Going live: get the most out of live social media videos

Want to kick your organization into high gear? Hosting a live event could be the key to success – it’s a great way to improve your brand’s reputation, spread the word about your company, and form personal connections with your target audience.

If you’re going to host an event, why not bolster your efforts with live video? “Going live” – a.k.a. instantly broadcasting live videos on social media – is a super-potent marketing move. On average, viewers will stay tuned for up to 54 minutes, and there’s a good chance those viewers will buy tickets to next year’s event.

If you’d like to experiment with live video, get out your camera (even a smartphone will work) and follow these tips to get the best possible results.

Understand your options

There are several social platforms your can go live on; select the platform your target audience uses most. These are our top three picks:

• Facebook Live: With Facebook Live, your followers can hit the “live subscribe” button so they’ll get a notification every time you go live. Facebook will also publish the video on your page so people can view it after the fact.

 

• YouTube Live: If you’ve got a sizeable YouTube following, you might want to go with YouTube Live. Like Facebook, it publishes your video on your channel after the live broadcast is over.

 

• Instagram Live: When you go live on Instagram, your followers will receive an automatic notification, meaning you’ll bring in more traffic! Instagram will also bump your live video to the beginning of the Stories queue, making it easy for people to notice your video. Take that, algorithm.

Don’t just broadcast – engage

If you want your live video to be entertaining, make sure it’s interactive. Do a Q&A or run a poll – whatever it takes to make your audience feel like they’re getting something out of your broadcast.

It’s also a good idea to have someone monitoring the incoming comments and questions at all times – audience questions can easily get lost in the shuffle, especially if you’re receiving a lot of comments!

Give a call-to-action

Make the most of your live video by giving your viewers something to actually do once the stream is over. Maybe you want them to download your e-book, or maybe you have another event coming up that needs more attendees. Whatever the case is, let your audience know! If your video was valuable to them, there’s a good chance they’ll answer your call-to-action.

Measure your success

Once your live stream is over and the event has come to an end, it’s important to look at your stream’s analytics. How many people tuned in? Did they watch the whole stream? How many engagements and shares did the video rack up? If you’re happy with the success of your live stream, you could consider “boosting” or doing paid promotion of the video so more people can discover and enjoy it.

If you’re not super impressed with your video’s stats, this is your opportunity to figure out what needs improvement. Maybe you need a better quality camera, or maybe you need to create more interaction with your audience. Or maybe you just need to do a better job of promoting your live stream ahead of time. If you need help decoding your social media analytics, reach out to us.

 

Here’s to a great, successful event and an even better live stream!