By Mitch Carson

Live streaming has taken over the marketing industry, and it is not going away anytime soon. Many companies that want to outdo their competition have embraced this strategy. Since a live video creates an interactive form of marketing, any business that wants to prosper should take advantage of it.

One of the best things about live video streaming is that it requires is a good internet connection and a camera that can capture a quality video. That is all you need for this type of work. When you consider these requirements, the strategy ends up giving you a decent ROI. Here are some live video tips that will help you create a great video.

What to Do When Going Live

Before going live, you need to understand that, no matter how many times you have done so, or how many videos you have made, becoming nervous is unavoidable. For example, you will ask yourself questions such as what is your audience. What will they think of you? What will you tell them? Such questions will cloud your mind. Understanding your viewers will help ease your nervousness.

If a viewer is interested in watching your live videos, then that is a curious mind that is ready to learn what you have to offer. By understanding this, you stand a better chance to equip yourself with an interesting video topic to deliver to your listeners. The key to having your viewers like you is educating, inspiring, and entertaining them.

When watching a live video, most viewers are interested in the following topics:

• Personal Stories: many viewers are interested in knowing how you got where you are. Tell them what motivated you to do what you do.

• Q As: creating a live video makes a suitable platform where you can interact with your customers. Take the opportunity to learn things such as where they do their shopping, why they like your video, their interests, or how often they do shopping.

• Behind the scenes: sharing behind the scenes gives insight to your viewers. You can share stuff such as your employees, colleagues, or your warehouse.

• Giveaways: one way you can have your videos shared widely is by asking your viewers to retweet, share, or comment you live videos and in return, you reward them with prizes, shout-outs, or discounts.

• Sneak peeks of product or features: another thing that viewers like watching is a sneak peek of an upcoming feature or product. While doing this, you can also involve then in the product such as suggesting the size, color, or the name. Doing so will make them love you and look forward to your upcoming live videos.

These topics work together seamlessly, and you can include more than one in your live video. You can also explore other fields depending on the services you offer and the needs of your customers. In live streaming, you can get many viewers from people who are interested in watching new videos and from those who find fun in seeing something go wrong. Either way, all of these add views to your video, which make live videos the only marketing platform that allows imperfection.

There is a huge difference between connecting with someone via a Facebook post or a tweet and a live video. Live streaming is a real representation of how people connect in real life. Once you talk to someone during a live video shooting, you are 100% sure about him or her. One other thing is that live videos tend to be immediate and authentic, and when an error occurs during shooting, it increases the authenticity of your live stream.

Tips on How to Start and End your Live Video

The first 60 seconds of shooting your live video are crucial as they can promote or break your video. You need to make the beginning interesting to ensure your viewers watch you until the end. Focusing on these three factors keeps your video interesting:

• Action: this involves advertising your video via tweets and publishing Facebook posts to alert your friends and followers that you will be going live. In you adverts, you can highlight on what you will be discussing in your video.

• Attention: you grab people’s attention by asking a question such as “Where are you from?” It is an interactive way that is very fruitful when going live on Facebook or Instagram. When more of your viewers comment with the answer, the engaging broadcasts will be distributed to more people.

• Adding Value: this should be done two to three minutes after an interactive conversation with your viewers. Give people tips and mention similar other that they can access if they love the current one. Also, ask them to share your videos via Facebook and Twitter. End your video by recapping its most important points, giving a hint on the topic of your next broadcast, and asking them not to miss.

How to Increase Watch time for Your Live Video

You can expand your view time, video replay, and cross promotion by using code word strategy. This is more of a giveaway in the form of a shout-out or a gift such as a device. Place the code word somewhere at the beginning of your live video. After two or three minutes of broadcasting, tell the viewers you placed a code word at the start of the video, and this will prompt them to replay to get the code.

Also, remember that many viewers might have joined the live video after it has already started, these too will want to break the code, and the only way is by replaying. Be careful not to reveal what they are supposed to do with the code word until the end of the video. Doing so will keep them glued to the video as they are curious to know who the winner will be. You can ask them to email you the code, comment with it, or tweet it.

You can also ask a question instead of using a code word and then ask the viewers to comment with the answer. This code word or question helps you gain you followers on social media.

Conclusion

Adapting a live video marketing concept can boost your business in many several ways. Taking action is the only way to enjoy the benefits of live video marketing.