Streaming your content live is a great way to reach out to an audience in real-time. For the past couple of years, there has been a spike in popularity for streaming video on social media channels like Facebook Live and YouTube Live. Streaming these videos can be used as either marketing or personal branding tools. But what are some of the best practices when it comes to this?
Whether you are using Facebook Live or YouTube, here are some helpful tips that will make your stream successful:
Keep Your Setup Simple
This goes without saying, but for the most part, you want to keep your live streaming setup as simple as possible. More equipment, no matter how sophisticated, is only more room for last-minute malfunctions.
For Facebook live, buy a good microphone. For YouTube live, make sure you have a webcam that offers clear picture quality. You can even opt to use your smartphone for either of these platforms if you need to stream on the go. These are especially useful during conferences or other events where your primary device may not be accessible.
Additionally, when choosing video streaming services for social media, try to stick with well-established brands that are reliable and offer enough bandwidth to prevent interruptions in the signal while broadcasting the content live. Keep your stream simple by focusing only on what you need for that content.
Use Streaming Device Apps
But what happens when you do not have access to a webcam for your stream? Fortunately, there are plenty of streaming device apps available that can turn any smartphone into a powerful video-streaming machine. Just make sure your preferred choice uses 4k video bitrate as it allows viewers to enjoy high-quality 4K content on your streaming platform.
Have Fast Internet Connection
If you want to stream regularly on any platform, it is very important that you have an internet connection strong enough so that buffering does not occur while you are broadcasting the content.
Recall that your internet speed can be faster than it actually feels like in real-time if you are using cellular data (LTE) during a broadcast, so make sure your connection is strong enough. Otherwise, viewers will likely drop off and disconnect from your stream.
Don’t Forget To Keep An Eye On Your Stream
Sometimes, due to bad signals or other factors, people might end up missing their scheduled Facebook Live or YouTube Live sessions. To ensure this doesn’t happen with your next video streaming session on social media channels, always keep an eye on your live stream feed by checking it at least once every 15 minutes in case there are problems with the stream.
Stay Engaged With Your Audience
When you are streaming, make sure you take the time to engage with your audience. This is something many people don’t consider when they first stream content on social media channels. But it is important to remember that either for marketing or personal branding purposes, this will ultimately help build your brand’s following.
The more engagement you have with other accounts, the more likely that those other accounts will follow you back or check out your profile if they don’t already follow you yet, so stay engaged.
Cut-Off Times
Nothing is worse than starting a live video that never finishes, especially when the host disappears. If you are planning an event where everything ends at a certain time, make sure it will end by then. Trust me, there’s nothing more frustrating to the audience when they’ve been waiting patiently for over two hours for this event to happen and it doesn’t show up. Start on schedule or even finish early!
Relevance Is Key
You’re streaming content in real-time because you want to be relevant at that moment. Don’t spoil things ahead of time or leave out important details. You never know there might be someone in the chat waiting to hear about them. It is important that you be as relevant as possible if you want the live video streaming on social media to be successful for your brand or personal image.
Do a Live Video Test
It is important to test out your live video before you hit “go live” on social media. Many people make the mistake of streaming when they think their internet connection is fast enough when in reality it isn’t and things end up badly. So do a test run and check how the stream looks before actually making that final decision to go live with your content.
Look At The Camera
When you are live streaming on social media, maintain good eye contact with the camera. This lets your viewers know that they matter and creates a sense of intimacy between you and them. Just make sure to not stare at the screen so intensely that it makes viewers uncomfortable or feel trapped in the room with you.
Live streaming content is a powerful way to engage and build relationships with your audience. It can help you create more awareness for your brand or business by making it easier than ever before to capture an engaged, captive internet audience.
