While nothing matches the excitement of witnessing a live event firsthand, live streaming provides those who cannot attend in person the opportunity to be part of what’s going on in real-time.
In a nutshell, live streaming gives your followers the opportunity to connect and interact with your brand on a whole new level. With it, your fans can watch your events from anywhere across the world, and follow every detail as it happens. Since it is the closest thing to actual face to face interaction, your followers can provide feedback, make requests, ask questions and interact with you in real-time.
However, as good and exciting as it sounds, live streaming is no easy feat. In addition to being a frightening proposition, for beginners at least, a lot can go wrong during the actual live streaming. To reduce the likelihood of things going, it is important that you prepare accordingly and learn how to sort out any problems on the fly.
To find out more about live streaming, including what it is, how to get started and how to use it to grow your business, read on below.
What Is A Live Stream?
Watching a pre-recorded video over the internet is referred to as streaming. This process involves the transmission of small bits of the video at a time from a storage location. Client devices do not have to download the entire video before they can start playing it, by transmitting a few seconds at a time.
A Live stream can therefore be defined as the live transmission of live video content over the internet. In this case, the content is transmitted to viewers as it is created, without being recorded first.
It is worth noting that the term live streaming is normally used with reference to broadcast live streams; i.e. these are one-to-many connections that are transmitted to numerous users at the same time.
Today, video game streams, TV broadcasts and even social media videos can all be live-streamed with ease.
Benefits Of Live Streaming For Your Business
- Save Costs: Live streaming helps businesses save money in a number of ways. For starters, by live streaming important company events, businesses are able to save on travel, boarding and a variety of other costs associated with hosting live face-to-face events.
- Raise Brand Awareness: Simply put, the more content you put out there, the higher your chances of growing brand awareness. Live video streaming gives businesses the opportunity to share all sorts of company-related videos in a variety of formats – including lengthy shows or shorter announcements. This, coupled with the higher viewer retention and engagement rates makes this technology quite useful when it comes to growing brand awareness among the target audience.
- Build Trust: The authenticity projected through live streaming helps build trust towards the talent in the video as well as the brand itself. It is normally very difficult to create a highly polished live video. Fortunately, this raw, unedited and uninterrupted approach to business videos creates a certain charm that portrays the brand in a genuine way – something that many consumers value.
- Better Understanding Of Your Audience: As previously mentioned, live streaming gives brands the opportunity to engage with their target audience. The feedback, questions and requests made by the audience provide businesses with valuable insights into what their followers want and are looking for; thus, giving them a better understanding of the audience.
Things You’ll Need To Start Live Streaming
- Laptop: You will need a capable laptop or desktop if you want to start live streaming. The exact specifications of the most suitable computer are mostly determined by the requirements of the software you will be using. In any case, any new laptop or desktop should come with everything you need.
- Camera: A standard USB webcam should be enough to produce quality video for small businesses and beginners. Otherwise, a digital camera may be needed for high quality live video streaming.
- Microphone: A high-quality microphone is important for live audio streaming and video. If you will be sitting down during your live streams, a condenser microphone is all you need. However, you should get a lapel microphone, if you intend to move around a bit.
- Software: This is one of the main components of your live streaming studio. The streaming software allows you to create a refined stream, complete with transitions and scenes. You can also use the software to overlay any company logos or branding.
- Streaming Channels: Look for a streaming platform from which you want your target audience to stream and comment on your videos. Popular live streaming platforms include Periscope, Twitch, Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
- Internet Connection: You will need a strong and reliable internet connection to start live streaming. It is highly recommended that you avoid using a Wi-Fi connection, opting for a wired connection instead.
How To Do Live Streaming Events
- Create An Outline Of Your Broadcast: Start by defining the nature of your live stream; is it a presentation, Q&A, tutorial, interview or something else? Afterwards, you can put together everything you need.
- Settle On A Platform: Choose a suitable live streaming platform from the options mentioned above.
- Check Your Connection To The Internet: It is important to test your upload speed before going live, to ensure that your bandwidth is good enough for broadcasting.
- Put Your Streaming Setup Together: Set up your live streaming studio, and ensure that everything is working correctly.
- Test Before You Go Live: A great pro tip here is to try using private streams on FaceBook or YouTube to test your stream before you start broadcasting to your real audience.
How To Promote Your Live Stream
- Create enticing previews of your live stream video
- Post about the upcoming live stream on all your social media accounts
- In the days leading up to the live stream event, post countdown reminders for your target viewers
Final Thoughts
Your business can reap a variety of benefits from live streaming. However, to have any chance of enjoying these benefits, you will need to have the right setup. Most importantly, you should prepare accordingly, and always be prepared to handle any problems that arise during your live streaming session as swiftly and effectively as possible.
Hire A Professional Video Production Company
If you are looking to create a professional live stream, it helps to work with a professional video production company. For over 21 years Inspireworks has been a video production partner to some of Australia’s most influential companies in consulting, utilities, construction, science and technology. In that time, we’ve evolved along with the technology and the art of corporate visual storytelling.
Please call us today at Inspireworks on 1300 885 968 or send us a message for more information.