As the CEO of a not for profit with an international network of chapters that hold regularly scheduled informational and networking events, I am always interested in increasing membership and engagement. Of course, social media is a critical part of our strategic marketing, communications and engagement plan.

One way we do that is to live stream some of our chapter events that originate from locations from San Francisco to Denver to Barcelona.

By now, you have likely heard how effective video marketing is, but did you know Facebook Live videos receive 3X higher engagement than a video that is no longer live? Facebook Live videos also receive 5X more than standard photo posts, according to AdWeek.

Whether you’re trying to raise brand awareness, get more leads in the door, or increase interactions with your current customers, Facebook Live is a tool you should be using. Here are five ways you should be using Facebook Live in your marketing campaigns: 

1. Be sure you have someone knowledgeable about the technical aspects of using the platform to help produce and create the video.
2. Check to be sure that the WiFi in the location will support high quality live streaming.
3. Have a microphone available not just the presenter, but for audience participants who want to ask questions or engage as well.
4. Be sure to get approval from the speaker to live stream and archive the event.
5. Ask the presenter to review the video before posting since they might have said something or demonstrate body language they would prefer not to publish.
6. Decide how live streaming fits into your marketing matrix.
7. Do a brief introduction to make viewers aware of what they are about to see.
8. Use carefully selected key words and metatags to optimize SEO.
9. Repurpose the video or share generously on other video platforms like YouTube.
10. Make your message repetitive, redundant and relational, linking the videos to other marketing collateral like websites, newsletters, online posts and blogs. Here are the 7Rs of content marketing.
11. Be sure your elevator pitch/statement of your value proposition is consistent and identical across your platforms.
12. Do not publish low quality videos. Learn from your mistakes and fix them when it comes time to produce the next one.

Scaling your business will depend on how you get, keep and grow customers. One way to do that is to show them, not tell them.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Twitter@SoPEOfficial and Facebook.