Unfortunately, many who venture into live-streaming find it harder than it looks, often with results that are not reflective of the time and effort put in. Whether having tried for weeks, months, or even just starting, a large percentage of streamers experience little to no growth in their objectives, be it with viewership, social media presence, or even monetary earnings. This leads to frustrations, disappointment, and eventual abandonment of the effort. This is not a surprise due to the complexity and nuance of approaches to live-streaming and its comparison to other mediums, which can be completely foreign to even experienced content creators. There are so many considerations, questions, and problems that it is difficult to consolidate information and even know where to start. Furthermore, the live aspect has no safety net and can be very discouraging.
The rise of live-streaming as a communication medium has made an impact on a global scale. Whether used for personal and social reasons or for professional and business purposes, it has become a useful and sometimes lucrative tool. This is evident with the “live” features that app giants such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are pushing, but more notably in the dedicated rise of platforms like Twitch, Mixer, and Periscope. Content creators, community builders, and marketers are recognizing this trend and trying to capitalize on it. In the game of digital content creation and social media marketing, it has become a no-brainer to go live.
Choosing the Right Live Streaming Platform
Look for information regarding supported streaming protocols. If the provider only supports an older technology like RTMP, this may be a sign that it will be less likely to provide a future path to more modern streaming technologies. While this may not impact an immediate event, it is important if you expect you will need to re-encode and republish your event in the future to keep it available on-demand. Also, check if there are any limitations on event length or audience size and ensure they will meet your needs.
When evaluating candidate platforms, a good first step is to peruse the feature lists and documentation provided by the platform providers. It may be most helpful to keep a written summary of the feature comparisons you find. You can begin by checking the supported technology and mobile device compatibility of the platforms. Some platform providers may assume a PC-based viewer world and not provide compatibility with all four viewership platforms: PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. Device compatibility can be an important concern if you expect mobile device users to be an important portion of your target audience.
When choosing a live streaming platform, you need to pick the right one for your goals. In this article, we’ll discuss the right questions to ask and the factors to consider when choosing a platform to use for live streaming. Whether your goal is live casting, impromptu virtual meetings around the world, or a communication tool for offsite live support for existing clients, this article will help you think about the most important issues and features to consider. These questions are organized below by related topics.
Evaluating features and capabilities
When evaluating features and capabilities, determine what you need to produce the quality of content you want, and what each service offers in that regard. Think of technical features and capabilities you’d like to have. Many services now offer high definition streaming, adaptive bitrate streaming, and they allow you to use more than one camera when streaming. Other features to look for might include the ability to brand your video player, or the option to embed your stream on a site while still taking advantage of the site’s ad system. Another important consideration should be the possible exposure a service can give you through featuring your content. Some streaming platforms include your content on their site to promote their service, and some will encourage and allow their users to embed your stream on their site. This can potentially expose you to an audience much larger than your current following, but might not be the best option for those who have a set viewer base that they don’t want to disrupt. Fill this out if you like, but space provided you’ll be asked to more thoroughly consider these aspects in relation to your target audience in the next section. Now is also a good time to consider the ease of use and reliability of a service. Options and control can be a good thing, but often times be tricky to use and or lead to technical difficulties. Remember that what you believe to be the most reliable service might not be the most reliable for your viewers depending on their global location and internet service providers. This is where free trials of services can be especially useful. A service’s customer support is also an important, yet often overlooked aspect of its reliability. Consider the quality of a service’s customer support, and whether or not they have a reputation for treating their customers well. This is another thing that can be difficult to gauge without actually using the service, but in some cases you may be able to find helpful customer support interactions posted on community forums.
Considering audience reach and compatibility
The difficulty here is that audience reach is a continuous cycle of trying to build the largest audience whilst not losing too much of yourself, and trying to satisfy an existing audience without having to push them away and gain a new one. This can be particularly fragile for small content producers. Although they may have a core audience that they try to keep satisfied, they are often trying to grow, and it is necessary to slowly change the content to better appeal to a wider audience or to fill a more profitable niche. Be it growing or maintaining, changing or not, it’s important to regularly come back and evaluate whether the current platform and/or the chosen platform for a stream is best meeting the needs of the target audience. If the target audience has changed, it may be necessary to restart the cycle of finding a perfect platform, if only to confirm that the current platform is the best choice. Failure to periodically do this can result in missed opportunities and a loss of momentum in audience growth or satisfaction.
With a clear understanding of your target audience, investigating the style of platform they are most likely to be using, as well as any key features specific to them, will become much easier. This means that you can likely find a platform that matches your needs quite well, assuming that there are multiple choices available. For instance, if you are aiming at an older demographic who are looking for educational content, it is likely that a more formal platform with good support and reliability will be required. If you are a gamer looking to connect with an audience of other gamers, you may look for a platform with an integrated app and good mobile device support. Finally, if you are looking to reach a large audience, it may be worth considering a platform that has high global accessibility or any key features aimed at increasing viewer retention and growth. All these cases can be greatly optimized if there is a good match between the platform and the specific target audience, improving the chances of success.
First is considering audience reach and compatibility. Many businesses rush into live streaming without considering who their target audience is or how best to address their needs. It’s all well and good to use the most sophisticated platform with the most features; however, if your audience is not technically savvy or your content does not mesh with what they are looking for, you will be wasting both your time and money. To the contrary, if you already have a solid idea of who you want to target and the type of content they are looking for, it is possible to find a perfect match between the platform and your needs.
Analyzing pricing and subscription options
If you plan on developing a long-term relationship with your audience, and your live stream is business-related, you will want to research the various platform’s subscription options and how they compare with one another. Usually, enterprise-level subscriptions will provide added customer service, better support, and greater security that comes in handy if you plan on allowing sensitive discussions in your live streams. Subscription options vary greatly, and it’s up to you to decide which plan best suits the future of your live stream.
Most live streaming services provide a range of pricing levels from free to quite expensive. Some platforms are free but still manage to provide great service, albeit with the inclusion of advertisements. YouTube Live, which is free, still allows you to monetize your content by allowing advertisements on your videos. For a more professional live streaming experience, you may want to consider a paid service. Watching out for hidden costs is important, so you’ll want to ask for a complete price breakdown. Also, keep in mind that some services will offer a free trial, which could be a great way for you to evaluate if a platform is right for you.
Planning and Preparing for a Successful Live Stream
Finally, if your goal is brand exposure amongst a certain demographic, the main KPI is the number of viewers. A combination of these objectives will often require more than one event, but having clear-cut goals determines specific simple assignments for the production and makes it easier to measure event success.
Consider the objective for the event. Are you trying to cross-sell another product to your established customer base with an interactive demo? Using a sales-based objective would mean that success is measured by the number of viewers who stayed until the conclusion of the event and then bought the product in question. If the product is on a healthy uptrend, then the assignment is to ensure that there is a steady increase in viewership throughout the broadcast. A high viewership spike at the beginning indicates that a promotion was effective.
There is no need to treat a live stream more casually than a traditional broadcast. Holding a successful live stream event requires just as much planning and preparation behind the scenes as any other broadcast. Today, however, a negative viewer experience during a live event can translate into post-event VoD viewers deciding to never return for another viewing session. Therefore, what you do during a live broadcast has serious implications for your key performance indicators.
Setting clear objectives and goals
Having clear objectives and goals provides a sense of direction. It ensures that everyone involved with the planning and delivery of the live stream knows exactly what it is you want to achieve. This could be the difference between a viewer purchasing your product or choosing to purchase from a competitor. If you fail to prepare at this stage, you will be unable to evaluate your live stream’s success. This will result in disappointment and a lack of motivation to continue. An example of a basic pre and post live stream evaluation form can be found below.
Effective live streaming starts with clear objectives and goals. It is essential that you ask yourself what you want to achieve with your live stream. The answers should then be used to establish a set of goals. But what do we mean by objectives and goals? Goals are broad and long term, while objectives are more specific and short term. Your goals may be to increase viewer/customer interaction or to increase brand awareness. Your objectives to achieve these goals may be to increase viewer/customer interaction by answering 95% of questions asked during the next 6 live streams or to increase brand awareness by promoting the live stream to 70% of your social media followers.
Creating engaging content and scripts
Engaging content requires a strong appeal to the audience. A very good way is to ensure that the content is aimed towards the interpretation of something the audience would want to know. The topic itself should be very popular and have a wide source of information so that there are many things that can be talked about. This would lead to a series of live streams about the same topic, e.g. game updates. It also gives a chance for the audience to give feedback about certain things that they would want included in the next live stream. This has the potential to engage viewers as it gives them a purpose to view the live stream and may increase activity within the live stream comments section. A good idea would be asking some questions regarding the topic and try to use the answer for the next question, e.g. trivia questions. This would engage the viewers with an incentive to answer the question and something may be offered if they get the answer right. This makes the live stream feel more interactive and the viewers may feel more involved.
Firstly, write a rough script for your live stream. It’s vital to make sure your ideas are organized and targeting all the key elements you want to put across in your live stream. The more detailed the script, the clearer it becomes of what needs to be done and what props are needed to demonstrate what is being said. It is also possible to carefully time how long each segment of the stream will take and therefore can be used to roughly work out a schedule so that the time spent in front of the audience isn’t longer or shorter than expected.
Testing equipment and internet connection
When testing your video and audio equipment, you should use the actual equipment and output levels that you intend to use during your live presentation or event. The best way to ensure that your audio and video quality are acceptable is to use the equipment in a live setting or to simulate a live transmission. You should check the audio and video levels with the same configuration that you’ll be using during your event. If you’re using a video projector, PA system, or any outboard audio processing, be sure to include those devices in your setup testing. If you’re using an audio limiter on your mixer’s output, be sure to test with the limiter active. When using a software encoding program, be sure to configure the software to match the settings that you will use for your live event. For a cleaner look, it’s best to disable the title bar on your encoding program and to auto-hide the Windows taskbar. This will prevent the encoding program’s control window from appearing in the video, and will prevent the Windows taskbar from covering a portion of your video. Be sure to also disable any system sounds on your computer and to disable notifications from other software, as these sounds will also be included in your audio/video stream.
Promoting the live stream in advance
One important thing to note is that with Twitter and other automatically updating social networks, you may sometimes forget to remind people about your stream on the day it is happening. To overcome this, it is a good idea to post reminders, possibly with a Twitch or another stream link, close to the time when your viewers are most likely to check these sites.
Let’s not forget about any websites or forums that you may be a part of. Making a quick post in relevant communities can inform those specific audiences. Team Spooky, for example, chose to advertise their Next Level Arcade stream on Twitter and other sites, which was then shared and retweeted by viewers to reach a wider audience.
A good starting point is to inform your followers or viewers on the streaming platform itself. Services like Twitch.TV have a following system that allows users to track when specific streamers are live or receive email notifications. This is particularly useful for notifying regular viewers who may not follow you on Twitter or check other sites for updates. Speaking of Twitter, it is also a great platform to promote your streams. Given its widespread popularity and ability to reach a large audience, remember to tweet about your stream schedule. This makes it easy for your followers to retweet and spread the word further. Other social networking sites like Facebook can also be utilized, but keep in mind that the more platforms you choose to advertise on, the more time you will need to spend creating notifications for each site.
In order to engage your viewers and generate interest in your live streams, it is important to inform your audience about the schedule and timing of your streams. This can help maximize the number of viewers who tune in, whether they are regular followers or new viewers curious about your content. By providing advance notice, you also give your viewers the opportunity to spread the word to their friends.
Engaging Your Audience During the Live Stream
From the get-go, viewers should feel welcomed and encouraged to interact with you and each other during your live stream. Most live streaming services have a chat or comment system available so that viewers can discuss the stream and ask you questions. Make sure to greet your viewers as they enter and encourage them to participate in the discussion of the stream. Pose questions to your viewers. People love to share their opinions and experiences, and it gives you some direction to take when there’s a lull in your commentary. Ask them to elaborate on their answers. If they ask you questions, be sure to respond. The interactivity of live streaming is quite compelling to many viewers and can often be the sole reason they choose to watch a live stream in favor of a prerecorded video. As the streamer, you act as the unifying force that brings like-minded individuals to one place. Embrace that role and facilitate the interaction between your viewers to the best of your ability. A side effect of doing this is that it makes it easier for you to create highlights from your live stream later on. When viewers are more engaged with the content, the memorable moments are more poignant and become easier to identify in post-production.
Interacting with viewers through comments and chat
The next suggestion is to make a prior announcement of the live streaming event to ensure that lots of viewers join the event. Because live streaming events are not permanent, making an early notice of the live streaming event will give the audience sufficient time to prepare for joining the live streaming event. The broadcaster can use social media, email, or a website to announce the live streaming event. If the event will take a long time to be held, repeated announcements before the event are highly effective to ensure that potential viewers do not miss the event. With sufficient announcement, it will attract more audience to join the live streaming event.
The first suggestion to maximize the reach of an organization or product is to choose the best hosting and platform for the live streaming. The decision for the live video hosting provider is very crucial, and the broadcaster must choose the best provider depending on their needs. Then, the live streaming platform, such as Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram, also influences the reach of a live streaming event. Currently, Facebook Live is the most used platform because it is very simple to use and everybody is on Facebook. However, if the broadcaster targets a certain audience, there’s no problem using another platform that provides the best experience for the audience. So, the broadcaster must choose the best hosting provider and platform to ensure a successful live streaming event.
Online video streaming services should be announced in a way that maximizes the reach of an organization or certain products. Live streaming has the greatest advantage because it involves real-time communication between the broadcaster and the audience. Compared to prerecorded videos, live streaming events convey a sense of togetherness between the broadcaster and the audience. The high speed and widespread internet connectivity in this era also provide a better quality of live streaming video. It is a good start because we have a great tool, but how do we ensure that our reach will be maximized? This essay will give some suggestions for maximizing the reach of an organization or product using live streaming services. This essay will focus on the essay “Maximizing Your Reach: Strategies for Using Live Streaming Services Effectively”.
Incorporating polls and Q&A sessions
There is no better way to engage your audience than by giving them direct participation. Polls and Q&A sessions heavily involve your viewers and tug them closer to your content, since it’s a chance for them to get their voices heard. It’s a valuable opportunity for content creators, as this immediate feedback can provide insight on what your audience is thinking. Also, it’s a chance to expose them to what you want to illustrate. Even if the polling results end up contrary to what you expected, it provides a segue for you to explain things better. Any kind of engagement that involves the audience will often leave a lasting impression, since enabling someone to actively participate in an event will make it more meaningful to them. This method is well suited for any type of streaming content, and often the smaller Q&A sessions might be quite enlightening for both the audience and the content creator. Any question, no matter how big or small, can provide insight into what the audience is thinking. For live streaming, turning questions asked by viewers into discussion topics can be a great way to carry future content. It’s a relatively simple task to view botched on stream or comment-based questions and turn these into discussion topics. This is all material that can be reused.
Utilizing live stream analytics for real-time adjustments
By comparison to the guess and check nature of the previous example, there are actually concurrent surefire ways to confirm the success of certain stream content. One such method would be to gauge the success of any advertising done off-site by monitoring viewer count during said advertisements. If the stream sees no increase or even a decrease in viewers, it would be safe to assume that the advertisement did not work as intended. Another simple example would be to test the effectiveness of a viewer retention method by trying said method and monitoring for any sustained increase in viewership.
Admittedly, some of these adjustments can be somewhat speculative. For example, a broadcaster may notice that the viewership of his gaming stream decreases whenever he takes a break from the action to engage in conversation with his chat room. While the viewers may state that they enjoy the interactive portions of the broadcast, the immediate effect on viewership upon diverting from the gaming might suggest otherwise. In scenarios like this, the broadcaster may decide to stick with the gameplay for a bit longer in order to test this speculation, periodically checking his viewership to confirm the results. Other adjustments, however, can be a bit more concrete. A broadcaster setting up for a large event with the intention of maximizing his viewer count may notice that his viewership is low for the amount of viewers that were expected. In this case, the broadcaster may choose to delay the event a bit in order to allow more viewers to tune in.
Live streaming services provide real-time analytics that display the number of current viewers on the stream, the duration of these views, and simultaneous viewer counts. This data is exceedingly valuable since it essentially describes the state of one’s viewership. Knowing this information, a broadcaster can then make real-time adjustments to his/her stream in order to best cater to the current audience.
