Live streaming is a brilliant tool that can be used to engage viewers, share your event or build brand awareness. However, there’s little gain in live streaming when no one’s watching — so how do you build an audience for your video stream? Read 7 easy tips from Zidivo to build your live streaming audience.
If you’re looking for a professional live streaming platform, then why not try Zidivo? It’s free for 30 days and comes with unlimited customer support.
You may only have a small audience, but it’s still vital that you understand your current audience and know who you’re trying to target. This will shape everything about your live streaming from the content to the marketing.
Demographic is an important part of this. Think about age and gender, as well as where your audience is located in the world. One of the great things about live streaming is that it can bring people from across the globe to an event, but it’s important to consider how you cater for international people, time zones and cultures. Getting this right will make it easier for international people to be part of your audience.
You should also consider what kind of people you’re targeting: your own customers? Businessmen? Parents? This might vary from video to video, but it will impact the content of the video, the time you stream it and how you promote it to build your audience.
People will only watch live videos, or any video, that appeals to them, interests them or is helpful. If it’s appropriate for you, you can cover trending topics or recent news as this is likely to capture the interest of your audience.
Think about what topics are relevant to you and will also appeal to your specific audience.
When you know your topic and feel confident that is interesting in itself, you have to think about how you produce your content to continue the engagement. People will tune in to a topic that interests them, and stay if you continue to deliver. This is how you build a long-term audience that will return to watch your live streams in the future.
Producing a good live steam video requires good lighting, sound and video recording equipment, but also considerations such as choosing the best colours for your clothing, writing an engaging script and incorporating other visuals.
When you know your topic, you’ve got to promote it. This will look different for every business or organisation, but it’s essential to build your audience and so people know when to tune in.
The most effective way to do this, if your topic allows, is to tease your audience with snippets of information that add intrigue or capture the person’s interest, but don’t fulfil it. Be sure to let them know when and where they can view the full video though!
Ask questions and don’t yet give the answer, show interesting photos of the production, or give small facts that you’re going to build on in your video — there are loads of different ways to capture the interest of your potential audience ahead of the live stream.
Make the most of your social media channels to build awareness of your event. Post lots in advance to let people know what to expect and why they should tune in. You could use various paid advertising methods — on Facebook, for example — to promote the video ahead of time. Try to give people a way to be reminded, like opting in to an email or encouraging them to like your page, so they don’t just forget!
If you have an email database of subscribers, email marketing can be a great way to engage people and let people know about your video ahead of time. You could incorporate it into your newsletter, or send out a special email reminder just for the event.
Combining different marketing channels is the best way to promote your video ahead of it going live and therefore build your audience.
Producing a high-quality video is really important, thinking about content, equipment and how you engage your audience. However, the quality of your video itself will be wasted if you don’t use a quality streaming platform. If you’re paying for professional video production, it’s essential that the high quality can be seen through the streaming.
There are a few different live-streaming platforms, including Zidivo. A paid platform will allow you to produce significantly better results than a free platform would.
If your video stream is of low quality, then your audience is likely to switch it off and move on to something else, and are less likely to return in the future.
Live streaming is amazing because you can react in the moment to what your viewers are saying. The trick to building a lasting audience is to make your viewers feel like they’re participating and in on the action, not just spectating. The more a person feels part of the live event, the more they’re going to enjoy the video and want to return.
Encourage people to send in messages in real-time and respond to them on the video. Engage with your audience in any way you can. If you’re streaming an event or talk, you could give a shout out to the people joining you remotely.
Conversation can continue after your video. Talk with viewers about what they found helpful and what they want to see more of in the future. This will help you to continue to create content that people want to see.
You won’t be able to build an audience for your live video if you stream sporadically. The more consistent and regular you can be, the more likely you are to build a loyal audience.
If you stream once every week, choosing the same time of day can mean people know when to tune in and are therefore more likely to catch your video while it’s live.
Zidivo is a professional live streaming platform that’s suitable for a huge range of organisations and professionals. Why not try our 30-day free trial to discover how Zidivo can improve your video live streaming and help you to build a bigger audience?
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