Live streaming has become very popular for obvious reasons. It can quickly promote your business, and share your content with others if you are aiming to get more leads. Starting with YouTube, today many social media platforms offer you live streaming, including Facebook and even some apps. The question you should ask yourself is, do you really want to live stream in the long run, and is it worth it to invest in quality equipment?
The Advantages of Live Streaming
It is simple. Since it is not intended to be overly professional, you should be able to create videos easily. You don’t need editing, adding to the quality, or recording it many times. Simply, you can go on the social media site you want to go live on, be it Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, or Twitter, and voila… This service is free everywhere, so you can even use it when you don’t want to pay for it. Additionally, social media users can see your posted video on these platforms and don’t have to go to your website, for instance.
It is effective. The best thing about going live is that thanks to the internet, you can reach unlimited numbers of clients. It is more and more popular among large brands to live stream their products made or served at specific events, thus enabling thousands of customers to get a taste of their products in real-life settings. And people love seeing previous examples of product satisfaction, as well as how they are made.
It’s inspiring. Since live videos are created to raise awareness, they are short and to the point. You can watch them in one go, as they are not meant to be paused or studied longer. This can motivate you to watch it fully until the end. When your topic is engaging and exciting enough for larger crowds, chances are they will return to watch more of your content. This way your popularity can easily increase.
Choose your main platform. By choosing a main social media platform on which you wish to build the number of your followers, you can secure a consistent flow of information to your crowd. For best outcomes, you should test the various live streaming platforms, if you are unsure which one to opt for. When you are done uploading, you can start interacting with your audience. This can help you grow your popularity, especially if you create a live event.
What Could Go Wrong?
Technical problems. Even though you don’t have to make huge preparations and no need to worry about editing the end product, technical problems may give you a headache. Trouble is, you cannot control unexpected errors by your internet service provider, which not only can affect your streaming while you are in the making but can also occur at the end of your receiver. If this happens, they can drop your video, and miss out on it. Quality errors can also be a big issue.
Time of streaming. Provided you want to build up a larger, international following different time zones can be problematic. Your prospective clients perhaps won’t be willing to stay up at night to watch you going live. To solve this problem, some businesses repeat their live video several times a day to reach a wider audience. Another time-related issue can be that the streaming time you opt for isn’t the best for your local customers either, because of individual differences.
Saving videos. Besides making sure that you always let your audience know before posting a video so that they don’t miss out, you need to be careful with saving options. Currently, you can mostly save your live videos on Facebook Live, but not many other platforms offer this option. You can use other sites if you aren’t too serious about building up your clientele. However, if you aim to get returning viewers, you should create and save live content on Facebook Live.
Charge your equipment! People mostly create live videos on their mobile phones, but you could also use your laptop. As long as they are fully charged, you should be fine! Remember, that a quarter of your battery can be gone in just 15 minutes of the recording! And you don’t want to lose your authenticity because of this, going dead halfway in your streaming… If necessary, invest in a power bank!
By following these tips, and testing what best works for you, live streaming can give you the freedom and creativity you need to express the unique features of your products and services. It is super trendy and allows you to engage with your audience in a fun and authentic way. If you want to create quick and exciting videos and do everything to avoid technical problems, live streaming can be a great tool to reach a larger audience! Have fun streaming!
