If you are new to live streaming, you might be wondering why there is so much hype around it. What’s so special about live streaming anyways? And if you are familiar with the concept, you know the answer is real-time communication. Live streaming allows content creators to talk to viewers, keep the streams engaging, and even create whole communities.
Live streaming can turn ordinary people into extremely successful entertainers and influencers. It can massively boost sales for businesses and help teachers and coaches reach out to more people all over the world.
However, to get the maximum value from live streaming, you need to become good at it. So, let’s dive into the topic and discover the best live streaming practices.
In case you missed it, here’s our complete breakdown of how live-streaming can completely revolutionize your business.
10 best live streaming practices:
Before, during & after your live stream
You can find tons of tips on how to improve your live streams on the web. But when there’s so much information out there, it may feel impossible to distinguish really helpful live streaming tips from the useless ones. Luckily, we’ve searched through the farthest corners, analyzed every single recommendation, and now are ready to share our experience with you.
We’ve divided the tips into three main categories:
Before, during, and after live streaming sessions.
Before streams:
1. Set your goals straight
Just like in any other activity, you can’t just go live without any sort of purpose and expect people to watch your streams. It’s highly recommended to have an understanding of why you should live stream. Whether you want to become a successful streamer and start making a living out of that, or you use live streaming as a powerful marketing tool and increase your sales, a clear goal facilitates your success. Moreover, it allows you to properly set your budget and choose the right streaming equipment.
2. Plan things out
You simply cannot underestimate the importance of planning. When you rely on constant improvisations, Russian roulette is the game you are playing. Planning allows for more control over your streams and your outcomes to be predictable. But, of course, since we are talking about live streaming, you don’t necessarily have to kill the “live” part in this word combination. Leaving some space for steps away from the script here and there can certainly make your live streams more vivid and entertaining.
3. Create a schedule
If you are planning on streaming consistently, a schedule can ensure your viewers are ready to join your live sessions. Simple as that. A streaming schedule allows your audience to plan their time and basically makes it possible to create and grow your community.
During streams:
4. Communicate with your audience.
When you think of the key reasons live streaming is so big, real-time communication seems to be the core of its success. Take full advantage of the possibility to talk directly to your viewers on live streams. Keep engaging with your audience and answer the questions in chat. In other words, keep the conversation going.
5. Control your body language
According to different studies, people receive around 55% of the total information during conversations via body language. Live streaming is no exception to this. You can control your body language to channel exactly what you want. For instance, keep your shoulders relaxed and pulled back to display confidence on your live streams.
6. Control the space where you record your stream
Your live streaming studio represents your attitude. Therefore, it’s super important to have everything around you under control while streaming. Make sure your stream is not interrupted by any unexpected distractions.
7. Have fun!
Depending on the type of your live streams, the fun factor might be crucial when trying to attract more audiences. If you look at the most popular streamers across the board, most of them produce fun, light, and entertaining content. Many people enjoy watching live streams because they want to relax and have some fun. Give it to them!
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After streams:
8. Promote your stream on social media
You may be thinking that once your live stream has ended, there’s nothing else productive and efficient left to do. Well, that’s simply not the case. The thing is, lots of people watch recorded videos of live streams. Such videos may get even more views than the live versions. Therefore, it’s a good idea to advertise your recorded streams everywhere you can.
9. Reuse your recorded streams
There are many useful marketing strategies with regard to live streaming — one of which definitely stands out because of the flexibility it provides. Imagine the increase in your audience after you, for instance, have made a teaser montage of your recorded live stream and posted it on social. That tactic is called repurposing content (or evergreen content), and it basically means you modify the way you present the very same information.
10. Read comments and improve
First and foremost, we have to warn you. There are lots of trolls on the web, meaning you have to be careful and resilient when analyzing the feedback from your viewers. Since live streaming is oriented towards consumers, it is quite reasonable to improve your streams based on your audience preferences.
Final thoughts and takeaways
Nowadays, live streaming can be an incredibly potent marketing tool for businesses and a career choice for individuals. However, due to the nature of live streaming and its overwhelming popularity, the competition on the market is tight. We’ve covered some of the best practices to help you improve your live streams.
There are three stages to the live streaming process, which require three different mindsets. Thoughtful preparation for live streaming includes setting up your goals and planning things out. During the stream, you may consider communicating with your audience more and controlling the space around you. And after the stream is over, make sure to promote it on all social media. You can also repurpose your recorded live streams and truly maximize your audience reach.
