Creating a live reaction poll on Facebook

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Live Facebook polls on their own don't cut it anymore. People want to see comments and votes in real time embedded within the video or image. Fasten your seat-belt because here's how to do it. Word of warning before I begin, this has the potential to be a fairly long and technical read (with no fun and engaging images) so clear the diary for the next 20 minutes or so.

Lets Start with the Basics

Live streaming a poll on Facebook is pretty simple. All you need is a Facebook page and a program called Open Broadcaster Software (OBS). Follow these 10 steps and you're off to the races.

1. Download and Open your OBS software and select SETTINGS then STREAM
2. Select FACEBOOK LIVE in the SERVICE option
3. You will see a STREAM KEY with a blank space to find your stream key open your Facebook page
4. Go to PUBLISHING TOOLS on your Facebook page 
5. Click on VIDEO LIBRARY then at the top of that page click on LIVE 
6. The window will show you a STREAM KEY copy that and paste it in the OBS STREAM KEY space then click APPLY then OK
7. I'm not going into detail on the OBS program but I will say this: whatever you put in the viewer window will show up on your Facebook Live (it could be an image, a video, a website). All these options can be found in SOURCES just click the + sign and select the type of media you want to upload
8. Once you have what you want in that OBS display window click START STREAMING (don't worry this will not automatically post on your Facebook Page)
9. Now head back to your Facebook Page to the Create Live Video and you will see the Preview from your OBS window. 
10. Fill out the Video Title and anything else you want then click GO LIVE or you can click the drop down menu and SCHEDULE LIVE which is fun too

You'll be able to Live Stream for a maximum of 4 hours. Once the live stream begins you can close your Facebook Page but make sure you don't close OBS or the live stream will end. To end your Live Stream go back to Publishing Tools and click on the EDIT VIDEO option and in that window select END LIVE.

Take this to the Next Level

Ok well that's simple but what if you want to show live reactions within the live video? Never fear here's where it gets interested and slightly technical. You basically take all the steps from above but add Live Reactions Poll into the mix.

1. Go to the site LIVE REACTIONS POLL and select CREATE NOW
2. Select GET ACCESS TOKEN which will open up your Facebook Developers Page
3. Select the drop down menu MY APPS and click on ADD A NEW APP
4. Name it LIVE STREAM or something similar and click create
5. Select TOOLS & SUPPORT then GRAPH API EXPLORER
6. Click on the APPLICATION drop down menu and select the APP you just created 
7. Select GET TOKEN and GET PAGE ACCESS TOKEN which will open up a login to your Facebook Account select Continue as [your name] and OK
8. You will then see a list of all the Pages you have access to, select the page you want the live stream to take place on
9. Now select that little blue circle 'i' right beside your access token and click OPEN IN ACCESS TOOL
10. This will open up another page select EXTEND ACCESS TOKEN and DEBUG
11. Copy and past this token into the ACCESS TOKEN portion of the LIVE REACTIONS POLL site

OK... so that's the first step. Next up is the Post ID which is a lot simpler.

1. Stay on the same page that you just put your fancy Access Token in and click on GET POST ID
2. A Facebook window will pop up click on the drop down option and select SHARE ON A PAGE YOU MANAGE
3. Select the page you want to live stream from and click NEXT
4. Back on the live reaction poll site it will say GO LIVE click that (don't worry it won't automatically post on your page)
5. In the Facebook window that opens select the little settings icon top right and click on EMBED
6. Copy and past that code into the POST ID section of the live reaction poll site, the post ID will be extracted from that embed code

TIP: Facebook live supports a maximum of 1280x720 - keep that in mind when your filling in the Streaming Resolution Width option on the Live Reactions Poll page.

Now it's time to design the type of Live Reaction Poll you would like. Have a play about with the options of counters. I would suggest the COUNTERS ONLY option which allows you to have any background image of video which you'll need to upload to OBS and you can just move your counters to fit in with what you have. There are lots of different options that do different things, take some time to look into the ones that work best for you.

Let's Go Live!

You've sorted your access token, post ID, streaming resolution width, counters and any other options you want. All you need to do now is get that live poll out there. Here we go:

1. Click the PREVIEW button on the bottom of the page and blue screen will pop up, select GOT IT!
2. Now click the green button that says GO LIVE (Don't worry this will not post on your Facebook page)
3. Copy the URL on the live page go to OBS, click the plus sign in SOURCES and select BROWSER SOURCE - name it whatever you want that layer to be and click OK
4. Past your live reactions poll URL in the URL section
5. Make sure your Width and Height match the Width and Height of your OBS image or video
6. Once you've made these updates click the REFRESH CACHE OF CURRENT PAGE then click OK
7. Once the image or video you want is uploaded to OBS you can now resize and move the poll icons - Right click your LIVE POLL layer in Sources and select INTERACT
8. A window will pop open that allows you to move and resize your reaction icons - this will allow you to line them up with images you want people to vote on

Now that you have your live reaction icons ready and the image or video in OBS you want to broadcast click the Start Streaming button and you will be able to preview it on your Facebook page in the Create Live Video window you already have open. 

This might seem complicated but I was able to figure it out with a bit of tinkering and playing around so I have full confidence in you! The Live Reactions Poll site has a step by step on How to Create a Live Poll on Facebook Page which is what I followed to create my first live reaction poll on out UofG page.

Here's what our first live reaction poll it looked like: 

Facebook is now allowing you to boost your LIVE post while you're live so be ready to stick some money behind it to really reach as many people as possible!

Good luck out there, get in touch if you're having trouble with any of this and I'd be happy to share more.