Imagine you spent hours and hours creating awesome content for a live video, designing a slide deck, writing down information, outlining a script and preparing the equipment, only to go live and find out that no one joined. Maybe a friend or a coworker, but no one else. Soul crushing, right? The fear of that alone already stops many people from even trying to creating live streaming videos.
In this blog post, we’ve put together 8 tips to help you create live streaming videos everyone wants to watch, so you can try and avoid that feeling. These are actionable tips to help you improve your live streaming videos, whether you’re building a business or a personal brand.
Summary: 8 Tips to create live streaming videos everyone wants to watch
- Think about your audience: What do they want from you?
- Get the right equipment for live streaming: Don’t overcomplicate things.
- Live Streaming Videos with Software: Realize the full potential of your live videos.
- Do a full dry-run, on private mode: Rehearsals before opening night.
- Choose the right platform: It’s not about which platform is the best.
- Promote in advance: Promoting helps you grow your audience.
- Do Video Collaborations: Find the perfect match or matches to grow faster.
- Interact with the audience: This is why people are watching your live video.
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Live Streaming Videos Tips
#1 Tip: Think about your audience
In live video or any content you create, your audience comes first. It’s crucial to understand your audience so that you can create content that meets their expectations. A couple of great questions to ask yourself – or even the audience, are:
- Why do they follow you on social? In other words, what do they expect to get from you?
- Why did they choose your product or service?
- Why would they spend their valuable time on your content?
An in-depth analysis and some honest answers will give you fantastic insights into your audience and you’ll find out the kind of content you need to put out more.
#2 Tip: Get the right equipment for live streaming
The truth is, most of us tend to complicate things. Sure, live streaming can be a bit complex when it comes to all its settings and specifications. But, it’s not that complicated. As far as live streaming equipment goes, you can start with a computer, webcam, and microphone. Then, build from there as you grow.
To create live streaming videos that work, you’ll basically need:
- Internet (Fast upload speed)
- Equipment (computer, webcam, microphone)
- Platforms, like Facebook or YouTube
#3 Tip: Live Streaming Videos with Software
Though it’s not a requirement, having a live streaming software can be the difference between your live streaming video’s success or failure. With an application to help you stream, you can create professional-looking live streaming videos, share your screen, adjust all the settings and much more.
Check out ManyCam, if you want your live streaming videos to reflect your true potential with content creation.
#4 Tip: Do a full dry-run, on private mode
We said it before, and we’ll say it again. The most important thing in live video is to test everything. Regardless of your equipment and settings, do dry runs and test, watch everything, analyze and adjust it.
Platforms like Facebook and YouTube give you the option to do a private live stream, which is perfect for a dry run. Performers rehearse endlessly before a live show. The director finds what needs to be improved and they work on it.
That’s pretty much the thought-process you need to have for live streaming videos. Rehearse as much as you can, and if something goes wrong on opening night, the show must go on. As cliché as it sounds, you’ll get better at it. Each time you go live, you’ll learn more and more.
#5 Tip: Choose the right platform
The streaming platform you choose plays a massive role in your content and results, but this isn’t a matter of Facebook is better than YouTube or vice-versa. Here are things to consider when choosing a platform:
What’s your goal with this content? Platforms like YouTube and Twitch make it easier to monetize a video, for example. On Facebook, on the other hand, users can easily share content.
What’s your audience’s behavior in that platform? Why are they there and can you meet their expectations?
It always comes back to your audience and what they want from you. You can also go live on more than one platform at once if you have the internet for it.
#6 Tip: Promote in advance
If you already have established a big audience and want to strengthen the relationship with them, spontaneous live streams can help you a lot. You’ll be able to engage with your followers organically and connect with your community on a deeper level.
Though, if you want to grow your audience, spontaneous streams won’t be as efficient. To grow, you’ll need a schedule, consistency, and promotion. Promoting your live streaming videos doesn’t necessarily mean buying ads. Though you could and they might help you boost your live content.
Promoting your live stream means merely:
- Send emails to your email list and tell them about your scheduled live streaming video
- Create a landing page and get people to sign up for the event so you can send them a reminder before going live
- Promote across all your profiles and platforms
- Create rewards and contests to get people to share your live video
#7 Tip: Do Video Collaborations
Video Collabs are one of the most powerful ways to create content and grow your audience online. Find partners in the industry with whom you can create live streaming videos. The ideal partner is someone with a similar audience and complementary product. Imagine a partnership between a detergent company and a sponge company, match made in heaven, right? Though washing dishes isn’t exactly heavenly, you get the idea.
You and your partner can promote each other to increase the reach of your live video and get both your audiences on board.
#8 Tip: Interact with the audience
What makes live video so unique, is the high level of interaction between the presenter and the audience. No other medium currently offers that. Everyone watching can comment and interact, which is why most people are watching in the first place. Otherwise, they would just catch the replay, later on.
They don’t want to miss out on that live interaction. Let’s say, you were watching a live video and sent a question via chat. The feeling you’d get when the presenter calls out your name and replies to you would be pure bliss. Viewers want to feel heard and involved. Well, everyone wants that, and you can provide some of that with highly interactive live videos.
Key Takeaway
Each of these tips can help you create live streaming videos that work. They represent a few of the many building blocks of live streaming, and the more you put together, the stronger your structure will be. Combining them will give a stronger chance at achieving your goals with live streaming.
Trying different things is the best way to find out what truly resonates with your audience.
Like we said before, live streaming videos require a lot of testing. You’ll have to try different things out and see what resonates with your audience.
Deliver engaging live streams with ManyCam!
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