With the right live streaming content strategy, you can expand your online reach and establish a deeper connection with your audience, which could mean exponential growth.
Live videos have the power to transform your brand’s results on social media! The real-time interaction allows viewers to connect with you and the immediacy helps you increase your online reach. But, live streaming consistently can be a challenge. So, here is a quick but comprehensive live streaming content strategy guide to help you incorporate this tool into your business’s marketing efforts or your personal content creation endeavors.
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Live streaming content strategy tips for 2022
Leverage in-stream shopping
We’ve spoken about this in an article on the 5 Key live streaming trends of 2022, including how this trend originated and what the projections for the industry are. However, it’s worth repeating the importance of leveraging this trend.
According to Kathryn Smithson, Chief Marketing Officer at PathSocial, “In 2022, eCommerce live streaming is expected to be a major trend. There is a $51.2 billion market in the US for social commerce, which involves selling things directly on social media.”
She goes on to explain how consumer behavior is rapidly changing, thanks to platforms like Amazon Live, and that “one-on-one interactions between brands and social media influencers are becoming increasingly commonplace.” As a result, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even Pinterest, will expand their efforts to include this feature. So you should seriously consider doing so for your own business or the company you work for.
Shorten your stream durations
Gone are the days when people’s attention spans could withstand songs longer than 2 minutes or videos over 20 mins. Of course, it’s a bit of an exaggeration there, but it’s safe to say that collectively, people’s ability to focus for extended periods on one thing has diminished.
With online features like Reels being introduced, it’s easy to see the shift in the kind of content the general public wants to, and can easily, consume.
Though live streaming started mostly with gamers, who would stream their gameplays for hours on end, we’ve seen a change in preference towards shorter-form digital content in the past couple of years. It certainly helps that platforms are pushing this type of shorter-form content, with creators realizing that they seem to be getting the most views and engagement from shorter videos and streams.
If long streams are part of your branding, you may want to consider clipping parts of your stream that provide the most value, entertainment, or information to your audience and sharing those as part of your promotional effort. This type of content will entice your following and new followers to want to explore your longer-form stuff.
Focus on consistency and quality
Most platforms are set up to push further the content of those who are consistently posting. It started mainly with Instagram, highlighting profiles and promoting the content of those who frequently posted. If you were posting less than 5 times a week (stories count too, not just in-feed posting), your content would not be pushed and would eventually even cease to appear on your followers’ feeds.
In fact, many creators are even now posting multiple stories daily and including features that push engagement, such as polls and Q&As.
For live streaming, especially if you’re new to it, definitely consider upping your ante and streaming more consistently. Going live every day could be overkill and make you too accessible to your audience.
The key to a successful live streaming content strategy is determining what you can do consistently and sticking to it. For example, many creators and brands like to create weekly or bi-weekly live shows with specific themes. This can help increase viewership over time since the audience will know “when and where” to find you every Thursday at 6 pm.
On the same subject, quality of content has also become very important to viewers, who have to sift through boatloads of information on the daily. So, now more than ever, the focus should be on the substance of your content. Don’t waste your viewers’ time, and make sure you do your research into what would add value to their lives before going live – be it information or entertainment-based.
ManyCam can help add value and dynamicity to your streams by incorporating real-time features such as picture-in-picture videos, multiple video sources, and different camera angles.
Build trust and community
Marketing has seen a significant shift in most effective promotional efforts in the past few years. Now, it’s more important than ever to include a more personal connection between the brand and customers. In addition, brands and creators know to create and harbor communities out of their following to help promote loyalty and engagement.
As crucial as posting consistently is to promote engagement, posting smart is essential in building genuine relationships with your audience. The more authentic your content is to your brand and message, the more likely you are to capture an audience that resonates with your message.
Beyond building your community with what you know will work, it’s important to test out new tactics and approaches to your content. Plan your live streaming content strategy to add value to your audience and make sure you analyze results and optimize consistently.
The goal here is to create a bullet-proof approach to your live streams by actively monitoring your audience’s response to different strategies and styles.
Make technology your friend and utilize improvements
We mentioned using ManyCam to incorporate features such as picture-in-picture and multiple devices, but you can go above and beyond. You can include a lot in terms of technological advancements that are forecasted to change live streaming trends.
With the global rollout of 5G, many users will now have the bandwidth requirements to produce the highest quality videos in 4K. In addition, trends are also forecasting the use of 360-degree live streaming to allow users to experience content in HD and surround sound while also increasing viewer engagement.
YouTube is currently one of the biggest streaming platforms supporting 4K streaming, but this is projected to change very soon. More platforms will soon add the same support, which will increase the demand for higher quality streams.
So if you want to provide your viewers with the best experience, consider incorporating these features and staying ahead of the curve.
Key Takeaway
In conclusion, live streaming has become one of the most essential tools for digital marketing efforts, and this year introduces a lot of new trends that brands can leverage to monetize and drive engagement from their streams. Keep consistency, community, and value in mind when creating your live streaming content strategy.
