How to Draw a Crowd to Your Live Stream

Live streams are invaluable marketing tools, but they’re constantly evolving. If you’re struggling to gain viewers, broadcast effectively and garner audiences, check out our tips below. Today, an impactful livestream utilizes relevancy, excitement and adaptability to succeed. If you want to boost your viewership, take charge with your creativity.

Tip One: Make a Scene, and Stick to It

While adaptability is important, you should still stick to a general voice. Consistency is key in growing a fan base, and it’s vital to your stream’s success. Be on time, and make sure you have at least 15 minutes set aside for early and late viewers. Your live steam’s predictability, overall, will determine its success.

Tip Two: Get High-Quality Equipment

Poor quality video deters viewers. You won’t sustain a long-term fan base unless you’ve directed your dollars into high-quality equipment. High-quality equipment circumnavigates server congestion, prevents viewing issues and assures good content delivery.

Tip Three: Make the Steam Easy to Find

Don’t try to control your audience’s viewing habits. Make your platform accessible—and make it adaptable. Hook it into Facebook and Twitch, and make sure viewers at all locations can sit down at a moment’s notice. As for location: Make sure it’s flexible. Few things kill a live stream like a rigid, inoperable filming location.

Tip Four: Shareability is King

Invest in engagement tools. If you’re like Toy Group—who’s shareable on Facebook, Twitter and everywhere else—you’ll make a difference. Instead of having thousands of shareable photos, you should align them with your video strategy. Shareable content is well-curated, beautiful and easily digested. Even if your content is text-based, it should be enticing for readers. In the social networking world, power is derived from enticement.

Tip Five: Prioritize Mobile Accessibility

In 2017, mobile access governs digital marketing strategies—and for good reason. If a media campaign is mobile-accessible, it’ll succeed. Don’t segment your audience by restricting mobile access. Instead, make sure mobile access is more than an option. Make it a primary avenue. Today, a large percentage of Internet surfers conduct research, use Facebook and share media via their smartphones. If you can secure a quality viewing space in the mobile world, you’ll succeed.

To draw live stream viewers, make sure your content is worthwhile. Nearly everyone is on a livestream, and modern livestream quality isn’t very high. There’s a lot of white noise out there, and you’ll need to surpass it to survive, thrive and become a sensation. Take your time, plan out your content and prioritize social media and mobile access.

Live Streams Can Make or Break Your Event. Here's How

Instant access is always a good plan, right? Well, not always. As event marketers expand their insight, built their toolkits and innovate on the ground floor, live streaming options are coming under scrutiny. Emergent technology should be considered, sure, but it shouldn’t be the crux of your every move. To execute effective marketing campaigns, you’ll need to stream seamlessly, promote your brand and target social media comprehensively. Before hopping into the live stream world, check out the best practices below. More importantly, check out the times it’s not a good idea to prioritize instant access.

To Make the Event

First, it’s a good idea to know when live streaming is a good idea. Above all, live streaming is a solid avenue for businesses seeking mass connectivity and visibility. If your business wants to get a “sneak peak,” or an otherwise hard-to-get shot, live streaming is often a good answer. Why? Because it’s instant. You’re guaranteed to be the first with the story.

It’s also a solid foundation for Q&A sessions, behind-the-scenes journeys and big events. If your marketing event is going to be a bash, and if you’re expecting celebrity appearances, make sure you’re using a live stream feed. In 2017, live streaming is intended to be an integral part of emergent experiential marketing programs. As marketers become well-acquainted with technology, live streaming will become a powerful low-cost alternative to lengthy film processes.

To Break an Event

Live streaming has its downfalls, too. Above all, live streaming can be burdensome to an untrained crew. While crews are certainly becoming experienced with live stream filming, the act of filming footage seamlessly is simply difficult to micromanage. You should remember that anything can happen during a live stream. It might sound obvious, but you’ll need to take extra precautions when filming live appearances.

You can’t edit live footage. So, if you’re planning a breakout event, promoting a new product or are otherwise revealing your business’s “finer” side, consider traditional media first. Sometimes, it isn’t worth the quality loss to secure a hot spot on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram media. Today, constant challenges await live streamers. Digital marketers are working hard to reduce the physical footprint, prioritize low-cost live streaming services and dish out crystal-clear video quality.

For now, however, live streaming shouldn’t be considered a “must-have” in your event marketing arsenal. If you’re planning a big party, want to capture guest experiences and draw in more visitors, a live stream can certainly help. If, however, you feel your event can’t suffer a little choppiness, quality loss and on-site improvisation, you’d best stick to traditional media.