The question isn’t IF you should go live, it’s why HAVEN’T you gone live? Live video is rapidly becoming the leading way both individual users and organizations communicate with their followers and it’s not hard to see why. It’s an easy and effective way to interact with your audience, grow brand awareness and stay informed first hand on exactly what your clients are looking for. More than 50% of marketing professionals stated that live video has one of the best return on investments than other social media platforms they were on! But with great platform features comes great responsibility, so what can you do to make sure you’re using this medium to it’s fullest potential?
Build Anticipation
You may not always have it pre-planned that you are going to go live, but when you do, build anticipation by letting people know when you’ll be broadcasting! Announce it across every social platform you use that you will be going live in a few hours. A great description will capture the attention of your followers and help them understand what your broadcast might be about. Get them excited! For example, post a Boomerang on Instagram of your team jumping up and down with excitement and say “find out why we’re so extremely excited today by tuning into our live Facebook broadcast at 1pm!” This will not only help get you more people tuning in, but it will also direct followers from one account to go follow you on multiple platforms!
Have A Story To Tell
There is this misconstrued idea that going live should be completely spontaneous. This may be the case when something exciting and time sensitive comes up that you have to get up immediately, however, this is a rare scenario. Make sure you take at least a few minutes before recording to construct a narrative in your head and to figure out your purpose for going live. For instance, if you’re in Time Square and you get the urge to jump on a live video, take a minute to ask yourself why. Why are you going live, just to show people Times Square? I’m sure they’ve seen it! Instead, check in live in front of Times Square with the intention of showing the lifestyle of your brand, or hold a spontaneous Q&A about your brand with Times Square in the background! Always ask yourself “what is my audience going to learn or gain by joining into this stream?”
Have A Strong Connection
Before going live, always test your connection! There’s nothing as bad as hyping a live video before realizing that the signal is poor. An idea may be the best idea in the world but if the mobile signal is awful, then the greatest idea alive will look like a pirated movie. Don’t let a bad wifi connection ruin your amazing vision!
Engage
Preparation is key here. If you’re not prepared to be talking to your viewers while broadcasting, then you’re missing a key feature of live streaming! Your viewers want to ask questions, they want to be engaging with those running the show. Make sure you say hello to commenters by name, respond to their comments, answer questions, and ask viewers to react to your topic with emojis (love, angry, wow, etc.) The purpose of live isn’t just to tell a story, it’s to tell the right story to your followers in the form of a conversation.
Go Live Often!
Try going live on each different social platform that you use. Try Facebook Live, Instagram Live, Snapchat Stories and live tweeting. Try to utilize live for holding Q&A sessions, showing behind the scenes, making announcements, and various different types of broadcasts. See what works and what doesn’t work, get better at it, and most importantly, go live frequently!
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