How Live Streaming Video Can Benefit Your Brand.

If you haven’t seen the current platforms that people use to “livestream” content, you’ve probably been living under a rock for the last couple of years. But why is live content all the rage these days? We’re going to walk you through why people love live content so much and how you can leverage it to benefit for your brand.

Why Do People Love Live Content so Much?

Statistics show that people will spend up to 3 times longer watching live video than pre-recorded video content. That leads us to the question of why do people spend so much more time watching live video? Because it creates a sense of urgency. This isn’t something that happened yesterday, it’s something that’s happening right now.The other factor to take into consideration is the fact that pre-recorded or created content has been trimmed and cut to only show engaging content. With live content, sometimes users have to wait through breaks in the content.. This leaves a little extra time that can be used to deliver a valuable message to viewers. The other awesome thing with live video is the real-time interactivity. Have you ever watched a live stream and noticed how the people commenting on the stream were asking a lot of questions? It’s been said that viewers are 10 times more likely to comment on a live video than a pre-recorded video. Users know that the person live streaming can see their comments and answer their questions in real-time. You don’t have to wait for someone to type up a response, they’ll answer you right there, on the spot.

How Can You Use Live Stream Content for Your Brand?

Plan a Q&A Session. Live streams are an excellent opportunity to interact with your audience and answer any questions they may have in real time. This gives you the opportunity to reach more viewers, and participating in a live chat could be just what you needed to figure out how to serve your customers better. Going to an industry event? Why not livestream the event while you’re there? Anything from you walking around to interacting with others makes for great livestream content. Sometimes, people will want to be there but just cant make it. Live streaming events gives the viewer a sense of what it’s like to be there.Interviews. Interviews allow you to share interesting content from an expert or someone of interest with your audience. The viewers of your livestream can also have a chance to interact with you and the person being interviewed by asking questions during the stream. There’s all kinds of value in a livestream interview! Teasing a new project. This is another great use of a live stream. Sometimes it’s effective to showcase any new project you may be working on via a livestream. It gives people a stronger connection to the progress and what you’re actually working on at that point in time. The fact that your audience is probably interested on what you’ve been working on and that you can create even stronger engagement with a live stream makes for some really awesome content.

What Platforms Should You Be Using?

Another point of confusion for many businesses is deciding which live streaming platform they should be using. Now that the live video trend is on the rise, we have so many amazing new platforms available to use. Some of the platforms include:

• Twitch
• Facebook / Instagram Live
• Periscope
• Youtube Live
• Livestream

The best advice we can give is to take a step back and think about what you really want to do with the your live stream. Twitch is more for streaming video games or a computer screen. If you’re not trying to be a pro-gamer, it may not be for you. The live platforms available from social media networks are great depending on your content strategy. If your brand has a stronger presence on Facebook or Instagram, they may be your best bet for live content. If you have a strong presence on twitter, you’d probably be better off with periscope. Social media networks make it easy to announce that you will be going live and have people ready to join your stream when you go live. Finally, YouTube Live and Livestream are also very powerful platforms but require a bit more planning and a different type of execution. If you’re able to let people know that you will be going live on your youtube channel with another medium first, they can be powerful platforms for you to stream any format of live content that you want. The sky’s the limit for how you can live stream content to showcase your brand’s story. If you need a hand figuring out a content marketing strategy or a little coaching on your livestream practices, Konstruct Interactive is here to help.