We use Facebook as a place to share major news, posts that reflect our culture and brand, and our people. This year, we identified Facebook Live as a major opportunity to bring our brand to audiences in a new, fresh way. Our objective through Facebook Live video is to drive meaningful interactions among our key audience segments through low-cost, high-impact content. Our secondary objective is to drive brand awareness through early adoption of new social platform capabilities. Our key KPIs are Engagement Rate, Audience Engagement (comments), Brand Engagement (replies--yes we tally up each time we reply), Amplification (Shares), Applause (Likes) and Audience (views and unique viewers).
We choose our topics carefully for Facebook Live in order to differentiate from traditional video. We're trying to answer the question, "Why should I tune in now?" As we see particular Facebook Live segments take off organically, we've worked with our media team to boost with paid dollars.
This year, we have executed seven Facebook Live videos. Our most successful video was with 13-year-old developer TanmayBakshi, who demonstrated how to use IBM Watson technology to co-pilot a drone. We also took our audience behind the scenes at the US Open Tennis Championships, where IBM is the official technology partner powering the scoring data and the USOpen.org website. Other videos showcased the designers of fashion house Marchesa, who worked with IBM to design a dress for the Met Gala; as well as some of our researchers demoing new innovations in real time.
To execute these videos, our in-house team conceptualized, planned and executed the shoots. This involved prep calls with the on-camera talent to talk through flow and logistics. We also coordinated in every instance with our public relations team to ensure the subjects on camera were media trained and equipped to handle live questions from the Facebook audience. We worked with a partner, Green Ink, to provide lighting and sound support for the shoots. Our in-house social engagement strategists responded to comments and questions from the audiences in real time. We typically had one team member on site at every shoot to coordinate logistics, and help deliver live questions from Facebook to the on-camera talent. We also had one designated community manager, typically operating remotely, who managed live responses from the IBM Facebook page.
IBM's Facebook page currently garners the highest engagement rates among B2B tech brands. Our most successful Facebook Live garnered over 104,000 views, with more than 95,000 unique viewers. We saw more than 700 shares, more than 600 comments and nearly 5,000 reactions (likes). In total, our Facebook Live broadcasts this year have garnered approximately 375,000 views. We're seeing significantly higher engagement rates, views, and unique viewrs on Facebook Live versus YouTube videos.
