NEW YORK — New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. works on one-handed catches in pregame warmups, and now thanks to the NFL’s new social media policy, the team can take that experience right to the fans in real-time.
Because the NFL recently allowed Facebook Live to be used on game days, the Giants on Sunday were able to live stream Beckham’s warmup when the team previously had to cut up the video and post it at a later time, digital and social media strategist Nilay Shah said at SVG Summit. The ability to use Facebook Live meant fans could comment in real-time and get fired up before the game, as the video received more than 387,000 views.
The NFL sent a memo to all teams regarding changes in the social media policy, including the enabling of teams to post live video, according to Yahoo Finance. Teams can now post a live video on Facebook Live, YouTube Live, or Periscope, with a maximum duration of 15 minutes with the stream needing to end no later than 15 minutes before kickoff, and must include promotion of the game, according to the report.
“Now we Facebook Live that,” Shah said of the Beckham video. “People want to see it. It’s an exclusive behind the scenes. If you’re at the game, you can see it, but if you’re home, that’s the only place you can get that in real-time is through our Facebook page.”
The Giants are selective with what they stream on Facebook Live.
“When that first started…we knew the reach would be significantly higher because you do get a notification anytime you do go live,” Shah said. “But we saw a 30 percent daily unlike rate because people were getting annoyed by the fact that they would constantly see those notifications because we started streaming our daily video show that we do.
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“So I think the thing for us was we realized…we only use Facebook Live now when we know it’s a unique, it’s sort of behind the scenes, and we use it that way to make sure that people will say, ‘Hey, this isn’t the same thing that they’re doing all the time.’”
The Giants also cut videos specifically for shorter-form platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, using them as promotional vehicles to get fans back to the longer videos on Facebook, according to Shah, who reported increased engagement numbers this season.