Here’s how you can put it to work for your small business.
Facebook, Twitter and other major social media players are in the midst of an arms race over live video streaming.
From a consumer perspective, video—and, more specifically, live video—is where social media giants are placing their bets. Live video streaming gives consumers the ability to use their smartphones or tablet devices to broadcast live video through dedicated apps. They can either stream to the whole world or just friends, family and co-workers.
Live video streaming is still relatively new and not fully adopted by consumers and marketers, but Facebook’s recent announcement of its Facebook Live streaming service could help bring it to the masses.
If you look at the numbers, you’ll understand why Facebook is throwing so much weight behind live video. Facebook users comment on live videos 10 times more than they do on nonlive videos. And they’ll watch a live video three times longer than a nonlive one.
Periscope, Twitter’s livestreaming app, has brought in more than 10 million users and 100 million broadcasts. On average, it live-streams 350,000 hours of video per day.
Why Go Live?
In an ever-cluttered world of apps and content consumption platforms, every social media platform is placing increasingly higher importance on keeping you, the consumer, on its platform as long as possible—which, in turn, impacts how brands and advertisers need to define their content channel mix as well.
Live video is going to impact everyone in a significant way, marketers and consumers alike. The ability to broadcast live to your existing Facebook fan-page followers and event attendees will allow for the showcasing of company events, expos, behind-the-scenes looks and live Q-and-A sessions. The opportunities are endless.
If you are a marketer who wants to jump into the world of live streaming video via Facebook Live or Periscope, then it’s important that you grasp all the other content opportunities that can be repurposed from a live video.
After all, it takes time and money to create content. It’s understandable that companies might be cautious about spending those resources on time-sensitive videos that go away after a set period of time. (Periscope and Facebook Live feeds are deleted after 24 hours.) Wouldn’t it be better to devote those resources to “evergreen” content on YouTube?
The good news is that you don’t have to make that choice—you can have it all.
How to Get the Most From Live Video
» You can repurpose your live stream video content and optimize it for use on your other channels. Though Facebook Live and Periscope streams disappear after a day, you can use plug-ins like Scopedown and Katch to capture your live stream for later use. For example, you could upload your saved “live” video to your YouTube or Vimeo channel.
Or you could transcribe your livestream into text. Take the full copy from an interview or Q-and-A session, and publish it as a piece on your blog. Cut up the best parts of your live stream into 15- to 30-second snippets and publish them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Don’t forget to link to the full stream on your YouTube channel or your blog. Invite users to subscribe to your Facebook Live or Periscope channel for more great live streams in the future.
» Get your industry’s influencers into your live stream as an expert interview or testimonial. Your efforts to feature them as a thought leader and link out to their social media profiles and blogs is a rising tide that raises all boats.
» Build your email list by asking viewers to subscribe to your channel or sign up for email for additional “behind the scenes info.”
This may seem like extra work, but if your viewers are actively watching your live content, then you’re going to see higher conversion and sign-up rates than on almost any other of your branded channels.
Just be sure to demonstrate the value of your live streams up front—offer valuable content. Establish your fan base, and then viewers will tune in because they will know that you’ll deliver the goods worthy of a global audience.
