YouTube live videos can help potential followers and customers discover you and your brand. Live videos get ranked better on searches and can also be featured in the Live section on YouTube. But, for viewers to stick around and become followers or fans, your videos need to be engaging. With these 7 YouTube live tips and tricks, you’ll be able to improve your live streams drastically and reach more people.
Summary: 7 YouTube live tips and tricks
- Don’t be another “talking head” – Show and tell
- Think long-term with an evergreen strategy
- Set yourself up for success
- Create highlights for promotion
- Apply these monetization tools
- Consider live stream latency to improve your live videos
- Add on-screen text to your live
Go live on YouTube with ManyCam to take your streams to the next level!
How can YouTube Live help you grow your brand?
Whether you’re trying to build your personal brand or looking to grow your business, you should consider making YouTube live part of your marketing strategy.
YouTube has a massive audience, actively looking for videos on a daily basis, which makes it the perfect platform to grow your audience. More importantly, YouTube has a section for all live videos, and yours could show up there and reach more people.
Another wildly underestimated benefit of doing YouTube live videos, or any live stream for that matter, is the engagement with your audience. Live videos, unlike any other form of content, allow you to interact with your viewers in real-time and create a deeper connection with them.
Establishing a genuine connection with your audience is the first step to building trust and gaining loyal fans.
YouTube Live Tips and Tricks
Here are some of the best YouTube live tips and tricks, to make sure you take advantage of everything this platform has to offer. These tips will allow you to deliver highly engaging and creative videos while managing the quality of your stream and monetizing.
1- Don’t be another “talking head”
Talking head videos are one of the most common types of video out there. Basically, the setup is a person, sitting in front of a camera, talking to the viewers. On most occasions, this kind of video is easy to produce and effective. But, when it comes to live video, you need more.
Your YouTube live needs to be dynamic and exciting to keep people engaged. A few things you can do, instead of just sitting in front of the camera and talking:
- Show and tell: have some props at hand. If you’re talking about a product, show the product.
- Show digitally: add digital props to your YouTube Live, show images or pre-recorded videos of what you’re talking about.
- Add slides and share your screen: switching between your camera, slides and your screen, will keep viewers interested and engaged.
Power tip: With ManyCam you can add multiple video sources, like images, videos, digital props, slides, your screen and much more. You can also use the Picture-in-Picture mode for a more professional look. Download it for free here.
2- Think long-term – An evergreen strategy
As content creators, productivity is a must. So, if you take the time to create a live video on YouTube, you need to get the most out of it.
Consider the value of the live video replay. If you talk to your audience the entire time, the replay won’t be exciting for your audience. But if you only interact in certain sections, you can, later on, edit the video and share it.
3- Set yourself up for success
Many people are scared of doing live videos because of what could go wrong. But the trick with YouTube live videos is to do a private (unlisted) stream to test all your equipment and internet. You can then, watch your live and assess what needs to improve.
YouTube live also recommends getting everything ready at least two hours before your stream, to ensure everything is working.
4- Create highlights for promotion
YouTube live has a great feature that allows you to create highlights from live videos. After your stream is over, the highlights help you share a shorted, edited version of your video.
These highlights can be used as standalone videos or as promotional pieces. They are particularly useful if you’re planning another live video session and you want to promote it.
5- Apply these monetization tools
The options for monetization YouTube offers are fantastic for content creators, as many of you already know. The best part is, you can also apply the monetization tools to your YouTube live streams.
- Ads
Live streaming videos are eligible for pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads and display or overlay ads. Though there’s no guarantee the viewers will see the ads, it’s still likely that many of them will, and you’ll be able to make some money during your stream.
- Superchat
Another great YouTube live tool is the Superchat. Viewers can post a comment and pay for it to stand out. It’s both a tipping system for the content creator and a way for the viewers to promote themselves.
6- Consider stream latency to improve your live videos
When it comes to YouTube live tips, this one is a bit more to the technical side, but still, crucial. It’s common for live streams to have a delay between what’s captured by the camera and what’s displayed on the streaming platform. This delay is known as latency.
Lower latencies mean less delay and more real-time interaction with your viewers. But, the lower the latency you set up on YouTube, the lesser quality your video will have. It’s a trade-off.
On YouTube, you can choose between:
- Normal latency: not ideal for real-time interactions with your audience but you’ll significantly reduce the viewer playback buffering.
- Low latency: near real-time interactions with minimal buffering
- Ultra-low latency: real-time engagement but more buffering for viewers
Keep in mind that the quality of your stream and latency also depend on the equipment you have and your internet connection. To find out the best live streaming settings for YouTube, Facebook and Twitch, check out this blog post.
7- Add on-screen text to your live
This YouTube live tip is a small change you can make that will help you increase your audience’s engagement and potentially get you more viewers. When you add lower thirds, text overlays or any written information, it helps new viewers quickly grasp what the stream is about.
You can also add hashtags and encourage viewers to share your live video, which is a highly effective strategy to reach more people and increase viewership.
Key Takeaway
YouTube live can be a fascinating tool for you to grow your audience, regardless if you’re building a personal brand or a business. When combined with ManyCam, your live videos can be more creative and engaging than ever.
Apply these YouTube live tips while using ManyCam to create highly engaging live videos and get more viewers.
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