How to Live Stream More Effectively

The majority of us have this technology to hand, but how can we use it to create EFFECTIVE live videos? (Emphasis being on the word effective there, because we all know that for every good livestream, there are at least a hundred that meander aimlessly from start to some kind of finish.)

The great thing about live video is it enables you to engage directly with your target audience, and they get to see a raw, unedited version of you that they can fall in love with. Live video helps to build a fan base, and some of these people will eventually become customers, so you can see how it all fits into your marketing and sales machine.

This is something that you want to avoid at all costs! You are competing for people’s attention, so if you’re going to go live and waffle about something with no real meat to it for any length of time, you may as well not bother. You need to approach any livestream you host as though it is a service that you’re providing for your audience. Always provide value. It’s the same as any marketing content – have clear objectives, and make sure that there is always something that your audience can take away from it.

It is worth it’s weight in gold to prep for what you want to cover. Come up with ideas for different livestreams you could do so that you know what your focus will be for each video. If you’re planning on hosting regular live sessions, this also a good way to block out you schedule and know what research or preparations you need to do ahead of time, and also, when it comes to actually going live, you’ll already know what it is you’re going to be talking about, so may help to ease some of those deep-rooted fears that many of us have when it comes to live video.

You could pose a question to your audience, share a tip, answer some FAQs about your industry, give a glimpse behind the scenes, or even host interviews, to name but a few of things you could cover in your videos. Like I said, the aim is to always provide value, so think about what your audience will want to hear and then build your content around that.

You may find it helps to come up with a rough framework that you can use to help streamline those videos even further. Let’s say you’ve found tip-sharing to be a real crowd pleaser – highlighting 3 key points per tip would be a good general structure to follow. This is just another trick that will help to keep your live videos on-track and help you avoid falling in with all of those forgotten streams that were sadly derailed because their host lost sight of the objective, if there ever was one.

Try to keep things brief too. You may be aware that human beings now have attention spans that are comparable to that which a goldfish has. If you chat away for huge chunks of time, your audience will disengage long before you’ve finished. Keep it snappy, and always try to keep your viewers at the centre of what you’re doing. Remember – you’re providing a service! Add value, and encourage interaction, not only with yourself but between your viewers too.

If you plan on using live video as a significant part of your marketing strategy, force people to build it into their routines. This simply means going live at the same time every day, or every week, depending on how often you plan on doing it. It’s surprising how quickly you’ll build a regular crowd, and even more surprising how they will reach out if you happen to unexpectedly miss a slot. When this happens, you’ll know you’ve got yourself some fans.