Live streaming is a fairly new outlet to promote your brand. Facebook and Instagram both have live streaming platforms, while apps such as Periscope and Blab are solely built on live streaming. The addition of live streaming to Facebook and Instagram has greatly increased the popularity of this tool. Here are some of the potential uses for live streaming for your business and the best practices for using it.
Uses
Live streaming can be a very useful tool, but it has a relatively specific application. It’s a great way to have conversations with your audience, such as Q&A’s where audience members can ask questions live or an interview with an influencer. Special announcements and new product introductions are also good applications for live streaming. If your company hosts or attends a live event, this opportunity is ideal for live streaming either of the event itself or of behind-the-scenes glimpses. These types of events that engage your audience and give your company a personality are ideal for live streaming.
Don’t be too Polished
You should have a plan going into your live stream, but you shouldn’t produce your video or worry about making it perfect. Everything in your video should feel natural and organic. You should direct your video in that you should go in with a strategy and a direction to which you hope your video to go. However, you should be willing to throw away that strategy and be flexible if it doesn’t seem to be working.
Collaborate With Others
It’s important to be willing to take some risks with your videos and trust others. When you collaborate with others, not only will your video be more interesting, but you can expand the reach of your brand by connecting with everyone in your collaborators’ networks. Getting multiple people involved in your live videos will help expand their viewership.
Thank Your Audience
During your live stream, it’s important to address your audience and let them know you value them. Be sure to encourage conversations between your brand and your audience by providing them with important information concerning your company’s value. Highlight certain fans, partners, and employees to demonstrate the value you place in your audience.
Include a Call to Action
In order to encourage engagement and strong relationships with your audience, include a call to action to convince your audience to take action. Tell them to subscribe to your page or videos, include a link below that they can click on, or tell them to share their favorite part of the video in the comments. Encouraging your audience to take action will not only improve engagement but will ensure future relationships with viewers.
Build Up Your Video
Before live streaming, it’s important to tell people when and why you’re going live. Construct social media posts around the live stream and be sure to share the exact time you’re going live. It’s important to make sure that you go live at the time that you schedule in order to build trust. You should build up your video and get people excited about it before you go live to make sure that people tune in to your live feed.
Have Fun
One of the most important things to remember about live streaming is that it’s a very informal platform. It’s a great way to give your brand a personality and spontaneity. Laugh and have fun during your live stream. If you’re having fun, your audience will have fun watching you. Be flexible and don’t be afraid to go with the flow in order to create a fun and organic video.
ImageWorks, LLC | CT Digital Marketing
If social media and live streaming videos seems too overwhelming to handle on your own, don’t be afraid to call in the experts! As a leading CT Inbound Marketing firm, ImageWorks LLC uses state of the art techniques and is focused on the success of your business. We work with you to improve your current marketing plan, overcome your challenges, achieve your goals, and meet deadlines. By creating content specifically designed to appeal to your dream customers, inbound attracts qualified prospects to your business and keeps them coming back for more.
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