Thinking about producing your first live stream? It can be scary, but these tips will make your life a lot easier! 

Live streaming helps brands and content creators alike maintain a strong relationship with their audience, do product demonstrations, push product drops, boost engagement, and more. If you haven’t yet hopped on this trend and are thinking of setting up your first live stream for your company or your own brand, you’ve come to the right place. 

Whether you’re nervous or just looking for a checklist to tick off and make sure you’re prepared for your live stream premier – look no further! Here is a list of 6 tips to ensure you’re as successful as you possibly can be on your first live stream. 

6 Things to consider before your first live stream

Live streaming as a virtual marketing feature has already been growing popular in the past few years but is quickly becoming more widespread with the emergence of “entertainmence” in the West.

It can be quite a challenge to live stream for the first time, but the best way to deliver your best broadcast is to plan, practice, and simplify things as much as possible. 

1. Decide which platform you’ll be live streaming on 

Before delving right into your first live stream, it’s important to decide which platform you’ll be using to host your stream. Twitch was the first to introduce this feature on social platforms, with YouTube and Facebook following suit. However, with the growing demand for the tool, Instagram joined the train, followed by Tiktok. Now, even Pinterest plans to roll out the features themselves in 2022, focusing on consumer shopping. 

If you’re stuck wondering what the best platform for you to debut on, here are a few things to consider before making the decision: 

– Who is your core target audience?

Identify who, and therefore where your target audience is. It’s no surprise that Instagram is overall one of the most popular social platforms, with a very easy-to-use user interface for live streaming. 

With Instagram, you’re able to go live with another user, answer audience questions in real-time, use filters, and save the stream to upload to your feed afterward. The app even notifies all your followers that you are going live to push the feature. 

Facebook Live has its perks too, and businesses usually favor this for their live streams because most of their followers are there.

Twitch is a top option, too, especially for gamers and daily streamers, as it was solely created for this purpose to start with. 

Youtube is another fantastic option, especially if you want to deliver professional-looking live streams on a platform that people are already super familiar with. Also, if you’re primarily a YouTube content creator and create vlogs, tutorials, and otherwise, your audience will most likely be there already. If you want to live stream via your mobile, you might encounter limitations, such as a minimum subscribers count. But, with ManyCam’s mobile app, you should still be able to broadcast.

All in all, you can test different platforms and track your metrics to best identify where your audience is and what platform you seem to get the most engagement on.

– What are your competitors using?

Looking to your competitors as a reference is essential when planning your own marketing strategies. It’s noteworthy to monitor both what they’re doing well and what they’re doing poorly and try to structure your own strategy around this.

If most of your competitors seem to be opting for IG Live, for example, and getting a lot of views and engagement, it may be worth it to give it a go yourself. However, be cautious and keep track of your own numbers. Something that works for someone in a similar industry doesn’t always mean that it will work for you. 

– What are some features you want?

If certain features are crucial for you, such as Q&A (Instagram) or monetization (YouTube, Twitch), you will need to search the platforms accordingly. Determining which platform can best accommodate your needs is vital before diving in headfirst, particularly if you want to create a weekly or bi-monthly broadcast.

2. Manage your nerves by making sure you’re prepared

Being a little nervous for your first live stream is totally normal – especially considering that everything is happening in real-time, and unlike other content, you don’t get to pre-plan or tweak it. 

If you are as prepared as you possibly can be, you will reduce a lot of the stress that comes with your first broadcast. Making sure you know exactly what you’re going to talk about, no matter how informal and organic the structure of your stream will be, is vital. Having a bulleted list of topics you want to cover somewhere off-camera could come in very handy. As well as this, if you’re going live with someone else, make sure you coordinate together so no one is talking over the other and there are no awkward silences. 

Checking your connection is also imperative, as there’s nothing that’s going to turn people away from your live stream faster than a faulty connection and a constant interruption. So make sure your connection is strong, your devices are charged and ready to go, and you have backups if need be.

Check out the basic gear of live streaming here so that you can be fully prepared. 

Letting your audience know beforehand that you’re planning on going live is also essential to make sure people take it into account and know when to tune in. If you want to increase your viewership, start promoting your live stream around a week or two before the event. 

3. Make sure both you and your setting are presentable 

Many content creators have found great success in being relatable to their audience. For example, posting no-makeup selfies, you on your off days, or anything else to remind your followers you are human too. This even helps strengthen relationships with the audience. 

If you’re a business or a personal brand and want to deliver a professional-looking broadcast, work on making yourself and your environment look presentable without distractions. 

You don’t have to look too formal, but it would be worth it to make sure you look put together (video). As for your setting, it would be very distracting to your audience to see a messy or noisy background, so make sure it’s as neutral as you can get it. 

If your home looks a little messy and you don’t have time to prepare beforehand, or if you’d just like a different backdrop than what you have on hand, virtual backgrounds are always a great option! 

ManyCam offers a great range of virtual backgrounds images and videos, such as living room settings, offices, abstracts, and more. They can help you set the tone for your stream, so you don’t have to worry about your actual background. 

4. Manage expectations 

It’s great to be ambitious and expect big things for yourself. However, it’s best to manage your expectations to not be disappointed in your performance. 

Remind yourself that it’s your very first live stream and that you will continue to get better each time you do it. Whether it’s accepting that your numbers may have been a little lower than you expected or that your performance wasn’t as organic as you would’ve liked it to be, remember to be kind to yourself. You will improve over time! 

Make sure you take the time to assess how it went afterward, and maybe pinpoint things you can do better from the start of the process to the very end so that your next stream is even better. 

5. Don’t overcomplicate your setup but make it engaging

A huge mistake many new streamers and content creators make is to overcomplicate their setup. The other mistake is to undermine how vital a proper setup is. The key is to find the right balance between quality and simplicity. Here are some ideas on live streaming setup for your first live stream:

6. Make sure you have fun! 

The final, but perhaps most important thing you have to remember is to have fun! 

The whole point of live streams is to connect with your audience on a more personal basis. So, try not to stress too much about all the details and potential mistakes. Instead, focus on being yourself and appearing organic to your followers.

Don’t be too concerned with how you’re doing so that you forget to actually engage your audience while on your stream and ask and answer questions, and remember to have a laugh with them and do what they probably came to see – entertain them!

Final Thoughts

Before your first live stream, refer to this list to ensure you are ready. Your broadcast can turn out way better than expected with proper planning and preparation. Nonetheless, mistakes are bound to happen in a live environment, so make sure you don’t worry about them and have fun. Engage with your audience and go easy on yourself in terms of results for the first time. More live streams mean more practice, and you’ll get better each time. Good luck!