used my phone to broadcast.

Where things went wrong

I usually use OBS, so it uses your webcam and you don't have to think about direction. Plus I never use the video features of my phone because I hate myself but that's another story.

I had my phone facing me horizontally, so my stream ran like this:

I would have known something was going wrong. There's a little message telling you that you can't change the orientation of your phone once you've started recording. I took that to mean since I started it horizontally, I'd be okay.

Apparently not.

Even if I'd just had Facebook up on a laptop or tablet I would have caught my mistake, but I was in the most presentable corner of the house so I didn't have any of those things with me at the time. Mistake #2.

The worst part of this that I actually took a course on Facebook Live in the summer (by the brilliant and lovely Stephanie Liu - name twins!) so I should have known better. In my defense, I was struggling to keep up thanks to having to suddenly move earlier than expected, but I also feel like that's no excuse.

Everything turned out okay in the end

FORTUNATELY, no one showed up anyway! So I was able to download the video, rotate it, and re-upload it to be my pinned post for the group.

I later posted about this in another group, we all had a laugh, and that's the story of how people convinced me to create this series. lol

Advice for new streamers

So, just a heads up. If you do go live, make sure you have a way to check yourself. Usually, I do this. Of course, the one day when I decide I should be okay without it, I'm not!

Share on Twitter: "Have a way to check your own live streams. Use a phone, tablet, or separate window to make sure everything is running smoothly before moving on to your main content. People are nice; they'll wait if it means things will work! #BloggingTips #LiveStreamingTips"

Most of us doing this have multiple devices and should be able to check. If you don't then at least ask and listen to your viewers. Unfortunately, I had no viewers so there wasn't anyone around to see me know of my mistake.

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